Michigan man sentenced to life in 2-year-old’s kidnapping death

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — A Michigan man who pleaded guilty to kidnapping and killing a 2-year-old girl has been sentenced to life in prison. Rashad Trice acknowledged that he took Wynter Cole Smith from her home in Lansing in July 2023 as part of a dispute with the girl’s mother, his former girlfriend. A search for the girl stretched from the state capital to the Detroit area. Her body was eventually discovered in a Detroit alley. She had been strangled with a cellphone cord. Federal prosecutors took jurisdiction of the case because the car and other tools used in the crime were made outside Michigan.