Federal authorities announced Friday that Rashad Maleek Trice, 26, has been charged with kidnapping a minor and kidnapping resulting in death in connection with the disappearance of 2-year-old Wynter Cole-Smith.
If convicted of the death-related charge, the statutory mandatory minimum is life in prison. This offense is also death penalty eligible, prosecutors said. Wynter’s body was found in Detroit on Wednesday after a multiday search and a statewide Amber Alert.
Trice was arrested Monday and arraigned on other charges earlier Wednesday in a metro Detroit hospital where he had been taken for injuries after hitting a police car in St. Clair Shores. He was charged with several felonies tied to what police said was the stabbing and assault of Wynter’s mom, Symari Cole, an ex-girlfriend of Trice. Police said he took the child and fled in a vehicle.