A 2-year-old Michigan girl was kidnapped and strangled to death with a cellphone charger, according to the FBI.
Rashad Trice, 26, was charged Friday with kidnapping and killing Wynter Cole Smith on Sunday. He was also charged with as well as sexually assaulting and stabbing the girl’s mother, Symari Cole, who is his ex-girlfriend, in a Lansing apartment that same day.
Trice used a pink cellphone charging cord to strangle the toddler, whose body was found Wednesday evening in a alley in eastern Detroit, the FBI said.
Pieces of the cellphone charger were found in Trice’s car after he was arrested, according to The Detroit News.
The little girl disappeared after Trice allegedly attacked the mother, who then ran from the apartment, leaving her daughter and her 1-year-old son alone with Trice.
Trice, who was not Smith’s biological father, then grabbed the tot and took off in Smith’s car, authorities said, prompting an Amber Alert to be issued early Monday morning when they could not be found.
Shortly after the Amber Alert was issued, Trice received a text from his uncle that said “It’s not your fault the girl is the devil,” according to the FBI.
Trice’s uncle then told his nephew that he loved him and could help him if he came to him, but Trice responded by saying, “I love y’all but I have to end this s–t man.”
Trice was arrested Monday in St. Clair Shores, about 100 miles of Lansing, after a police officer saw Cole’s vehicle and tried to conduct a traffic stop. Trice tried to flee and crashed into another police car following a brief chase.
After the crash, Trice tried to grab an officer’s gun, but he was instead Tased and taken to the hospital.
The 2-year-old was not in the car, which was covered in blood, which FBI officials said they believe was from stab wounds Trice received after assaulting Cole.
Trice denied kidnapping the girl, but authorities used cellphone location data to find her body.
The alleged killer told police that he and Cole had been arguing about money and stabbed each other when the dispute became violent.
He also told police, “I am already a monster” and said he wanted to kill himself, according to charging documents.
Trice will be eligible for the death penalty and faces a minimum sentence of life in prison if convicted of kidnapping resulting in death.