AMERICUS, Ga. — A former Georgia beauty queen will serve a life sentence in the murder of her boyfriend’s 18-month-old son.
Trinity Poague broke down in tears as the judge read the verdict on Friday. The jury found her guilty on felony murder, aggravated battery and cruelty to children in the first degree charges and not guilty of malice murder.
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Romeo “Jaxton Dru” Angeles died on Jan. 14, 2024. Poague was dating the boy’s father, Julian Williams, and they were staying at her dorm in Georgia Southwestern University.
The Americus Times-Recorder reports that Williams went on a pizza run around 11:55 a.m. and returned around 12:30 p.m. to find his son unresponsive. Doctors pronounced him dead at the hospital.
Campus police turned the investigation over to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, which arrested Poague. At the time of her arrest, she was the reigning Miss Donalsonville.
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During the trial, prosecutors said Angeles died of blunt-force trauma to his head and body that caused brain and organ injuries, WALB-TV reported.
The prosecutors argued Poague was “the only person that could have possibly done this in the time frame.“
Poague’s defense team argued the possibility that the boy’s fall from a 40-inch bed caused his injuries and there was enough reasonable doubt to not convict.
After the closing arguments, WALB-TV reports it took the jury only three hours to deliberate and reach a verdict. An hour later, the judge sentenced Poague to life in prison with the possibility of parole plus 20 concurrent years for the other charges.
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