Former Miss Donalsonville Trinity Poague was living out a southern fairytale. She had her pageant crowns, the right smile, a polished résumé, and college life ahead of her at Georgia Southwestern State University. But prosecutors say she held a deep resentment toward her boyfriend’s 18-month-old son. To make matters worse, she was allegedly obsessed with having a baby of her own.
Now, that resentment has her standing trial for a murder case. Poague has pleaded not guilty, but she faces a litany of charges, including: malice murder, felony murder, first-degree cruelty to children, and aggravated battery. The saddest part of it all, however, is that her victim (Romeo Angeles, who was also referred to as Jaxton) never even got to see his second birthday.
The child passed on in January 2024. At the time, first responders were called to Poague’s dorm room after the toddler was found unresponsive. And according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, the young beauty queen was 18 at the time and living on her college campus. Soon, investigators suspected something far more disturbing.
Georgia beauty queen Trinity Poague killed boyfriend’s toddler son because she wanted child of her own: prosecutors https://t.co/NO1ulkQMyo pic.twitter.com/atRoweOvxM
— New York Post (@nypost) December 5, 2025
Prosecutors are now saying that Poague absolutely hated the little boy and wanted her own child with his father. So when she was entrusted with some routine childcare, she got too violent for her own good, let alone the child’s. In court, text messages have come to light wherein she expressed frustration to a roommate. In it, she admitted her fantasies of harming the child. An indictment, per Court TV, claims the toddler’s deadly injuries included “serious disfigurement to his liver” and damage that left his brain “useless.”
Other students won’t forget that day. Within weeks of her arrest, the pageant stripped her of her Miss Donalsonville title. Early County News reported she was later granted a $75,000 bond and could leave the Americus area if she wore an ankle monitor.
And yet, law enforcement has held back specifics about the trauma discovered during the Sumter County Coroner’s examination. So the worst details are still sealed. The defense’s strategy keeps stressing the fact that Poague is young, overwhelmed, misunderstood, and innocent. On the other hand, prosecutors say that inside that dorm room, she was not like that.
With Romeo gone, all eyes now turn to whether a conviction is on the horizon.
