Georgia beauty queen beat boyfriend’s toddler son to death while he went to get pizza
A former Georgia beauty queen was sentenced to life in prison as jurors concluded she beat her boyfriend’s toddler son to death during the short time she was alone with him while he left to pick up pizza.
Trinity Poague, 20, broke down in tears Friday as she was acquitted of malice murder, but was found guilty of felony murder and aggravated battery in the 2024 death of 18-month-old Romeo “J.D.” Angeles.
Poague was then sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 30 years.
“I don’t do a lot of speaking when I’m passing the sentence,” Judge W. James Sizemore Jr. of the Southwestern Circuit Court of Georgia told the court, according to Court TV. “The bottom line is you’re going to receive a sentence of life in prison, which is the appropriate sentence for the conduct that you have been convicted of.”
At the time of the child’s death, Poague was an 18-year-old freshman at Georgia Southwestern State University and in a relationship with the child’s father, Julian Williams. On Jan. 14, 2024, the child was found unresponsive in a dorm room on the campus, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
During the trial, prosecutors argued that Poague resented the toddler because she wanted children of her own with Williams.
J.D., also known as Jaxton Dru, was a “healthy little boy” when Williams left the dorm room shortly before noon that day to pick up a pizza, Prosecutor Lewis Lamb told jurors during closing arguments on Friday.
“By 12:30 p.m., he was in a literal death countdown,” Lamb said. “It wasn’t a question anymore as to whether or not he might live. It wasn’t a question anymore as to whether he could be saved. Wasn’t a question anymore as to whether he would ever be able to grow up. At 12:30 p.m. he was dying.”
Students in the dorm building claimed they heard a child crying for a long time until “everyone said that suddenly it just stopped,” student Lilly Waterman told WRDW.
Williams returned to the dorm and rushed the child, who was vomiting and barely conscious, to the hospital, where he later died.
Videos viewed in court showed J.D. was fine when Williams left to go to Walmart and pick up pizza, prosecutors said. Poague was the only person with him during that time.
Poague’s defense attorney, W.T. Gamble, argued the boy could have suffered his fatal injuries from a fall off a 40-inch-tall bed, at the hands of his intoxicated father the night before, or while Poague and Williams were showering together, Law&Crime reported.
Prosecutors, however, said medical evidence showed J.D. suffered catastrophic injuries, including bruises to the head, a fractured skull and a lacerated liver. Lamb told jurors the brain bleed indicated the child had been struck within an hour of being taken to the hospital.
Prosecutors emphasized Poague’s alleged hostility toward the child, describing her relationship with Williams as unstable and strained by his role as a parent.
According to testimony heard at the trial, Poague texted her roommate that day, “I can’t stand being around J.D. anymore. He hates me and I hate him.”
“Trinity Poague resented this child,” Lamb told jurors, saying she was jealous of the attention Williams gave his son. “She wanted to have a child or children with Julian Williams. But not that child.”
Poague was crowned Miss Donalsonville, Georgia, in 2023 and later competed in the National Peanut Festival beauty pageant, though she did not place.
“Win or lose, I have gained the world throughout my reign as Miss Donalsonville,” she wrote on Instagram after the pageant. “To me, that is the best thing Jesus could ever do for me. He blesses me in EVERY SINGLE WAY. The National Peanut Festival title wasn’t the crown I was meant to wear. I walked away still being the lovely, comical, achiever miss city girl that I’ve always been. In this experience I learned, and won. Gratitude. That is all I have throughout this experience.”
Poague has since been stripped of her title, The Early County News reported.
