A former Georgia magnificence queen killed her boyfriend’s toddler son in a jealous match of rage as a result of she needed to begin a household along with her accomplice and have their very own little one, prosecutors alleged.
Trinity Poague, 20, appeared in Sumter County Superior Court docket in Georgia on Tuesday the place she stands trial for the January 2024 homicide of 18-month-old Romeo Angeles, WALB reported.
Poague, a sophomore at Georgia Southwestern State College on the time, is accused of murdering the younger tot inside her boyfriend Julian Williams’ dorm room whereas he was out selecting up a pizza.
She texted Williams that his son was not respiration, prompting him to hurry again, discover the toddler unresponsive, and drive him straight to the ER.
Romeo by no means regained stability and was pronounced useless regardless of medical doctors’ makes an attempt to stabilize the child boy for an emergency flight to a kids’s hospital in Atlanta
Every week after the tot’s loss of life, Poague was charged with homicide, aggravated battery, and little one cruelty. She later pleaded not responsible to all fees.
Prosecutors argued that Poague killed Romeo out of resentment as a result of she needed a toddler of her personal with Williams.
“She needed to have a toddler or kids with Julian Williams,” Prosecutor Lewis Lamb instructed jurors on Tuesday, in accordance with courtroom footage from CourtTV. “However not that little one.”
Lamb argued that Poague was jealous that Williams paid extra consideration to his son than to her and that she didn’t wish to assume a stepmother position.
He additionally instructed jurors that Poague expressed her hatred towards the kid in a textual content to her roommate hours earlier than the tragedy.
“I can’t stand being round JD anymore. He hates me and I hate him,” Lamb mentioned she allegedly wrote.
The deceased little one’s start certificates recognized him as Romeo Angles, however Julian Williams gave the kid’s identify as Jaxton Drew on the hospital, Sumter County Coroner Matthis Wright mentioned final yr.
The prosecution additional claimed that whereas on the hospital, Poague looked for phrases like “How do you get a mind bleed?” and “How can a depressed cranium fracture go unnoticed?” WALB reported.
Wright testified that Poague initially claimed the toddler had been consuming chips moments earlier than turning into unresponsive — a element contradicted by the medical examination, which discovered he had not eaten something earlier than his loss of life.
The examination as a substitute discovered the kid suffered “blunt-force trauma” to the top and torso till his mind was “ineffective.”
Wright mentioned that Poague later modified her story and instructed investigators he had fallen away from bed.
Emergency room doctor Dr. Michael Busman instructed the court docket that Poague’s account was inconsistent with Romeo’s accidents, explaining that head swelling and fluid from the toddler’s nostril pointed to “a direct blow.”
If convicted on all counts, Poague faces life with out parole or the loss of life penalty.
Poague earned the 2023 Miss Donalsonville title and later participated within the Nationwide Peanut Pageant magnificence pageant, the place she didn’t place. She has since been stripped of her titles, the Early County Information reported.
Shortly after her arrest, Poague was launched on a $75,000 bond — a choice that outraged Williams, WALB reported.
“This looks like a slap within the face to me and my household,” Williams mentioned. “All we would like is justice for my son. Letting her out and being free will not be proper. She took an harmless 1-year-old’s life.”
