Ex-Beauty Queen on Trial After Boyfriend's Toddler Is Killed — and Prosecutors Say She Wanted a Baby of Her Own By Liam Quinn 17

A former beauty pageant queen is on trial on accusations she murdered her boyfriend’s son, who was 18 months old when he was beaten to death.

Trinity Poague is currently being tried on charges of malice murder, cruelty to children in the first degree, felony murder and aggravated battery, according to previous reports from WDHN and WALB. She has pleaded not guilty.

Poague was arrested in January 2024, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

The charges were filed in connection with the death of toddler, Romeo Angeles, who also went by the name Jaxton, according to previous reports. The GBI said the boy was found unresponsive on the campus of Georgia Southwestern State University.

According to footage of Poague’s trial, which began Tuesday, Dec. 2, and was aired by Court TV, prosecutors claimed that the former pageant queen resented the child because she wanted a child of her own with her boyfriend.

Prosecutors further alleged that Poague sent texts to her roommate, saying that she wanted to punch the child.

In an indictment previously reported by WALB, Sumter County authorities claimed Poague’s alleged abuse caused “serious disfigurement to his liver,” while rendering the child’s brain “useless.”

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Lilly Waterman, a student at Georgia Southwestern State, told WRDW at the time that she heard the toddler crying for a long time and that “everyone said that suddenly it just stopped.”

According to Early County News, Poague was formerly named Miss Donalsonville but had her title stripped following her arrest.

A GoFundMe to benefit Jaxton’s father raised $12,000.