Authorities in south Georgia have released an indictment against a college student and former beauty pageant queen who is accused of murdering a baby boy.
Trinity Poague, 18, now faces six counts in connection to the death of 18-month-old Romeo Angeles, also known as Jaxton Dru, including malice murder, two counts of felony murder, two counts of aggravated battery, and one count of cruelty to children in the first degree.
According to WALB, the baby died on Jan. 14 at a hospital in Americus, Georgia, after he was found unresponsive at a dorm on Georgia Southwestern State University’s campus where Poague was a student.
Investigators say doctors attempted to perform life-saving measures on the boy but were unsuccessful.
The indictment states that the baby suffered “serious disfigurement to his liver” due to Poague’s abuse and that he ultimately died from “blunt force trauma to the head and torso of his body.”
On the day of the baby’s death, one dorm resident told WRDW that she heard a child “crying for a long time until everyone said that suddenly it just stopped.” According to the student’s account, the baby was crying for over an hour before he stopped.
“And no one knew what happened,” Lilly Waterman told the local outlet.
State investigators arrested Poague in January after several interviews. She was released from jail in February on a $75,000 bond. She can leave the county but must wear an ankle monitor.
Another student said she was shocked to learn that Poague was accused of murder, given her friendly and outgoing personality.
“As a person, I say she was very, at the time, very outgoing and very, like, fun, communicative, everything. I’m still in disbelief,” Emily Alford told WRDW.
Poague was a freshman at GSW who was dating the boy’s father at the time of his murder, according to local reports. The child’s birth certificate lists Romeo Angeles as his legal name, but the boy’s father told authorities at the hospital that his name was Jaxton Dru Williams.
Poague was crowned Miss Donalsonville in 2023 and later competed in the Miss National Peanut Festival Pageant. The city of Donalsonville is located in the southwestern corner of Georgia and is about 100 miles from the town of Americus.
