Pageant Queen Receives Life Sentence for Fatally Beating Boyfriend’s Toddler in Her College Dorm Room, Breaks Down in Court

A former Georgia pageant titleholder has been sentenced to life in prison for the death of her boyfriend’s 18-month-old son.

On Friday, Dec. 5, a jury found Trinity Poague guilty on five counts — including two counts of felony murder — according to a video of the sentencing shared by Court TV.

“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 said in the clip. “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.”

The judge added that Poague would also serve an additional 20-year sentence concurrently.

In the courtroom footage, Poague appeared largely expressionless as the sentence was handed down, though she grew visibly emotional earlier in the day when the jury’s verdict was read, per Court TV.

Poague was first arrested in January 2024, according to a press release from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI). The agency said the child — later identified as Romeo Angeles, also known as Jaxton Drew — was found unresponsive on the campus of Georgia Southwestern State University on Jan. 14, 2024. At the time, Poague, then 18, was enrolled as a student at the university, WTVY 4 reported.

During Poague’s trial, prosecutors argued that she resented the toddler because she wanted to have a baby of her own with her boyfriend, according to Court TV footage.

In an indictment previously cited by WALB and WDHN, Sumter County authorities alleged that Poague’s abuse involved “inflicting blunt-force trauma to the head and torso of his body.”

On the day the toddler died, students living in Poague’s dorm said they heard a child crying for an extended period of time before the noise abruptly stopped, student Lilly Waterman told WRDW.

“And no one knew what happened,” Waterman said.

Poague had been crowned Miss Donalsonville in 2024, but she was stripped of the title after she was charged in connection with the child’s death, according to Early County News.