{"id":64174,"date":"2025-12-08T13:01:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T13:01:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/64174\/"},"modified":"2025-12-08T13:01:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T13:01:13","slug":"former-georgia-beauty-queen-trinity-poague-breaks-down-after-being-sentenced-in-murder-of-ex-boyfriends-toddler-son","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/64174\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Georgia beauty queen Trinity Poague breaks down after being sentenced in murder of ex-boyfriend’s toddler son"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Georgia beauty queen Trinity Madison Poague bawled her eyes out in court as she faced sentencing for the murder of her ex-boyfriend\u2019s toddler son<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Poague, 20, was found guilty of felony murder, aggravated battery and child cruelty in Sumter County Superior Court in Georgia on Friday for the January 2024 murder of 18-month-old Romeo \u201cJaxton Dru\u201d Angeles, WALB<\/a> reported.<\/p>\n

Poague was found not guilty of malice murder.<\/p>\n

Former Georgia beauty queen Trinity Poague broke down in tears as she faced sentencing for the murder of her ex-boyfriend\u2019s toddler son. Court TV<\/p>\n

She broke down in tears as the judge handed down a life sentence and an additional 20 concurrent years \u2014 just under an hour after the jury returned its guilty verdict.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t do a lot of speaking when I am passing the sentence. I have heard the case, and I\u2019ve considered the tragedy,\u201d W. James Sizemore Jr. said as a distressed Poague stared blankly.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe bottom line is you\u2019re going to receive a sentence of life in prison.\u201d<\/p>\n

Poague, a sophomore at Georgia Southwestern State University at the time, murdered the young tot inside her boyfriend Julian Williams\u2019 dorm room while he was out picking up a pizza.<\/p>\n

She texted Williams that his son was not breathing, prompting him to rush back, find the toddler unresponsive, and drive him straight to the ER.<\/p>\n

Romeo never regained stability and was pronounced dead despite doctors\u2019 attempts to stabilize the baby boy for an emergency flight to a children\u2019s hospital in Atlanta.<\/p>\n

Poague, 20, was found guilty of felony murder, aggravated battery and child cruelty in Sumter County Superior Court in Georgia on Friday for the January 2024 murder of 18-month-old Romeo \u201cJaxton Dru\u201d Angeles. Sumter County Sheriff’s Office<\/p>\n

Poague was charged with the murder a week after the toddler\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

During her short trial, prosecutors argued that she killed the 18-month-old out of resentment because she wanted a child of her own with Williams.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe wanted to have a child or children with Julian Williams,\u201d prosecutor Lewis Lamb\u00a0told jurors<\/a>\u00a0on Tuesday, according to courtroom footage from CourtTV. \u201cBut not that child.\u201d<\/p>\n

The prosecution further claimed that while at the hospital, Poague searched for terms like \u201cHow do you get a brain bleed?\u201d and \u201cHow can a depressed skull fracture go unnoticed?\u201d<\/p>\n

She was given a life sentence and an additional 20 concurrent years. Instagram\/@trinpoague<\/p>\n

Poague first told investigators the toddler was eating chips moments before he became unresponsive, a claim the medical examiner refuted after determining he hadn\u2019t eaten at all. <\/p>\n

The exam, however, found he had suffered blunt-force trauma to his head and torso so severe, his brain was left \u201cuseless.\u201d<\/p>\n

Emergency room physician Dr. Michael Busman told the court that Poague\u2019s account was inconsistent with Romeo\u2019s injuries, explaining that head swelling and fluid from the toddler\u2019s nose pointed to \u201ca direct blow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Poague earned the 2023 Miss Donalsonville title and later participated in the National Peanut Festival beauty pageant, where she did not place, the\u00a0Early County News<\/a>\u00a0reported.<\/p>\n

She was stripped of her titles after being arrested for the tot\u2019s murder.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Georgia beauty queen Trinity Madison Poague bawled her eyes out in court as she faced sentencing for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64175,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[303,5348,238,9,11,10,3209,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-64174","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-crime","9":"tag-georgia","10":"tag-murders","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-headlines","13":"tag-new-york-news","14":"tag-sentencing","15":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64174"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64174\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}