John Jefferson
Trinity Poague (Sumter County Sheriff’s Office), Romeo Angeles (WALB)
The former boyfriend of an 18-year-old murder and child cruelty suspect once known for being a pageant queen locally in Georgia reacted to his ex’s not guilty plea and pretrial release in the alleged university dorm room beating of his baby son by calling it “a slap in the face.”
In late May, a grand jury in Georgia indicted Trinity Poague for alleged malice murder, first-degree cruelty, and aggravated battery of 18-month-old Romeo Angeles, an infant that Georgia Southwestern State University students heard “crying for a long time” in the dorms back in January before those cries suddenly stopped, WALB reported.
The indictment alleged that Poague inflicted blunt force trauma to Romeo’s head and torso with “malice aforethought,” rendering the victim’s brain “useless,” and caused “serious disfigurement” to his liver.
On Wednesday, Poague appeared in court to plead not guilty to the serious charges, practically a formality as an exercise of one’s constitutional right to a jury trial and to mount a defense, especially when awaiting more information on autopsy results, as is reportedly the case here. But for Julian Williams, Romeo’s father, the not guilty plea, coupled with Poague being out of jail, feels like an insult.
Trinity Poague in court on Aug. 14, 2024 (WALB)
“I feel very frustrated and upset,” Williams said after the hearing, WALB reported. “With her pleading not guilty knowing that she is guilty is just not right. I feel like the court is trying to give her a slap on the wrist.”
“This feels like a slap in the face to me and my family,” he reportedly added. “All we want is justice for my son. Letting her out and being free is not right. She took an innocent 1-year-old’s life.”
On Jan. 14, the Georgia Southwestern State University Police Department contacted the Georgia Bureau of Investigation about the death of a child. The unresponsive boy was taken to the emergency room at Phoebe Sumter Hospital in Americus. Doctors tried to save him, but he later died.
Having conducted multiple interviews and an examination of the evidence, GBI agents arrested Poague days after the baby’s death. Officers took Poague to the Sumter County Jail where she has since posted $75,000 bail. Months later, Poague was indicted.
Poague was crowned Miss Donalsonville, Georgia, in 2023. She went on to compete at the National Peanut Festival beauty pageant last fall, but she did not place.
“Win or lose, I have gained the world throughout my reign as Miss Donalsonville,” she wrote on her Instagram page after the pageant. “To me, that is the best thing Jesus could ever do for me. He blesses me in EVERY SINGLE WAY. The National Peanut Festival title wasn’t the crown I was meant to wear. I walked away still being the lovely, comical, achiever miss city girl that I’ve always been. In this experience I learned, and won. Gratitude. That is all I have throughout this experience.”
Beauty queen Trinity Poague is facing a felony murder charge in the death of an 18-month-old boy, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. (Trinity Poague Instagram)
The Early County News reported Poague has since been stripped of her title.
David Harris contributed to this report.
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