College student, a former beauty queen, accused of killing toddler, Georgia cops say

UPDATE: The child’s name was Romeo Angles on his birth certificate, but his father called him Jaxton Drew, Sumter County Coroner Mathis Wright told WALB. Drew was taken to a hospital from the Southwestern Oaks II residence hall at the Georgia Southwestern State University campus, the television outlet reported.

The original story is below.

A former beauty queen is in jail after she was accused of murder, Georgia investigators said.

An 18-month-old boy was taken to Phoebe Sumter Hospital in Americus after being “unresponsive,” according to a Jan. 20 Georgia Bureau of Investigation news release. Despite attempts to resuscitate the boy, the toddler died in the hospital, investigators said.

Now, there’s been an arrest in connection to the boy’s death.

Georgia Southwestern State University Police Department tapped GBI for its assistance to investigate the toddler’s death, according to the bureau. The investigation was also aided by the Americus Police Department, investigators said.

Investigators conducted interviews and evaluated evidence connected to the child’s death, which bureau officials said led them to identify Trinity Poague as a suspect.

Poague was arrested Jan. 19 and booked at the Sumter County Jail, according to Sumter County Sheriff’s Office inmate records. She was charged with murder, aggravated battery and first-degree child cruelty, inmate records show.

The relationship between Poague and the child was not disclosed in GBI’s news release.

McClatchy News reached out to the GBI for more information on Jan. 22 but did not receive an immediate response.

Poague was crowned the 2023 Miss Donalsonville beauty queen — a point of great pride for her, according to posts on her Instagram account. During the latter half of 2023, Poague posted several pictures about her pageant life, saying she was “loving the queen status” in a June post.

She competed as Donalsonville’s representative in the Miss National Peanut Festival pageant in 2023, according to the festival’s contestant information. The festival, held in Dolthan, Alabama, has been around since 1938, according to its website.

After not placing in the pageant, Poague wrote on Instagram she still had gratitude.

“If you would have told me a year ago I would be in love with pageantry I would have simply told you that you were wrong,” she wrote in the October post.

She was also an honors graduate of Southwest Georgia Academy, a college preparatory school in Damascus, the Donalsonville News reported last year. She went on to attend Georgia Southwestern State University, according to her Instagram.

Georgia Southwestern State University confirmed to McClatchy News that Poague was a freshman who enrolled in fall 2023. The university declined to comment on her arrest and charges.

She is being held with no bond, according to inmate records. Her case will be handed to the Southwestern Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office pending the investigation’s completion, the bureau said.

Donalsonville is about 60 miles northwest of Tallahassee, Florida, and about 95 miles southwest of Americus.

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