Trinity Poague, an 18-year-old contestant in the 2023 Miss National Peanut Festival pageant in Alabama, has been accused of murdering a toddler boy. Poague, the reigning Miss Donalsonville from Georgia, faces charges of felony murder, aggravated battery, and first-degree cruelty to a child, as per a press release from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation over the weekend.
Although she participated in the Alabama pageant in October 2023, Poague did not secure a placement.
The Georgia Southwestern State University Police Department requested the GBI’s involvement in the investigation into the death of an 18-month-old child on January 14.
The child, identified as Romeo Angles according to the birth certificate or Jaxton Drew as named by the father at the hospital, succumbed to blunt force trauma injuries at Phoebe Sumter Hospital in Americus, Georgia.
Following a thorough investigation, GBI agents arrested Poague, who is currently held without bond.
The relationship between Poague and the victim, reported by some media outlets as the child of her boyfriend, has not been officially confirmed by authorities. Sumter County Coroner Mathis Wright revealed the cause of death as blunt force trauma injuries.
The Georgia Southwestern State University Police Department and the Americus Police Department collaborated in the investigation.
