Trinity Madison Poague: Former US beauty queen breaks down in tears as she’s sentenced over toddler’s murder
WARNING: Disturbing details
A former beauty queen has broken down in tears as she was sentenced over the murder of a toddler that she beat to death in a college dorm room.
Trinity Madison Poague, 20, was found guilty of a raft of charges, including felony murder, aggravated battery and child cruelty over the horrific death of 18-month-old Romeo Jaxton Angeles at Georgia Southwestern State University in January last year.
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By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.Poague, who once clinched the title of Miss Donalsonville, was an 18-year-old freshman at the university when she launched a violent attack on Romeo, the son of her boyfriend Julian Williams who had gone out on a pizza run.
During her three-day trial, prosecutors told the court Poague “resented” the toddler because she wanted to have a child of her own with her boyfriend.
When Williams returned to the dorm he found his previously “healthy little boy” with horrific injuries over his body, including a fractured skull. Romeo was rushed to hospital barely conscious, but could not be saved.
Arguing she was innocent, Poague’s lawyers told the court that the toddler could have received the injuries after falling 100cm from a bed.
But prosecutors said she had caused “serious disfigurement to his liver” and “rendered his brain useless”, an indictment cited by Court TV read.
In his closing statement, prosecutor Lewis Lamb told jurors “(Romeo) was in a literal death countdown” when Williams left the dorm to pick up the pizza.
“It wasn’t a question anymore as to whether or not he might live. It wasn’t a question anymore as to whether he could be saved. Wasn’t a question anymore as to whether he would ever be able to grow up.”
As the judge handed down his sentence, listing off the charges, Poague’s blank demeanour cracked and she burst into sobs as he told her the jury had found her not guilty of “malice murder”.
But the tears quickly dried up as the judge continued and told her she was guilty of the other charges and that she would be serving a life sentence.
