A beauty queen turned in her tiara for a jail jumpsuit after Georgia authorities arrested her in connection with the death of an 18-month-old boy.
Trinity Poague, 18, is facing charges of felony murder, aggravated battery and first-degree cruelty to children, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said in a press release.
On Jan. 14, the Georgia Southwestern State University Police Department contacted the GBI 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.
After multiple interviews & an examination of the evidence, GBI agents arrested Poague. Officers took Poague to the Sumter County Jail on Friday where she remains with no bond set.
Cops did not say how the boy died or detail the events that led up to his death. They also did not release his name nor Poague’s relationship to the boy. Dothan, Alabama, CBS affiliate WTVY reported Poague doesn’t have any children.
“Once the investigation is complete, the casefile will be given to the Southwestern Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office for prosecution,” GBI said.
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.”
Her Instagram account says she enrolled at Georgia Southwestern State University in August. WTVY reported she graduated high school from Southwest Georgia Academy, a college prep school in Damascus.
Have a tip we should know? [email protected]