She Wanted a Perfect New Family—But One Baby Stood in the Way
Trinity Madison Pogue was born in 2005. She was raised by her father and stepmother in a rural Donaldsonville, Georgia. Her biological mother died in 2021 when Trinity was about 15. Trinity made a name for herself in her local community through beauty pageants. She was crowned Miss Donaldsonville in 2023, the same year she enrolled into college.
She also competed in the state’s National Peanut Festival pageant. She didn’t win the crown for that one. Her Instagram account has been made private and her posts aren’t available, but it’s reported that she posted shortly after her loss. She wrote, “Win or lose, I have gained the world throughout my reign as Miss Donaldsonville.
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.” She graduated high school from Southwest Georgia Academy with honors and attended her freshman year of college at the Georgia Southwestern State University. She lived on campus in the Oaks 2 dorm and studied nursing so she could have a similar career path as her father. She was also accepted into the President Jimmy Carter Leadership Program.
Julian [snorts] and Williams while attending Georgia Southwestern State University. Julian was born and raised in Colquitt, Georgia by his mother Elizabeth. Went to Miller County High School and played for their football team, the Pirates. Julian was just finishing school when he met Trinity.
He graduated with a degree in business and accounting and was employed as a painter at a machine and engineer shop in Bainbridge. He lived with his mother Elizabeth and sister Ashanti. After Elizabeth was diagnosed with cancer, Julian became the main provider for his family. Julian had a 1-year-old son named Romeo Jackson Drew Angelus, but everyone called him JD.
JD was born June 25th, 2022 in Tallahassee, Florida to Julian and his mother Shayla Angelus Garnica. Information about her is limited, but we do know that Julian and Shayla were separated by the time JD was born. For his first few months, JD lived primarily with his mother and his 6-year-old half-brother in Florida.
Julian saw him every other week until JD was between 3 to 4 months old, after which he moved to Georgia full-time. Julian’s sister Ashanti watched over JD while Julian was at work. Their mother Elizabeth helped where she could while she was going through cancer treatments. JD was described as having big brown eyes, long lashes, and a button nose.
He was an outgoing and sociable little boy who loved to babble and make others laugh. He had a Power Wheels car that resembled his dad’s white Ford Mustang. He loved Oreos and tortilla chips with salsa. >> [crying] >> Mama. Say hi, Mama. >> [laughter] >> You could fall asleep in a car even with the music playing loud through the speakers.
Julian and Trinity’s relationship officially started in June of 2023 after an on-again, off-again fling. At first, Trinity was unsure about dating someone with a child, but eventually she seemed to warm up to the idea. Julian said he didn’t expect Trinity to help care for JD, especially since the relationship was so new, but she dressed, fed, and changed JD’s diapers without being asked.
However, about 2 months in, Trinity texted Julian saying how uncertain she felt about the relationship because of JD, saying, “I’ve told you from the beginning that I would always try to love JD as the same as mine, but since me and you have gotten serious, every time I see him, I just get angry at the world and I just have a gut feeling of anger.
I don’t know what it is. Maybe because I’m so young, and I know if I am committed to you, then I am committed to him. You’re 24 and I’m 18, and I know the age difference isn’t much, but you have a kid and you have more responsibilities than just spoiling me. I don’t want to be your second baby mama. I want to be your first, but that won’t ever happen, and I don’t think that I can continue to be in a relationship with you and have that in the back of my mind.
” They did ultimately move past this, at least in Julian’s eyes, but in reality, Trinity was faking being happy while her resentment was silently growing. Julian first left JD alone with Trinity in November of 2023. Trinity offered to watch JD while Julian went to work so the couple could spend the night together without needing to go back and forth so much.
Trinity texted Julian and his sister that JD wandered behind her when she wasn’t looking, and she hit him with a drawer on accident. When Julian returned from work, he saw a bruise on his son’s face. Julian lightly touched it and it didn’t seem to bother JD much. He asked Trinity about the bruise. She cried, swearing up and down she wouldn’t hurt him.
Julian decided to return home that evening rather than spend the night with Trinity, but he accepted that what Trinity had said was true. After all, he hadn’t witnessed her do anything aside from raising her voice. Eventually, the novelty of caring for a child had worn off. Trinity’s hatred for JD became harder and harder to ignore. Other students in the Oaks 2 dorm could hear child’s cries through the walls.
In social settings, Trinity spoke about how much she hated JD. She vented to her roommate Paris Permort through a text of the anger she felt towards the child. The text reads as follows. Trinity, “Why do I feel anger towards JD? Like earlier, we were in bed and JD kept touching JD’s face. I almost cried.
” Paris, “What do you mean? Like you feel anger towards JD?” Trinity, “Like I don’t know. Not jealousy, but like I want to love him, but instead of loving, I just feel like angry. Like I want to punch him. LMFAO. Oh my god, that sounds so bad.” On January 13th, 2024, Julian and JD spent the night in Trinity’s dorm room. Next day, Trinity texted her roommate Paris saying, “I can’t stand being around JD anymore.
He hates me and I hate him.” Julian went to Walmart to pick up a pizza for the three of them. He left JD in Trinity’s care. He was gone for 35 minutes at most. Trinity’s roommate was not there, so it was just a helpless toddler all alone with a woman who despised him. While Julian was out, Trinity beat JD. His cries were heard by several people throughout the dorm building along with the silence that followed.
Freshman named Lily Waterman later said, “That kid was crying for a long time until everyone said that suddenly it just stopped, and no one knew what happened.” Julian returned home with the pizza around 12:30 in the afternoon to his son vomiting and unresponsive. He carried his son to his car where he threw up a second time.
JD was rushed to Phoebe Sumter Hospital. JD had injuries to his liver, bruises on his head, a brain bleed, swelling in his face, and a fractured skull. According to doctors, the brain bleed occurred between 30 minutes to an hour before JD arrived at the hospital. They could not find his pulse until after they performed a tracheostomy.
They spoke with Trinity to get more information, and she said she saw JD fall hard from her bed. Julian seemed to believe her at first, but ER physician Michael Bussman was suspicious of this. The drop would have had to be pretty high to cause something so severe, much higher than Trinity’s 40-in tall bed. The doctors tried to make JD stable enough so they could transfer him to a hospital in Atlanta, but JD died next to his father before they could get him ready.
While JD lay dying at the hospital and Julian sat in panic, Trinity turned her eyes to her phone the entire time. She typed in many incriminating questions into Google search bar, including “How do you get a brain bleed?” and “How can a depressed skull fracture go unnoticed?” When questioned about what happened while Julian was gone, Trinity said that JD was snacking before he became completely unresponsive.
However, Coroner Mathis Wright would find during JD’s autopsy that the toddler didn’t have any food in his stomach at the time of his death. After the autopsy, Coroner Wright determined JD died from blunt force trauma to the torso and his head. His brain was so damaged that it was useless. He initially thought some of these injuries could have been older, but his examination contradicted his hypothesis.
These were recent injuries, not old ones. Therefore, Coroner Wright said that the official cause of death was a homicide. As these details surfaced, investigators turned their suspicions to Trinity. She changed her story, claiming JD tripped on the air mattress in her room. Then it was a fall from a chair. Dr.
Michael Bussman refuted this, explaining that JD’s injuries didn’t corroborate what Trinity had told investigators. He said both the swelling and fluid build-up in the boy’s face indicated a direct blow. University police contacted the Georgia Bureau of Investigation on January 14th, 2024 and reported JD’s death.
The GBI pressed both Julian and Trinity over the course of many hours. They matched everything Julian said with their evidence, but Trinity’s story kept changing over time. It was clear to the GBI that she was the only suspect. Trinity was arrested a few days after JD’s death. It did not take long for investigators to feel like they had enough evidence against her.
The GBI published a press release on January 20th, which read, “The GBI has arrested and charged Trinity Pogue, age 18, of Donalsonville, Georgia, with aggravated battery, felony murder, and cruelty to children first degree. On Sunday, January 14th, 2024, at about 2:00 p.m., the Georgia Southwestern State University Police Department asked the GBI to investigate the death of a child.
Investigation indicates an unresponsive 18-month-old boy was admitted to the emergency room at Phoebe Sumter Hospital in Americus, Georgia. Hospital personnel performed life-saving measures on the child. However, he later died. After multiple interviews and examination of the evidence, GBI agents arrested Pogue.
She’s currently booked at the Sumter County Jail with no bond. Once the investigation is complete, the case file will be given to the Southwestern Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office for prosecution.” When the news broke, the other students at GSW had to find a way to continue with their lives knowing that a child died on their campus.
A few offered comments to the press. Lily Waterman was among them. This is all people are going to think about for GSW now, too. Like, and for a tragedy for like that to happen in a place that I have to walk by every morning to get to class. There’s not going to be anything like take that back.
Two other students, Emily Alford and Seth Parrott, spoke about Trinity. As a person, I’d say she was very out at the time. She was very outgoing and very like fun. I’m still in disbelief. It’s sad. When you hear somebody that goes to your college was arrested for child murder, that’s like like, didn’t really know what to make of it.
When the pageant circuit heard of Trinity’s arrest and charges, they stripped her of her former title of Miss Donalsonville. The city manager, Jeff Hatcher, sought to distance Donalsonville from Trinity Pogue. He said in a statement, “The city of Donalsonville is not in the pageant business. We’re about moving forward. But, when you hear the name Miss Donalsonville, of course, do connect that with the city, and that is not how we want to be represented.
” JD’s mother, Shayla, had just returned home from work when she got a call from Julian. She couldn’t immediately understand him with how frantic and emotional he was on the phone. Shayla couldn’t believe what she was being told. She told the Daily Mail, “I was very scared and confused because I didn’t know what was going on.
I never thought he would tell me our son had passed. His life was taken at such an early age, and it’s just been hard since everything started. I just hope, we hope that my son gets the justice that he deserves.” In this interview, Shayla said she didn’t know of Trinity’s existence until she got that dreaded phone call.
According to Shayla, her and Julian agreed that JD would be kept separate from any of Julian’s future partners. She was blown away to learn that it was her ex’s new girlfriend that killed JD. She said, “I really wish he would have told me about her, and we could have come to an agreement about Trinity being around our son.
My son was at no fault for anything that she was feeling. If she was feeling jealous, or she just wanted to have Julian for herself, she could have just said something, or she could have just left Julian. I really hope that she does get convicted, that she does go to jail because, well, everything is showing that she did it intentionally.
” Four days after JD died in the hospital, one of Julian’s friends named Cecilia created a GoFundMe for JD’s funeral expenses. It reached its $10,000 goal within a week. Cecilia wrote in the description, “How my heart breaks just having to write this message. The unfathomable thought of having to bury a child. There are no words that can bring peace.
No words that can bring comfort. An innocent life that was taken from this world way too soon. A laugh that will no longer fill the room. A smile that will no longer light the darkness. Julian has been in our life for a long time. It was amazing watching him grow into one of the best fathers around. A man that took on the role that even most women struggle with daily.
A man that was the sole caretaker of his only child now has the tragedy of having to lay him to rest. I come to you all to ask for your help and support for this grieving father in this horrific time of need.” In March, Trinity pled not guilty in her pre-trial hearing and was released on a rather charitable bond given her circumstances.
Her bail was $75,000. She couldn’t use drugs or alcohol, and she had to wear an ankle monitor, but she was allowed to leave the country if she chose. This upset Julian greatly. He said, “I feel very frustrated and upset. With her pleading not guilty and 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. 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.” As the year went on, Julian would face even more hardship. His mother, Elizabeth, died on October 14th, 2024, after battling cancer. Julian made a Facebook post in honor of what would have been Elizabeth’s 58th birthday.
He wrote that he knew she was taking care of JD for him, and he said he loved her. The state of Georgia has two kinds of charges when it comes to murder, malice murder and felony murder. Malice murder involves criminal intent, but felony murder does not. If a suspect commits a felony and someone dies as a result, the suspect faces felony murder.
Anyone convicted of either charge in a court of law can face either a maximum penalty of life in prison or the death penalty. Prosecutor Lewis Lamb described Trinity’s motive as resentment. She hated that her boyfriend had a son that wasn’t hers, and that anger led to murder. The moment Trinity beat JD, in prosecutor’s eyes, his fate was sealed.
He said, “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. It wasn’t a question anymore as to whether he would ever be able to grow up. At 12:30 p.m., he was dying. Trinity Pogue resented this child. She wanted to have a child or children with Julian Williams, but not that child.
” The defense, meanwhile, attempted to paint Julian as a violent, alcoholic father. The defense explained her texts as a result of her immaturity, that she had no real hatred for the child. They tried to paint JD as a victim of Julian’s drunken rage. While this was the defense’s argument, it should be noted that Trinity herself had never made these claims.
They alternatively said JD could have fallen from a bed causing the injuries. All of it was an attempt to create reasonable doubt. Her attorney, W.T. Gamble, said, “In seeking justice in this case, do not let justice be found at the cross of innocent blood. Trinity Pogue is not guilty of the crime she is accused of.” Dr.
Michael Bussman was among the witnesses, and he described how a fall wouldn’t have been able to cause JD’s injuries because both the bed and a chair are too low to the ground. Trinity’s former roommate was called to the stand. Megan Pitts answered positively when asked if JD cried around Trinity often.
“Yes, sir, every time,” she said. She also said that as long as someone else was present, like herself or Julian, JD didn’t cry nearly as much. Megan also said Trinity often voiced her dislike of JD. The most condemning testimony, however, even more so than Julian’s, came from Trinity’s current roommate, Paris Permort.
The state had her read some text conversations between her and Trinity. Prosecutor Lamb also asked about any in-person conversations the two of them had, and Paris said Trinity once told her that she wanted to run JD over with her car. For closing arguments, Judge James W. Sizemore ordered the gallery doors be locked.
He instructed that no one could make an outburst or cause a disruption. Julian and his family were on one side of the gallery, while Trinity’s were on the other side. Prosecutor Lamb said, “That girl killed that little boy. She killed that little boy. She cracked his skull out of anger, out of malice, she killed that little boy.
The only person that could have possibly done this in the time frame in which it had occurred, don’t let these other things that don’t have anything to do with the answer to that question, who killed JD Angeles, don’t let these other things cloud your vision and fog your brain.” Then defense attorney Gamble said, “You cannot discount the possibility that Mr.
Williams could have been responsible. You cannot discount the possibility that an accident happened to the child while they were showering. You cannot discount the possibility that the fall from a 40-in bed caused injury to this child. All those are reasonable doubts. You cannot come back with a verdict otherwise.
” Shayla was aware that Julian faced criticism for leaving their child alone with Trinity. She spoke in his defense in her Daily Mail interview, supporting him from afar despite not attending the trial herself. She said, “I don’t blame Julian because nobody ever really imagines that. Nobody ever thinks about that. I think there are so many people that start dating other people with kids, and they know that they have kids, so they accept that.
They accept the fact that they have kids. So, I don’t think he ever thought that would ever happen. And it’s not his fault because I know he would never do anything to intentionally hurt our son. I think he does have a pretty good amount of support. He’s a lot of friends. He has a lot of family, and I’m not sure if he knows it, but he has my support, too.
I know there are some people saying he’s at fault, too, but he’s not because he was just taking care of his child, and his child got taken away from him.” The verdict was read on December 5th, 2025. Trinity was found not guilty of malice murder. The courtroom gallery had a brief outburst in response before the judge made a shushing sound.
Directly after, she was found guilty of felony murder and aggravated battery. That evening, Julian posted on Facebook. He wrote, “I just want to take a minute to say I appreciate every single person who has been there for me and my family through these past 2 years. Every prayer, every hug, every comment, every share. We see it. We feel it.
Justice has been served even though it was not to my satisfaction. She will serve a life sentence in prison for brutally taking my child’s life. Those MFs tried to tear me down and make me out to be a criminal and a bad dad. I’m not a criminal and I’m not a bad dad. My baby didn’t deserve any of this. Like I said, life in prison isn’t enough for my liking. I don’t have a criminal record.
I held my composure on the stand. I had to think about my son and remember not to act out of character in order to get justice for him. And now that I can freely respond without penalty or pee my son, Kesa. #getatme #LLJD On December 7th, 2025, Trinity Pope was sentenced to life in prison with parole eligibility after 30 years, which is a standard life sentence in the state of Georgia.
She’s currently incarcerated in the McRae Women’s Facility in Georgia’s Telfair County. As he gave the sentence, Judge Sizemore said, “I don’t do a lot of speaking when I’m passing the sentence. I’ve heard the case and I’ve considered the tragedy. There’s a lot of tragedy to go around here. The whole time that I’m hearing your case, I think about what the appropriate sentence would be.
The bottom line is, you’re going to receive a sentence of life in prison, which is the appropriate sentence for the conduct that you have been convicted of. And I hope this can bring some closure to the family. I hope that you, Trinity, can in your older days have some sort of life after serving the sentence.” JD’s funeral was held in Florida on January 27th, 2024.
Those in attendance wore matching t-shirts printed with one of JD’s baby pictures and the phrase, “Long Live Jaxton Drew Williams.” The phrase became a rallying cry for Julian, his family, and his friends as they mourned and awaited justice. Their social media posts about JD were signed off with a hashtag #LLJD.
To this day, Trinity’s family has avoided the public eye. They appeared in the courtroom gallery during the trial and were emotional when she was found guilty. News outlets have approached them for a comment, but these requests were met with silence. Julian began dating someone new in 2024 and had their 1-year anniversary shortly after Christmas of 2025.
They both followed Trinity’s trial and posted updates on their social media. They were both relieved when Trinity was found guilty while still mourning the loss of JD. When Julian first took him to the hospital, JD threw up on his jacket. He still has the jacket and hasn’t cleaned it since. He says it’s the last thing he has to remember his son by.
Parents, before leaving your young children with someone new, even if it is a new partner, please make sure that you can trust them before doing so. And even when you think you do, please rethink it one last time. Now, we talk a lot about mom’s new man on this channel when it comes to the death of a child, but what we don’t often see as much is dad’s new lady.
If JD’s story resonated with you, then please click here to check out the case of Santina Cauley out of Cork, Ireland, who was killed by her father’s new girlfriend after a night of partying.
