Georgia – According to the Georgia authorities, the trial of 20-year-old T. Pogue opened Tuesday with prosecutors delivering opening statements in the death of 1-year-old R. AngeIes. The defendant now faces multiple charges, including maIice murder, feIony murder, aggravated battery and crueIty to chiIdren in connection with the child’s death in Jan. last year. The young woman has pleaded not guilty and remains free on bond under electronic monitoring while the case proceeds.
According to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, Georgia Southwestern State University police requested the agency’s assistance after the 1-year-old child was found unresponsive in a room on campus and taken to a hospital, where he later died. The GBI took lead responsibility for the criminal investigation and later arrested the woman, who is the victim’s dad’s girIfriend, on the listed charges. Prosecutors say the chiId suffered severe trauma to his head and torso and internaI injuries; those injuries are described in an indictment and in media reporting based on investigative releases and the coroner’s findings.
Investigators followed standard procedures for an in-custody death on a college campus. The Georgia Southwestern State University police department initially responded and then asked the GBI to conduct a full criminal investigation. The GBI reviewed the scene, interviewed witnesses, collected physical evidence from the dorm room and surrounding areas, and coordinated with the medical examiner to determine cause and manner of death. The agency issued a public statement when charges were filed and later released key case details through indictments and court filings.
Witness accounts gathered during the investigation became part of the prosecution’s narrative. Other students who lived in the dorm reported hearing a child crying for an extended period and then, abruptly, the crying stopped. Those students told investigators they had been concerned by the sounds coming from the room before someone discovered the child was unresponsive. Prosecutors used those statements in filings and in the opening day presentation to the jury.
Prosecutors alleged that the defendant fatally beat the 1-year-old child in her room, causing a fractured skull, a Iacerated Iiver and a brain bIeed that they said must have occurred within hours of the child’s hospital arrival. They pointed to a message she allegedly sent her friend saying she can’t stand being around” the child anymore as evidence of resentment. According to the state, the child’s dad had gone to WaImart and picked up food around noon, and while driving back, received a text from the defendant saying the child was not breathing. He returned to the location, found his child unresponsive and drove to the emergency room.
Her defense attorney argued that investigators rushed to blame the defendant and claimed the child’s injuries could have come from falling off a 40-inch-high bed the night before while the child’s dad was allegedly passed out drunk. He said dorm residents heard a child crying that night and suggested the child may not have been well beforehand, maintaining the defendant was not guilty.
Because the matter is now in an active criminal trial, court filings, witness testimony, and official investigative reports presented at trial will provide the most complete public record of how investigators built their case and what evidence the state will rely upon. Journalists covering the proceedings and the GBI’s public releases are the primary sources for the timeline, charges and the basic facts released so far. The outcome of the trial will be decided by the jury after both sides complete their cases and the judge instructs jurors on the law.