Police: 4-year-old died after she was forced to drink alcohol; mom & grandmother booked for murder
BATON ROUGE – A girl died of alcohol poisoning after she was forced to drink half a bottle of whiskey as a form of punishment, police said.
Inside the home on Wallis Street on Thursday morning, police found firefighters and paramedics fighting to save a little girl who lay motionless on the floor. Those efforts were unsuccessful, and homicide detectives took over.
They quickly learned that the girl consumed more than half a bottle of whiskey, allegedly force-fed to her by her grandmother. The East Baton Rouge coroner on Friday said 4-year-old China Record died with a blood-alcohol level of .680 percent, more than eight times the legal driving limit for an adult.
“It’s not like you gave a sip of wine," said one neighbor, who asked to remain anonymous. "What did you think it would do to her? One shot would knock me out, and I’m in my late 30s. Imagine what it’s doing to a 4-year-old.”
Police booked China’s grandmother, 53-year-old Roxanne Record, and her mother, 28-year-old Kadjah Record, with first-degree murder.
The events that led to the girl’s death were spelled out in an arrest warrant.
Roxanne and Kadjah Record told detectives they became mad with China after she took a sip of Canadian Mist whiskey from a bottle that was left on the kitchen counter.
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Detectives wrote that Roxanne Record forced China “to consume the remainder of the bottle which was possibly over half full while on her knees in the hallway.”
Kadjah Record watched that happen and did nothing to stop it, police said. She later put her child in a tub and only called for help once the girl stopped breathing, according to the warrant.
Roxanne Record reportedly told detectives she wanted to take full responsibility for what happened.
“(She) stated that this went too far and that she ruined everyone’s lives but refused to elaborate on her actions,” detectives wrote in the warrant.
On Friday, one neighbor said the street was filled a day earlier with police who cordoned off the house. Neighbors said they heard conflicting stories about what was happening.
Eventually, they learned the tragic news.
“That’s ignorance. All I thought of was ignorance. I’m a mother myself, and there’s no way I’m going to punish my child by (doing that). That’s like a child sticking a hand in fire and you say, ‘Oh, put it back in there to learn your lesson.’ No, that’s not how you teach a child.”