Prosecutors say 4-year-old China Record was forced to drink whiskey as punishment.
BATON ROUGE, La. — A Louisiana grandmother went on trial this week on first-degree murder and cruelty charges after prosecutors said she forced her 4-year-old granddaughter to drink whiskey in 2022, causing fatal alcohol poisoning inside a Baton Rouge home.
Roxanne Record, 57, is accused in the death of China Record, who was found unresponsive at a home in the 12000 block of Wallis Street on April 21, 2022. The case now turns on whether prosecutors can prove specific intent. The child’s mother, Kadjah Record, is also charged with murder and is expected to appear in court later this summer.
Police were called to the Wallis Street home shortly before 11 a.m. that Thursday after a report of an unresponsive child. Firefighters and emergency medical workers were already trying to revive China when officers arrived, according to earlier case records. The child was pronounced dead at the scene. The East Baton Rouge Parish Coroner’s Office later found that she died of acute alcohol poisoning, and officials ruled the death a homicide. Investigators said China’s blood alcohol content was .680, more than eight times the .08 legal limit for adult drivers in Louisiana. Police arrested Roxanne Record and Kadjah Record the next morning, and both were booked on first-degree murder counts.
At the start of trial, Assistant District Attorney Dana Cummings told jurors the case grew out of a pattern of cruelty toward China inside the home. Prosecutors said the child took a sip from a bottle of Canadian Mist whiskey left on a kitchen counter. They said Roxanne Record then made the child get on her knees in a hallway and drink the remaining alcohol while Kadjah Record watched and did not stop it. Cummings said China was treated differently from other children in the home and that basic acts such as taking food or water were described by others in the household as stealing. Prosecutors described the punishment as deliberate and fatal, saying the child died within about two hours.
Defense attorney Caitlin Fowlkes told jurors the state could not meet the burden required for a first-degree murder conviction. She described China’s death as a tragedy, but said prosecutors had not proved that Roxanne Record intended to kill the child. Fowlkes pointed to what she called conflicting accounts from witnesses, including children in the home. She also said Roxanne Record tried to perform CPR while on the phone with 911, arguing that the response was not consistent with a planned killing. “Tragedy is not the same as murder,” Fowlkes said during opening statements. The defense is expected to challenge the state’s account of intent as testimony continues.
Grand jurors indicted Roxanne Record and Kadjah Record in July 2022. Court records at the time said Roxanne Record was charged with first-degree murder and cruelty to juveniles, while Kadjah Record was charged with first-degree murder. The cruelty count alleged mistreatment or neglect of a child under 8 from about April 1 to April 21, 2022. The indictment followed a police investigation that cited statements from witnesses and arrest documents describing the whiskey bottle, the hallway and the child’s condition after the drinking. If convicted of first-degree murder, Roxanne Record faces a mandatory life sentence. The charges remain allegations unless proven in court.
Police said in 2022 that Kadjah Record, China’s mother, saw her mother leave the kitchen with the liquor bottle and later saw that the bottle was empty. Investigators also said Kadjah Record gave inconsistent statements and failed to intervene while the child was being forced to drink. The Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services released a brief statement after the child’s death, saying state law prevented the agency from confirming or discussing any possible abuse or neglect investigation. A family member, Ebony Record, later said relatives had known about troubling behavior inside the home and felt they had failed China. “We all failed,” she said.
The trial is expected to focus on medical evidence, witness interviews, the child’s blood alcohol level and the question of intent. Prosecutors are likely to use the autopsy findings and earlier police records to argue that the punishment was not accidental. The defense is expected to press witnesses about the sequence of events, what each person in the house saw and whether statements made after the child’s death were reliable. The court has not announced a verdict. Kadjah Record’s separate case remains pending, with her next court appearance expected later this summer. Because the cases involve a child’s death and allegations against family members, the testimony is expected to include details from inside the home.
The Wallis Street home sits in a residential stretch off Harco Drive near Florida Boulevard, where police, firefighters and EMS workers responded on the morning China died. The case has returned to public attention four years later because jurors are now hearing competing accounts of what happened before the child became unresponsive. Prosecutors have framed the death as the result of punishment and long-running mistreatment. The defense has framed it as a tragic accident that does not meet the legal standard for murder. Jurors will have to decide whether the evidence proves the charged crimes beyond a reasonable doubt.
The case stood Friday with Roxanne Record’s trial underway in Baton Rouge and Kadjah Record’s case still pending. No verdict had been announced, and the next major step is the continuation of testimony in court.
Author note: Last updated May 1, 2026.