She just went on with daily life while she died
In a Baton Rouge courtroom, a grandmother stands accused of a crime that inverts one of humanity's most elemental bonds — the protection of a child by those entrusted with her care. Four-year-old China Record died in April 2022 with a blood alcohol content eight times the legal adult limit, and the state of Louisiana alleges her grandmother forced that whiskey upon her as punishment for a single stolen sip. The trial asks not only whether Roxanne Record committed murder, but how a household can transform love's absence into something so final.
- A four-year-old girl died of acute alcohol poisoning after allegedly being forced to her knees and made to finish a 750ml bottle of whiskey — a punishment for taking a single sip.
- Prosecutors argue this was not a moment of rage but the endpoint of a sustained pattern of cruelty, in which China was denied basic necessities and her siblings were taught to see her as a thief.
- The child's mother stood by and did nothing as first responders arrived to find the girl already unresponsive, and she now faces her own murder trial scheduled for later this summer.
- The defense contends the death was a tragic accident and that the state cannot prove the specific criminal intent required for a first-degree murder conviction.
- If the jury finds Roxanne Record guilty, the sentence is fixed and absolute — mandatory life imprisonment without any possibility of parole.
Roxanne Record, 57, sat in a Baton Rouge courtroom this week as prosecutors reconstructed the final hours of her four-year-old granddaughter China's life. The state's case turns on a single devastating allegation: that in April 2022, after China took one sip from a bottle of Canadian Mist left on the kitchen counter, Record forced the child to kneel and finish the entire 750-milliliter bottle. When first responders arrived at the Wallis Street home, China was unresponsive. An autopsy placed her blood alcohol content at 0.680 — more than eight times the legal adult driving limit.
Assistant District Attorney Dana Cummings framed the act not as an isolated explosion of anger but as the culmination of something colder and longer-running. She told the jury that China had been systematically excluded within her own home — denied food and water, treated as an outsider while her siblings were conditioned to regard her hunger as theft. The punishment, in the prosecution's telling, was the logical endpoint of a relationship built entirely on rejection. Cummings described Record as having continued her daily routine even as the child's body shut down around her.
The defense acknowledged the death as a tragedy but argued it was an accident, pointing to Record's attempt to perform CPR and contending the state had not met the burden of proving specific intent required for first-degree murder — a distinction that carries enormous legal weight.
The stakes leave no middle ground. A guilty verdict means mandatory life imprisonment without parole. China's mother, Kadjah Record, faces identical charges and will stand trial separately later this summer.
Roxanne Record sat in a Baton Rouge courtroom this week as prosecutors laid out the final hours of her granddaughter's life. China Record was four years old when she died in April 2022, and the state's case against her 57-year-old grandmother rests on a single, devastating allegation: that Record forced the child to drink an entire bottle of whiskey as punishment for taking a sip from it.
The prosecution's account is stark. China took a single drink from a bottle of Canadian Mist left on the kitchen counter. What followed, prosecutors say, was not a moment of anger but a calculated act of cruelty. The child was forced to her knees and made to finish the 750-milliliter bottle—roughly 1.6 pints of 80-proof liquor. China's mother, Kadjah Record, stood by and did nothing. When first responders arrived at the Wallis Street home, the girl was already unresponsive. An autopsy revealed her blood alcohol content at 0.680—more than eight times the legal driving limit for an adult.
Assistant District Attorney Dana Cummings framed the case not as a single act but as the culmination of a pattern. In opening statements, she contrasted the typical warmth of a grandparent's love with what she said China actually experienced. "China never had that because her grandmother never, ever took to her, never liked her, treated her differently than she treated the other children," Cummings told the jury, according to reporting from The Advocate. Prosecutors alleged that within the home, China had been systematically marginalized—so thoroughly that her siblings had been conditioned to view her attempts to access food and water as theft. The punishment, in this reading, was not aberrant but the logical endpoint of a relationship built on rejection.
Cummings painted a portrait of indifference in her closing argument to the jury. "She… just went on with daily life while she died," the prosecutor said, describing how Record allegedly continued her routine even as the child's body shut down from acute alcohol poisoning.
The defense offered a different narrative. Caitlin Fowlkes, Record's attorney, acknowledged that China's death was "a tragedy that nobody should have to endure," but argued it was an accident, not murder. She contended that Record had attempted to save the girl with CPR and that the state had failed to prove the specific intent required for a first-degree murder conviction—a crucial legal distinction that could mean the difference between a life sentence and a lesser charge.
The stakes are absolute. If convicted of first-degree murder, Roxanne Record will face mandatory life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. She will never leave prison. The child's mother, Kadjah Record, faces identical charges and is scheduled to stand trial later this summer. Two adults, two trials, one dead child whose blood alcohol content tells a story that no defense can fully rewrite.
Notable Quotes
China never had that because her grandmother never, ever took to her, never liked her, treated her differently than she treated the other children— Assistant District Attorney Dana Cummings, in opening statements
China's death was a tragedy that nobody should have to endure, but it was also an accident— Defense attorney Caitlin Fowlkes, paraphrased
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why does the prosecution frame this as a pattern rather than a single, terrible moment?
Because a single moment doesn't explain how a four-year-old could be forced to drink an entire bottle. It requires a home where the child was already so isolated, so devalued, that no one intervened. The pattern is the infrastructure of the act.
The mother was present. What does that detail change?
It transforms this from a crime of impulse into something more deliberate. Presence without intervention is its own kind of choice. It suggests the child had no one.
The defense says it was an accident. Is that plausible?
The question isn't whether the bottle was meant to kill her. It's whether forcing a four-year-old to drink it was intentional. The law cares about that distinction in a way that doesn't comfort anyone.
What happens to the other children in that house?
The source doesn't say. But they were conditioned to see their sister as a thief for wanting food. That's a wound that doesn't heal with a verdict.
Why does the grandmother's age matter—that she's 57?
It doesn't, really. It just makes it harder to imagine. We want to believe cruelty comes from youth or desperation. A 57-year-old grandmother is supposed to be past the point of such things.