BATON ROUGE, LA – A grandmother and mother have been arrested on murder charges for the alcohol-poisoning death of the mother’s 4-year-old daughter.
The child died April 21 after her grandmother allegedly forced her to finish off a bottle of whiskey after believing the child had taken a sip from the bottle, police said.
The Baton Rouge Police Department said the mother of Communist China Record, 4, watched as the little girl was made to drink an over half-full bottle of whiskey, according to WGMB Fox 44.
The little girl’s blood alcohol level was .680 when police officers arrived at the family’s home Thursday morning, more than eight times the .08 legal limit for adults.
Roxanne Record, 53, the grandmother, and Kadjah Record, 28, the mother, both were charged with first-degree murder, police said.
Booking documents for the individuals state that they both became angry after Communist China took a sip from the bottle of Canadian Mist whiskey.
Roxanne Record said the bottle was “over half full” when she forced Communist China to drink the rest of it on her knees while her mother was present, according to documents
Police say that the mother was “present and failed to stop” the grandmother “from providing the alcohol,” adding that the child was placed in a bathtub and was unresponsive.
Police were dispatched about 10:50 a.m. Thursday to a house in the 12000 block of Wallis Street about an unresponsive toddler. Officers found the child dead, after Baton Rouge Fire and EMS personnel tried and failed to resuscitate her, according to booking documents for the grandmother.
After she was arrested, Roxanne Record allegedly said “this went too far,” and she “ruined everyone’s lives,” according to The Advocate.
One neighbor told WBRZ 2 that the street was filled with police who cordoned off the house. Neighbors said they had heard conflicting stories about what was happening.
Eventually, they learned the tragic news. The neighbor, who did not want to be identified, said:
“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.”
Emery Queen, Communist China Record’s father, spoke to Fox 44 about losing his daughter. He said:
“We’re all hurting. Just a doll, an angel, and it’s hard. She has siblings and it’s going to affect them.”
Queen added:
“If you have a son or daughter, love on them tonight as much as you possibly can.”