In Louisiana, Roxanne Record was convicted of manslaughter after jurors heard competing accounts of intent, punishment and neglect.
BATON ROUGE, La. — Jurors convicted Roxanne Record of manslaughter, not murder, after a trial over the death of 4-year-old China Record, who prosecutors said was forced to drink whiskey during a punishment at a Baton Rouge home.
The verdict narrowed the legal finding in a case that began with first-degree murder accusations against a grandmother and a mother. Prosecutors said China died after being made to drink a dangerous amount of alcohol. The defense said the evidence did not prove a deliberate killing. The jury’s decision left Record criminally responsible for the child’s death but spared her from a mandatory life sentence.
The central question for jurors was not whether China died after alcohol entered her body. Authorities said her death was caused by acute alcohol poisoning, and police reported a blood alcohol level of 0.680. The question was what crime, if any, Record committed when she forced the child to drink. Assistant District Attorney Dana Cummings argued that the punishment was part of a pattern of cruelty toward a child Record disliked. Defense attorney Caitlin Fowlkes argued that the prosecution had built a murder case on grief and horror, not on proof of intent. “Tragedy is not the same as murder,” Fowlkes told jurors, according to accounts of the trial.
The death occurred April 21, 2022, at a home on Wallis Street in Baton Rouge. Police said officers were sent there around 10:50 a.m. for an unresponsive child. Firefighters and emergency medical workers tried to revive China, but she was later pronounced dead. Investigators said the child had been accused of drinking from a bottle of whiskey in the home. Prosecutors said Record responded by making China kneel in a hallway and drink more. The bottle was described in court accounts as Canadian Mist whiskey. Officials have not publicly laid out every minute between the alleged punishment and the 911 call, but prosecutors said the child died within about two hours of being forced to consume the alcohol.
The prosecution used household testimony and earlier statements to argue that the child’s death could not be viewed as a sudden mistake alone. Cummings told jurors that China was treated differently from other children in the home and that her requests or actions involving food and water were described as “stealing.” Prosecutors said that language mattered because it showed how adults and children in the house saw her. The defense pushed back by focusing on inconsistency. Fowlkes said witnesses did not describe the same sequence of events in the same way. She also said Record tried to save China by doing CPR during the 911 call. The jury had to weigh those claims against Record’s alleged statements to police that she “messed up,” “went too far” and “wanted to take full responsibility.”
The manslaughter verdict means jurors did not find the state had proved the specific intent required for first-degree murder. It does not mean jurors viewed the death as blameless. Under the verdict, Record faces sentencing for causing the death under a lesser homicide offense. The penalty phase will allow lawyers to argue over prison time, the facts the judge should consider and the weight of the child’s age, the amount of alcohol involved and Record’s actions before and after the child became unresponsive. Prosecutors are expected to emphasize China’s vulnerability and the adult authority Record held in the home. The defense is expected to continue stressing lack of intent and the CPR claim.
The case against Kadjah Record, China’s mother, remains separate and unresolved. Baton Rouge police said at the time of the arrests that Kadjah Record watched the punishment and did not intervene. Investigators also accused her of giving inconsistent statements. She faces charges connected to her daughter’s death and was scheduled for another court appearance on June 29. Her case gives prosecutors another path to examine the role of adults who were present or nearby. It may also revisit the timeline, including who saw the bottle, who saw China become unresponsive and who called for help. Because her case is pending, the allegations against her have not been tested by a jury in the same way Roxanne Record’s case has.
Outside the legal arguments, the case brought public attention to what relatives said happened in the home before China died. Ebony Record, China’s aunt, later said family members had failed the child. “We all failed,” she said. Her remarks pointed to a painful question around the case: how much was known by others before police and emergency crews arrived that April morning. The state child welfare agency said after the arrest that it could not confirm or discuss any investigation because Louisiana law keeps abuse and neglect records confidential. That means many possible records about prior reports, if any existed, remain outside public view.
The trial ended with a conviction that answered one legal question but left others open. Roxanne Record is no longer facing a murder conviction in China’s death, but she is awaiting sentencing for manslaughter. Kadjah Record’s pending case remains the next major courtroom test. The public record still does not fully explain how a bottle left in a home became a fatal punishment for a 4-year-old or why help did not arrive in time to save her.
The jury’s decision left a split legal record: not murder, not an accident, but a homicide conviction tied to a child’s fatal punishment. The next hearings will decide how that finding is punished and whether China’s mother is also held criminally responsible.
Author note: Last updated May 22, 2026.