THE INVESTIGATORS: Toxicology expert weighs in after grandmother, mother arrested in child’s alcohol poisoning death

BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) - A toxicology expert is weighing in after a grandmother is accused of killing her granddaughter by forcing her to drink a bottle of alcohol while the mother watched.

The grandmother, 53-year-old Roanne Record, and mother, 28-year-old Kadjah Record are locked up and face first-degree murder charges in the death of their child, 4-year-old China Record. An arrest warrant paints an unimaginable picture, saying the grandmother caught the little girl taking a sip of her whiskey. That’s when police say she made the girl get on her knees and then forced her to finish off the bottle while the mother watched.

The young girl’s blood-alcohol level was .680. That is more than eight times the legal limit for an adult to get behind the wheel. Just for perspective, a level of .40 is enough to possibly kill an adult.

“Holy moly. Oh my gosh,” said Dr. Matthew Lee, with eLEEte Physicians, LLC out of Richmond, Virginia.

WAFB’s Scottie Hunter asked Dr. Lee if he has ever seen a blood alcohol level this high.

“I personally have not. I’ve seen some high blood alcohol levels. I have not seen one at a 0.68,” said Dr. Lee.

Dr. Lee says children and alcohol do not mix and this amount is unthinkable.

“Like what happened for a child to get a blood alcohol level of that? I mean it’s just… it’s mind-boggling,” said Dr. Lee.

The warrant shows the mother of the 4-year-old tried to put the girl in the bathtub when she passed out but police say she did not call 911 right away. Dr. Lee says that is scary because alcohol affects kids differently than adults.

”The blood sugar can drop so low that they become comatose,” said Dr. Lee. “They can have seizures and it can result in death.

”He says if a child gets their hands on alcohol they need medical attention right away because depending on the amount, the damage begins almost immediately.

”So when a child has that much alcohol, there is toxicity to all of their organ systems so not just the central nervous system like the brain and the cognitive impairments but the motor impairments as well as the liver, heart, and kidneys. All of those can be adversely affected,” Dr. Lee added.

Police say the grandmother did tell investigators she messed up and that she wanted to take full responsibility for what happened.

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