CLEARFIELD – A Clearfield woman pleaded guilty Monday to endangering the welfare of children for her part in ongoing assaults on her child.
In December, Savannah Marie Grove, now 34, and the baby’s father, Andrew Maurice Sheffey, 33, were both charged after their six-month-old child was injured. The story was that the child had fallen from a couch.
The child was reportedly having seizures, was blue and his limbs were limp. His condition required he be transported by helicopter to UPMC Children’s Hospital in Pittsburgh for treatment in October of 2020.
It was discovered he was suffering from shaken baby syndrome, leaving him with blood on the brain and his legs had “three separate fractures in different stages of healing,” which indicated ongoing physical abuse, according to the affidavit.
During sentencing court Monday, Grove pleaded guilty to one felony count of endangering the welfare of children and was sentenced by Judge Paul Cherry to 114 days (time served) to one year in jail with two years consecutive probation.
She was also ordered to complete a nurturing parent program and to comply with all orders from Clearfield County Children, Youth and Family Services.
Originally, she was facing 23 counts of various charges.
In July, Sheffey pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated assault and endangering the welfare of a child and was sentenced by Cherry to serve a total of eight to 25 years in state prison, according to a previous article.
The criminal complaint explains that Grove was at work at the time Sheffey said the baby fell. She told investigators that he was fine the night before except that she was having trouble getting him to sleep and he had vomited on her.
After questioning several witnesses, police learned that Sheffey had anger issues and had struck the baby so hard previously that he left a hand print on the child.
This was confirmed after Grove’s cell phone was seized and a photo of that injury was discovered along with other deleted pictures of injuries.
One family member told investigators that Sheffey and Grove often fought and this is when Grove would send her photos of the baby showing what Sheffey had done.
His bouts of anger also reportedly involved him punching holes in the walls of their apartment and damaging their front door.
At one point in the investigation, Grove asked this family member to talk to a child to get her to stop telling people that Sheffey hits the baby.
A cell phone conversation was submitted as evidence during which Grove stated Sheffey can’t continue to lose patience with the child and “bruise the baby like he did today.”
Other conversations detailed additional abuse with photos showing bruises on the child’s face, shoulder and thigh.
An interview with another child from their household exposed an instance when the baby was bleeding from the mouth because of an injury to his lip and gums.
This witness speculated that Sheffey, who was the only one caring for the baby at that time, had “shoved the bottle in his mouth.”
She also stated that she had seen Sheffey pull on the child’s legs when he was changing him, according to the affidavit.
When a different child from the household was questioned about how Sheffey treated the baby, she put her hands around a doll’s neck as if strangling it and threw it to the ground, police said.
