Charges filed against grandmother, boyfriend after Granite City infant dies
%20(1)%20(1)%20(1).jpg "Charges have been filed against and man and woman in Madison County after an infant died.")
A Granite City couple face felony charges accusing them of taking meth before sharing a bed with the woman’s infant grandson, who died as a result of being suffocated in June.
Sarrah M. Cheung, 41, and her boyfriend, Patrick Lee Godfrey, 27, were each charged Thursday with one count of involuntary manslaughter and one count of endangering the life or health of a child, according to Madison County court records.
Court records do not list a defense attorney for either Cheung or Godfrey.
Granite City police officers were called when the child, who was nearly 2 months old, was found unresponsive on June 29, according to a pretrial detention hearing petition filed by the Madison County State’s Attorney’s Office.
Cheung and Godfrey “both admit to using meth the day before. Both admit to staying up for almost 24 hours then going to sleep with the baby in an adult bed,” the petition states.
Cheung told investigators that the child was sleeping on his back “in the crook of Godfrey’s arm but when she wakes up later the baby is on his stomach with Godfrey’s arm on top of him.”
The petition states the infant’s cause of death is listed as “asphyxia due to unsafe sleep environment in a child containing methamphetamine and cannabinoid.”
The charges allege Cheung and Godfrey allowed the child to be “exposed to meth and cannabis” before they co-slept with him.
Officers found meth on a mirror on a table near the bed, according to the petition.
The Madison County Coroner’s Office said it could not release the child’s name because the case is still under investigation.
The charges identify the victim as “A.C,” who had been living with Cheung and Godfrey.
Prosecutors have filed petitions seeking a pretrial detention hearing for Cheung and Godfrey but a hearing had not been scheduled as of Friday morning.
A representative of the Granite City Police Department could not be reached for comment about whether Cheung and Godfrey have been arrested on the charges.
Godfrey is on probation in connection with 2023 charges of unlawful delivery of methamphetamine and reckless discharge of a firearm, according to court records.
