A 33-year-old man from Long Island, New York, may spend the rest of his life behind bars for killing his 29-year-old pregnant girlfriend three months before she was expected to give birth, strangling her before dumping her body on the side of the highway and driving away three years ago.
A jury in Queens County found Goey Charles guilty on Tuesday on one count of second-degree murder in the October 2020 slaying of Vanessa Pierre, authorities said.
“We achieved justice for Vanessa [Pierre],” Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said in a statement following the verdict. “The verdict does not bring her back, but it holds her killer accountable. We will be asking the court to send the defendant to prison for a very long time for the brutality and callousness he showed in murdering and abandoning the lifeless body of his girlfriend, the woman who was to be the mother of his child.”
Surveillance footage showing Charles dragging Vanessa Pierre’s body out of her car and leaving it on the side of the highway (Queens County District Attorney’s Office)
According to a news release from the Queens County District Attorney’s Office, Charles was convicted primarily based on video surveillance footage that showed him moving her body.
The DA said that at about 2:50 a.m. on Oct. 23, 2020, the footage showed the defendant driving a white Dodge Challenger and pulling over to the side of the Horace Harding Expressway. Charles can be seen getting out of the driver’s seat of the car, which was registered in Pierre’s name.
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Charles then gets in the vehicle’s back seat, where a light in the car allowed the footage to show a then-pregnant Pierre “seated and moving,” according to the video footage reviewed by the DA’s office.
“Soon after Charles gets out and closes the door behind him, [Pierre] appears motionless and stretched out across the length of the back seat,” the release states. “At approximately 4:38 a.m., the defendant is allegedly seen exiting the vehicle and then dragging the pregnant woman’s body out of the car, leaving her on the sidewalk. He then gets back in the car and drives away.”
At about 6 a.m., an MTA bus driver saw Pierre’s body on the ground along with a pair of gray sweatpants wrapped around her neck, authorities said.
Authorities confirmed that Charles was the father of Pierre’s unborn child, the DA’s Office said.
Charles is set to appear in Queens Supreme Court on Nov. 29. He faces a sentence of 25 years to life in a state correctional facility.
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