By Forum Staff
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced on Tuesday that Goey Charles was convicted of murder in the October 2020 death of his pregnant girlfriend, 29-year-old Vanessa Pierre. He dumped her body on the side of the Horace Harding Expressway in Bayside and drove away.
Charles, 33, of Uniondale, was convicted Tuesday of murder in the second degree.
Photo Courtesy of DA Katz
“We achieved justice for Vanessa,” Katz said.
According to the charges and video surveillance footage:
On Oct. 23, 2020, at about 2:50 a.m., Charles pulled a white Dodge Challenger registered to his girlfriend over at 216-07 Horace Harding Expwy.
At approximately 3:30 a.m., he exited from the driver’s seat of the car and went into the backseat, where his girlfriend was sitting. When a light in the vehicle illuminated, the victim, who was pregnant, could be seen moving.
At approximately 4:36 a.m., Charles exited the vehicle, dragged Pierre out of the car and left her on the sidewalk. He got back in the car and drove away.
At around 6 a.m., an MTA bus driver saw Pierre on the ground, unresponsive, a pair of gray sweatpants wrapped around her neck. Emergency responders arrived on the scene and pronounced her dead.
“We achieved justice for Vanessa,” Katz said. “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.”
Charles faces 25 years to life in prison. He will be sentenced on Nov. 29.
