Nov. 15, 2023 By Bill Parry
A Long Island man was found guilty of murdering his pregnant girlfriend, 29-year-old Vanessa Pierre, in 2020 and dumping her body on the side of the road along the Horace Harding Expressway in Bayside, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced Wednesday, Nov. 15.
Goey Charles, 33, of Rochelle Court in Uniondale, was convicted Nov. 14 of murder in the second degree in Queens Supreme Court and he faces 25 years to life in prison.
According to the charges and video surveillance footage, at about 2:50 a.m. on Oct. 23, 2020, Charles was behind the wheel of a white Dodge Challenger registered to his girlfriend when he pulled over at 216-07 Horace Harding Expwy. in Bayside.
Goey Charles was seen on video pulling over on the Horace Harding Expressway in Bayside in 2020. Photo courtesy of the Queens DA’s office
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, unconscious and unresponsive, with a pair of gray sweatpants wrapped around her neck, according to the charges. Emergency responders arrived on the scene and pronounced her dead.\
“We achieved justice for Vanessa. The verdict does not bring her back, but it holds her killer accountable,” Katz said. “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.”
Queens Supreme Court Justice Kenneth Holder set sentencing for November 29. Charles faces 25 years to life in prison.