What to Know
- A Long Island man was convicted of the 2020 death of his pregnant girlfriend, whose body was found on the side of a highway in Bayside, the Queens District Attorney's Office said.
- Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced Wednesday that Goey Charles, 33 and of Uniondale, was convicted of murder in the second degree the day before.
- Charles faces 25 years to life in prison when he is sentenced on Nov. 29.
A Long Island man was convicted of the 2020 death of his pregnant girlfriend, whose body was found on the side of a highway in Bayside, the Queens District Attorney's Office said.
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced Wednesday that Goey Charles, 33 and of Uniondale, was convicted of murder in the second degree the day before.
Charles faces 25 years to life in prison when he is sentenced on Nov. 29.
The conviction stems from charges and video surveillance footage from a series of events that unfolded on Oct. 23, 2020. It was on that day, at around 2:50 a.m., that Charles pulled a white Dodge Challenger registered to his pregnant girlfriend, 29-year-old Vanessa Pierre, over on the Horace Harding Expressway.
About 40 minutes later, Charles exited the driver's seat and went to the backseat where Pierre was sitting, according to the charges and surveillance footage. A light in the vehicle showed her moving at this time.
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An hour later, at around 4:36 a.m., Charles exited the vehicle, dragged Pierre out of the car and left her on the sidewalk, before getting back into the car and driving away.
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Subsequently, at around 6 a.m., an MTA bus driver saw an unresponsive Pierre on the ground with a pair of sweatpants wrapped around her neck. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
“We achieved justice for Vanessa. 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," Katz said.
