A man in the US has been sentenced to 25 years to life in prison for the murder of his pregnant girlfriend. Goey Charles, 33, was caught on video dumping the dead body of 29-year-old Vanessa Pierre on the side of an expressway in New York. He was found guilty of second-degree murder and was arrested three days after Pierre’s body was discovered on Horace Harding Expressway in Bayside, Queens.
Queens District Attorney Melina Katz stated, “We asked for the maximum sentence because of the brutality of the crime and the defendant’s remorseless discarding of the lifeless body of his girlfriend, the woman who was soon to be the mother of his child. The sentence does not bring Vanessa back, but it achieves justice in her memory.”
Surveillance footage played a crucial role in Charles’ conviction. The video showed him dragging Pierre’s lifeless body out of a car and dumping her on the side of the expressway on the morning of October 23, 2020. The Chief of Detectives of the New York Police Department (NYPD), Rodney Harrison, shared the clip on Twitter, stating, “On October 23rd in the confines of the 111th precinct, 29-year-old Vanessa Pierre and her unborn baby were found deceased laying facedown on the sidewalk off of Horace Harding Expressway.”
The footage initially showed Pierre moving around in the backseat of her car, but an hour later, Charles was seen dragging her lifeless body out of the vehicle and leaving it on the sidewalk. He then returned to the driver’s seat of the car, which was registered under Pierre’s name.
A bus driver later discovered Pierre’s body, with a pair of grey sweatpants wrapped around her neck. An autopsy confirmed that she died from asphyxia due to compression of the neck.
Pierre, who was six months pregnant with Charles’ child, had expressed excitement about starting a family. Her sister, Melissa Pierre, mentioned that she warned Vanessa about Charles, saying, “She loved him and she wanted a family but I told her this man is not it.” Melissa described Vanessa as someone who never got into altercations and was looking forward to having a baby.
This case highlights the tragic loss of a young woman and her unborn child, as well as the importance of surveillance footage in criminal investigations.
