QUEENS, NY – Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced today that Goey Charles, 30, has been indicted by a Queens County grand jury and was arraigned in Supreme Court on murder charges in the October death of his pregnant girlfriend.
District Attorney Katz said, “The defendant is accused of committing a despicable, irreparable act of domestic violence – killing the young woman who was to be the mother of his child, dragging her limp body from a car and then abandoning her body alongside a road. He will be held accountable for his alleged actions.” Charles, of Rochelle Court in Uniondale, was arraigned late yesterday afternoon before Queens Supreme Court Justice Kenneth Holder on an indictment charging him with murder in the second degree.
Justice Holder continued to remand Charles and set his return date for February 3, 2021. If convicted, Charles faces up to 25 years-to-life in prison. The DA said on October 23, 2020, at about 2:50 a.m. video surveillance shows the defendant in a white Dodge Challenger pull over at 216-07 Horace Harding Expressway. Charles exits the driver’s seat of the car – which is registered to the victim – and then gets in the back where Vanessa Pierre, 29, is seated and moving, according to the video footage.
Soon after the defendant closes the door behind him, the woman appears motionless and stretched out across the length of the backseat. 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. DA Katz said around 6 a.m., a passerby saw Ms. Pierre on the ground at the location. There was a pair of gray sweatpants wrapped around her neck.
She was unresponsive and unconscious and when emergency responders arrived on the scene, she was pronounced dead. Senior Assistant District Attorney Franchesca Basso, of the District Attorney’s Homicide Bureau, is prosecuting the case under the supervision of Assistant District Attorneys Brad Leventhal, Bureau Chief, Peter J. McCormack III, Senior Deputy Bureau Chief, John W. Kosinski and Kenneth M. Appelbaum, Deputy Bureau Chiefs, and under the overall supervision of Senior Executive Assistant District Attorney for Major Crimes Daniel A. Saunders. Shortly after taking office, DA Katz established a 24-hour helpline for victims of domestic violence. Those in need of assistance are urged to call 718- 286-4410.