LI man faces murder charges in killing of pregnant girlfriend, Queens DA says

The Long Island boyfriend caught on video hauling his pregnant girlfriend's body out of her car and leaving her on a Queens expressway in October has been indicted on second-degree murder charges, prosecutors said Thursday.

Vanessa Pierre, 29, of Hempstead, was found facedown on the sidewalk with her gray sweatpants wrapped around her neck on the Horace Harding Expressway in Bayside on Oct. 23, police said. Her boyfriend, Goey Charles, 30, was arrested five days after she was killed.

Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz did not release the cause of death in her statement Thursday announcing the indictment and arraignment of Charles, of Rochelle Court in Uniondale.

The NYPD previously said the medical examiner would determine an official cause of death, adding it initially appeared Pierre was strangled near 216-07 Horace Harding Expressway, which parallels the Long Island Expressway.

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."

Pierre was due to give birth three months after she was killed and had chosen the name Egypt for her daughter, according to her sister, Melissa Pierre.

The defendant's attorney was not immediately available.

The surveillance video shows Charles, behind the wheel of a white Dodge Challenger registered to Pierre, pulling over around 2:50 a.m., and joining Pierre in the back seat, prosecutors said. "Ms. Pierre could be seen moving on the video footage," they said.

"Soon after," prosecutors said, "the defendant closes the door behind him, the woman appears motionless and stretched out across the length of the backseat."

And then, around 4:38 a.m., Charles drags his girlfriend from her car — and drives off.

Queens Supreme Court Justice Kenneth Holder on Wednesday continued remand for Charles, whose next court appearance is Feb. 3, prosecutors said. Charles faces up to 25 years to life in prison if convicted.