Former New York state trooper convicted of manslaughter in crash that killed 11-year-old girl

A former New York state trooper has been found guilty of manslaughter in a high-speed crash that killed a child in 2020.

A jury convicted Christopher Baldner, 47, on Friday.

On Dec. 22, 2020, Baldner pulled a driver over for speeding on the New York State Thruway in Ulster County. The driver's wife and two daughters, ages 11 and 12, were in the vehicle at the time.

According to the New York State attorney general's office, Baldner deployed pepper spray into the vehicle during the traffic stop, and the driver took off.

Officials say Baldner pursued the vehicle and rammed it twice, causing it to skid into a guard rail and flip over.

Monica Goods, 11, was ejected from the vehicle and killed.

Baldner was originally charged with murder, but those charges were later dropped.

This was Baldner's second trial. His first ended in a mistrial in November 2025.

"Taken a long time, but as Martin Luther King said, 'The arc of justice is long,'" attorney Sanford Rubenstein said. "In this case, while the arc of justice may have been long, justice was done with this guilty verdict of manslaughter in the killing of a beautiful young girl."

Baldner is scheduled to be sentenced in June. He faces up to 15 years in prison.