The heartless New Jersey father whose son died days after he forced him to run at high speeds on a treadmill, from which he was flug off and injured tried to blame the boy’s mother for his son’s death.
Christopher Gregor, 31, is on trial for first-degree murder and child endangerment in the death of 6-year-old Corey Micciolo. Authorities have charged he had a long history of abusing the the boy.
In court Thursday, Gregor’s mother tearfully testified about a conversation she had with her son on April 2, 2021 — the day Corey died.
Her voice cracking, a tearful Carol Gregor testified she received a call from her son immediately after the boy’s death.
She claimed he was “hysterical, just hysterical’ and blamed the death on his ex, Breanna Micciolo.
“He’s screaming on the phone, ‘what did she do to him?’ Carol Gregor told the court. “And I’m like ‘what’s going on?’ I called my husband, I’m flipping out. I’m screaming. We got in the car and went to the hospital.”
“He tells me Corey passed,” Carol Gregor continued. “I was so worried. He was so adamant that something happened when [Corey] was with his mother. He kept saying ‘something happened to him,” according to video of the trial posted by Law and Crime network.
Corey had awoken earlier that day with slurred speech, nausea, and breathing problems. His father didn’t take him to the hospital until nearly 4 p.m. when doctors determined that the boy needed to be immediately intubated, but it was too late.
Corey was pronounced dead at 5:02 p.m. An autopsy ruled his death a homicide from suffering blunt force trauma to his chest and abdomen, lacerations and contusions to both his liver and heart, and other indications of chronic abuse.
Just over a week before Corey died, his father had forced him to run on a treadmill at a local gym. Video shows him turning up the speed until the boy was sent sprawling to the ground.
Gregor then picked his son back up and set him back on the machine until he fell again several more times.
Days later, Corey’s mother noticed the injuries and reported the incident to the New Jersey Division of Child Protection and Permanency. The boy was also taken to a hospital on April 1, the day before he died.
During the April 1 visit, Corey allegedly told doctors his father had forced him to run on the treadmill because he “was too fat.” He was released and sent home with his dad.
As Corey was dying, Gregor didn’t stick around at the hosptial. Also in court Thursday, a nurse testified he walked out of the hospital as they were scrambling to keep the boy alive.
“We were the only ones with him,” testified Lindsay Carnevale, a nurse at the Southern Ocean County Medical Center. “We were the only ones there.”
Gregor faces 30 years to life in prison if he is convicted of murder.
