NJ dad charged with killing 6-year-old son after abusive treadmill workout blames death on pneumonia
A New Jersey dad accused of killing his 6-year-old son by forcing him into a bruising treadmill workout claims it was pneumonia, not the abusive gym session, that killed him.
Christopher Gregor, 31, is on trial for murder in the 2021 death of little Corey Micciolo following a caught-on-video workout that left the youngster badly battered and bruised — and fatally injured.
“When you see that video, you’re going to be horrified,” Gregor’s lawyer, Mario Gallucci, told jurors during opening statements at the trial, the Asbury Park Press reported. “You’re going to be mortified.
“Corey’s death had absolutely nothing to do with that treadmill.”
Prosecutors disagree — they say it was his dad’s chronic abuse that left the youngster with internal injuries that ultimately cost him his life two weeks after the bruising workout.
Surveillance video shows Gregor putting his son through a sickening workout at the Atlantic Heights Clubhouse fitness center on March 20, 2021 — allegedly because he thought his son was too fat.
He put Corey on the treadmill and increased the speed and the incline until the boy flew off.
Gregor is seen picking him up and putting him back on the belt, but the child falls again and continues to struggle to keep up until his dad eventually lowers the speed and gives the boy a break.
Testifying at the trial in Superior Court in Ocean County, Corey’s mother, Breanna Micciolo — who was in a custody dispute with Gregor — said she later noticed bruises on her son.
“He had a bruise on his forehead,” she told the jury, according to the Asbury Park Press. “It was very odd-shaped. It looked like an impression. He had one on his chest. It looked like a scrape.”
She said she took him to a pediatrician, who found no real cause for concern — although the boy revealed to the doctor that his dad made him run on the treadmill “because he was too fat.”
On April 2, 2021, Corey woke up from a nap slurring his words and stumbling around with nausea — and his dad rushed him to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Gregor was arrested three months later on child neglect charges based in part on the video.
In September 2021, a forensic pathologist determined that the boy’s death was a homicide due to chronic child abuse, including blunt force injuries to his chest and abdomen and a laceration to his heart.
Gregor was arrested on murder charges on March 9, 2022, and charged in Corey’s death.
Under cross-examination, Breanna Micciolo admitted that she and some friends vandalized Gregor’s parents’ home after Corey’s death, pelting the house with eggs and dead fish.
