Barnegat, NJ – On March 20, 2021, Christopher Gregor was captured on a surveillance camera forcing his son, Corey Micciollo to run on a treadmill as punishment for being “too fat”. The incident led up to the boy’s death nearly a week later. The camera inside Gregor’s apartment complex captured the horrifying abuse as Gregor forced his son to run at full speed on a treadmill, repeatedly picking him up, and forcing him back on the machine each time he fell. At one point, Gregor even bit the young boy’s head.
Now, 3 years later Christopher Gregor has been sentenced to spend the next 25 years behind bars for his role in the death of his six-year-old son.
According to the autopsy report, the cause of Micciollo’s death were “blunt force injuries, including blunt force trauma with cardiac and liver contusions with acute inflammation and sepsis.”
Gregor was captured on on security footage carrying an unresponsive Corey into the Southern Ocean Medical Center in Hackensack after Corey woke up on April 2nd, 2021 disoriented slurring his words, and experiencing nausea. Corey passed away shortly after Gregor dropped him off at the hospital and left.
After Corey’s mother, Bre Micciolo learned of the treadmill incident, she immediately petitioned for emergency custody of her son on April 1st but was denied by the Judge who deemed Corey to not be “in danger of imminent and irreparable harm.”
It was only the next day that Corey passed away after Micciollo was forced to drop Corey off at Gregor’s for the night.
The trial revealed a disturbing pattern of abuse, and the jury saw evidence that indicated Gregor had a history of mistreating his son. The court heard heart-wrenching testimony from Corey’s mother about the devastating impact of her son’s loss:
“Corey was and still is my life, my world and my everything. What this monster did was pathetic, disgusting, and I wish him nothing but the worst.”
On Friday, the jury found Gregor guilty of aggravated manslaughter and endangering the welfare of a child. Astoundingly, during his sentencing, Gregor claimed that he “didn’t hurt” his son.
He addressed the jury at one point: “I want to assure you that on April 2, I did nothing to cause Corey’s passing. I didn’t hurt my son. I loved him and I still do. I regret not bringing him to the hospital sooner. I didn’t know how sick he was. I didn’t know. I just thought he was tired.”
The judge sentenced Gregor to 20 years for aggravated manslaughter and an additional five years for child endangerment, to be served consecutively.
Brea Micciollo told the court she couldn’t imagine what her son went through “behind closed doors” with Gregor:
“Everything he had done to Corey was done out of spite to me. Another reason is he is sick in the head and used Corey as his punching bag. He never had an ounce of love for Corey, he was just an inconvenience to his life.”
Micciollo and Gregor had shared custody of Corey Micciollo at the time of his death.
Micciollo filed a wrongful death suit against the State of New Jersey, Department of Child Protection and Permanency stating that her son might still be alive if her sole custody petition hadn’t been denied.
Gregor’s attorney has already announced plans to appeal the verdict.
