A New Jersey father accused of killing his 6-year-old son after forcing him to undergo bruising treadmill training has claimed that the boy died from pneumonia, not from abusive gym training. .
Christopher Greger, 31, faces murder charges in the 2021 death of young Corey Micciolo, who was captured on video during a training session with severe bruises and bruises that left him with fatal injuries. is under trial.
“If you saw that video, you would be horrified,” Gregor’s lawyer, Mario Gallucci, told jurors in his opening statement at the trial. Asbury Park Press reported.. “You will be disappointed.
“Corey’s death had nothing to do with that treadmill.”
Prosecutors disagree, arguing that the boy suffered internal injuries caused by his father’s chronic abuse, which ultimately led to his death two weeks after the bruising training.
Surveillance video shows Gregor putting his son through a nauseating workout at the Atlantic Heights Clubhouse Fitness Center on March 20, 2021, because he was gaining weight. It is said that this was because he thought it was too much.
He put Corey on the treadmill and increased the speed and incline until the boy flew off.
Gregor was seen picking the boy up and placing him back on his belt, but the boy fell again and continued to struggle to catch up until his father finally slowed down and gave the boy a break.
Cory’s mother, Brianna Micciolo, who was in a custody battle with Gregor and testified at the trial in Ocean County Superior Court, said she later noticed bruises on her son.
“He had a bruise on his forehead,” she told jurors, according to Park Press. “It was a very strange shape. It looked like an impression. He had one on his chest. It looked like a scrape.”
She said she took the boy to a pediatrician who found nothing to worry about, but the boy told the doctor that his father had put him on a treadmill because he was “too fat.”
On April 2, 2021, Corey woke up from a nap with slurred speech, nausea, and stumbling around. Her father rushed her to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
Three months later, Gregor was arrested on child neglect charges based on part of the video.
In September 2021, a forensic pathologist ruled the boy’s death a homicide due to chronic child abuse, which included blunt force injuries to the chest and abdomen and a laceration to the heart.
Gregor was arrested on suspicion of murder on March 9, 2022, and charged in Cory’s death.
Under cross-examination, Brianna Micciolo admitted that after Cory’s death, she and her friends destroyed Gregor’s family home and threw eggs and dead fish at it.
