The New Jersey father who forced his young son to endure tough exercises on a treadmill can be seen in new security camera footage carrying the boy’s limp body into a hospital, where he later died, the Asbury Park Press reports.
On Friday, the video was displayed in court as prosecutors made their case against 31-year-old Christopher Gregor, who is facing a charge of murder in connection with the death of his 6-year-old son, Corey Micciolo.
The footage shows Gregor bringing Corey’s body into the Southern Ocean Medical Center on April 2, 2021. A nurse testified that Corey’s breathing was shallow and that he was taking “dire, almost end-of-life breaths,” according to CourtTV.
As medical staff rushed to treat Corey, he suffered a seizure and was pronounced dead hours later just before 5 p.m. An autopsy determined that Corey had cardiac and liver contusions, sepsis, and inflammation. He died from blunt force injuries.
On the morning of his death, Corey had reportedly taken a nap but awoke feeling nauseated. He was slurring his speech and could not walk without stumbling.
Weeks earlier, cameras at a fitness center recorded Gregor forcing the boy to endure a grueling workout on a treadmill, with the child repeatedly falling off. The boy told a doctor that his father was making him work out “because he was too fat,” as CrimeOnline previously reported.
Investigators believe Gregor regularly abused Corey, which accounted for the injuries to the child uncovered during the autopsy.
Even though he is the boy’s father, Gregor met Corey for the first time in 2019, when Corey was 5 years old. The boy’s mother had repeatedly alerted child welfare authorities that she suspected Gregor was abusing Corey, but she said “no one listened or helped.”
The day before Corey died, a judge declined to grant the mother’s request for full custody, according to the Asbury Park Press.
Gregor faces life behind bars if convicted.
[Feature Photo: Corey Micciolo/Justice for Corey; Handout]