A New Jersey father accused of killing his 6-year-old son claims that his estranged ex coached the child into fabricating stories about the purported abuse.
As CrimeOnline previously reported, a murder trial is underway at Ocean City’s Superior Court against Christopher Gregor, 31, accused of killing his son, Corey Micciolo.
Corey, who was just a few weeks shy of his seventh birthday, died in April 2021 from “blunt force injuries with cardiac and liver contusions with acute inflammation and sepsis,” according to an autopsy report.
On Thursday, jurors heard a call to the state Division of Child Protection and Permanency from Gregor, who identified himself when he called the hotline at 10:04 a.m. on April 2, 2021.
He informed a social services worker that Corey’s mother, Breanna Micciolo, had exceeded court-ordered visitation hours and returned the child late after claiming she took him to the hospital for an evaluation.
“My son came back this morning and he was saying that his mom said that he had to tell the doctor that I hit him,” Gregor told child abuse hotline staffer Richard Cicerone.
“He came home and one of the first two things he said was, ‘I don’t want to go with Mom anymore, she’s going to try to take me away from you. And he also said, ‘Mom told me to lie and I had to.’”
By 5 p.m. that evening, Corey was pronounced dead, following an incident at a gym in which the defendant was captured on security camera, relentlessly pushing the child to run on the machine at high speed.
Despite Corey falling numerous times, his father forced him to get up and keep running.
In September 2021, a forensic pathologist concluded that Corey’s death was a homicide, attributing it to enduring chronic abuse. This included blunt force injuries to his chest and abdomen, along with a laceration on his heart, a left pulmonary contusion, and liver lacerations and contusions.
Breanna Micciolo previously told CrimeOnline that although there were numerous warning signs of abuse, she felt the Department of Protection and Permanency didn’t do enough to help, despite her making child abuse reports.
Micciolo began taking photos of her son after she suspected something was wrong. She said she tried to get the judge to allow her full custody of her son in April, but it didn’t happen in time.
Gregor has pleaded not guilty. The trial continues.
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[Feature Photo: Corey Micciolo/Justice for Corey; Handout]
