Video footage of a father accused of murdering his 6-year-old son shows him forcing the child to run on the treadmill for being "too fat," the New York Post reports.
Christopher Gregor, 31, is currently on trial and faces life in prison for the alleged murder of his son, Corey Micciolo, in 2021. Surveillance video of Gregor forcing Micciolo to run on the treadmill at excessive speed, which caused the boy to fall off multiple times, was shown in the Superior Court in Ocean City during the trial on Tuesday (April 30).
The incident took place at the Atlantic Heights Clubhouse fitness center on March 20, 2021. Gregor is seen increasing the treadmill's speed and raising the incline of the track in the surveillance footage shared by CourtTV.
Micciolo is then seen falling down and sliding off as he struggles to keep up with the moving track, at which point his father lifts him up and tosses him back on the treadmill, which caused the boy's legs to fold backward as his father seemed to clamp his teeth into the child's head. The 6-year-old attempts to get back on, but once again falls before his father decreases the speed and incline of the machine.
Corey's mother, Bre Micciolo, took the stand as a witness on Tuesday and was in tears watching the surveillance footage. The mother reported her son's injuries to the New Jersey Division of Child Protection and Permanency days prior to the child's death, the U.S. Sun reported.
Bre requested that Gregor take their son to a doctor, at which point Corey revealed that his father made him run on the treadmill "because he was too fat." The child was rushed to the hospital the following day after waking up from a nap and stumbling, slurring his speech and experiencing nausea and shortness of breath.
A CT scan showed that Micciolo suffered a seizure and unsuccessful live-saving measures were taken. An initial autopsy concluded that the child died from blunt force injuries with cardiac and liver contusions with acute inflammation and sepsis.
Gregor was arrested in July 2021 on child neglect charges after investigators obtained and reviewed the surveillance footage from the Atlantic Heights Clubhouse fitness center.
“Specifically by having (Corey) run on a treadmill and increasing the speed, causing (Corey) to fall, placing (him) back on the moving treadmill while appearing to bite his head, causing the said child to fall several more times,” an arrest warrant obtained by CourtTV states.
Corey's death was determined to be a homicide stemming from chronic abuse including blunt impact injuries to his chest and abdomen with a laceration on his heart, left pulmonary contusion and laceration and contusion of his liver by a forensic pathologist in September 2021. The child is suspected to have suffered an acute traumatic injury to the heart for a span of four to 12 hours prior to his death, Dr. Thomas Andrew said CourtTV.
Gregor, who is being held in the Ocean City Jail without bond, was charged in relation to his son's death on March 9, 2022 and has since declined a 30-year plea deal.