Warning: Graphic content, readers’ discretion advised. This story contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some readers discretion advised.
For the first 5 years of Corey Micciolo’s life, he was being raised solely by his mother, Breanna in Englishtown, New Jersey. He was a happy, loving kid who was really into art and our solar system. When he was 5 years old his father Christopher Gregor came into his life and gained partial custody of their child. From this point forward, Corey’s life became scary and unpredictable..
His father was in his life for less than 2 years, during that time Breanna would come forward and report Gregor’s behavior on dozens of occasions. Many of these reports would lead to a short investigation being done but ultimately nothing was ever done and Corey was murdered within 2 years of meeting his father..
This is the story of Corey Micciolo and the fight Breanna put up to save her son
New Jersey deadbeat dad’s final sickening act as strangers fought to save his six-year-old son who he ‘ran into the ground’ with torturous gym sessions before he died from ‘chronic abuse’
A New Jersey father accused of abusing his six-year old son to death allegedly abandoned the boy in the hospital room where strangers fought to save his life.
Christopher Gregor, 31, is standing trial over the murder of his son Corey Micciolo, 6, who was allegedly beaten and abused for months before he died via blunt force trauma on April 2, 2021.
Lindsey Carnevale, one of the nurses at the Southern Ocean County Medical Center who tried to save Corey, testified in court Tuesday.
She says that Gregor left the room at around 4:51pm on the day Corey died, never to return while the boy died at 5:02pm.
Carnevale said that Gregor showed absolutely no emotion upon bringing Corey to the hospital at 3:53pm
Sergeant Raymond Coles with the county prosecutor’s office testified that Gregor was seen walking out to his car and driving away by 5:20pm, according to hospital surveillance footage
Coles said that Breanna Micciolo called Gregor three separate times within minutes of their son being pronounced dead. Gregor never responded
A sergeant with a local police department then called the father himself twice minutes later. Again, Gregor ignored the calls, according to Coles.
Coles then testified that searches of Gregor’s phone revealed that at 6:10 pm, just an hour after his son died, Gregor searched: ‘Can your phone be traced in airplane mode?’ and ‘can my car be tracked?’
The next day, Gregor searched topics such as what would cause a rise in blood sugar in white blood cells and if internal bleeding could raise your blood sugar level, as well as wondering how gastrointestinal bleeding is caused and if such a bleed can be slow.
Further damning searches were found on Gregor’s phone on April 4, two days after Corey died.
Coles said that Gregor asked a search engine: ‘There was a murder determination from an autopsy – how long to file charges?’
The extraction from Gregor’s cellphone also revealed that he deleted approximately 3,466 text messages with Breanna Micciolo.
It also brought up texts Gregor messaged a woman named Marcie he’d met on a dating app on April 1 that Breanna had not returned Corey to him that night as he was supposed to.
Gregor texted Marcie again the day of Corey’s death saying he was at the hospital with the boy and would keep her posted.
Coles said that Gregor asked a search engine: ‘There was a murder determination from an autopsy – how long to file charges?
Coles testified that Gregor texted a woman he met on a dating app the day of Corey’s death saying he was at the hospital with the boy and would keep her posted
Both Carnevale and a state child services employee both testified that Gregor told them Corey’s mother, Breanna Micciolo, was a drug addict
Richard Cicerone, a state child protective services employee, also testified Tuesday.
He said that Gregor called the state’s child abuse hotline at 10:02am the day Corey died.
Gregor said Corey had come home that morning and said that the boy had been told by his mother to lie to doctors and claim that Gregor hit him.
The father repeated his claim that the boy’s mother is a drug addict and that her sister had just been released from jail for drugs. Furthermore, he claimed the boy’s maternal grandmother’s boyfriend has two felony convictions.
Gregor told Cicerone that the grandmother and her boyfriend had a consistent presence during Corey’s visitation with his mother despite having been ordered by a court not to be.
The father remains in Ocean County Jail. He faces 30 years to life if convicted of murder and 10 years if convicted of child endangerment.
In footage shared in his trial Friday, Gregor was seen carrying his son through Southern Ocean Medical Center, after the six-year-old reportedly woke up from a nap dazed, confused and nauseous.
Harrowing hospital footage captured the moment Christopher Gregor carried his son Corey Micciolo, 6, into hospital on the day he died in April 2021
Gregor is accused of battering his son causing his death, with separate footage shared at his trial showing him forcing his son to repeatedly run and fall from a speeding treadmill.
Gregor, 31, is facing murder charges over the 2021 death of his six-year-old son. Prosecutors claim he abused the boy to death and would routinely beat and humiliate him
In the footage from the hospital, Corey appeared unconscious as he was hurried to the front desk by his father.
According to court testimony from William Doyle, the nurse on duty at the time, Corey was taking ‘dire, almost end-of-life breaths,’ as he was admitted to hospital.
Doyle said Corey ‘was not showing any signs that he was verbal’, and slumped his head back when he was examined by doctors, reports the Asbury Park Press.
He described panic inside the hospital as medics tried to save the boy’s life, branding it an ‘all-hands-on-deck situation.’
A forensic pathologist later ruled that Corey’s death was a homicide caused by blunt force trauma, however Gregor’s attorneys argue his son actually died from pneumonia.
When a CT scan was administered to Corey, he also suffered a seizure. Frantic attempts to save his life were tragically unsuccessful, and he died hours later at around 5pm.
It comes amid revelations the New Jersey father only met Corey a year before he allegedly abused him to death.
Amid outrage over the treadmill footage, archived text messages from the boy’s mother allege to show him coldly brushing off his treatment of the child.
After she texted him about how he ‘hurt (Corey’s) feelings’, Gregor responded: ‘Maybe he needs to be a little tougher because that’s soft tissue.’
On their first meeting, Corey allegedly returned home to his mother with a ‘busted lip’, reports Jersey Shore Online.
Micciolo didn’t believe Gregor’s excuse that he accidentally kicked their son while playing soccer, but said a DCPP caseworker accepted it and didn’t investigate.
For over a year after that first meeting, she claims that Corey was routinely abused by Gregor, and reportedly suspected the father was using as treadmill as a punishment tool during their visitations.
During that time, his LinkedIn profile says he worked as a realtor and math teacher, with his past work experience also including volunteering at mental health hotline Crisis Text Line for six months in 2015.
Before his arrest, Gregor lived at a sprawling New Jersey estate valued at over $1 million, online records show.
In text messages Micciolo shared to the Facebook group around six months after Corey’s death, Gregor was seen coldly responding to being told he made his son cry.
‘Corey came upstairs upset and almost crying because he was trying to ask you about playing football in high school and you smacked the ball out of his hand and walked out,’ Micciolo texted him.
Corey Micciolo, died in 2021 after years of alleged abuse, with a forensic pathologist ruling he died due to blunt force trauma
Micciolo claims despite showing a trove of images and videos of her son’s injuries, her reports were routinely brushed off by child protective services
Corey would allegedly often return from his father’s home with new bruises and injuries
Micciolo claims that child protective services consistently brushed off her reports over her son’s alleged abuse. She and Gregor were locked in a bitter custody dispute at the time.
In sickening images posted to her Facebook group, the mother shared pictures of various bruises, scratches and scrapes across the boy’s body, including on his forehead and down his arms.
‘Corey had those CLEAR signs of abuse many many times all different incidents,’ she captioned the post. ‘Is it the policy that is wrong or is it just them not following it?’
The alleged abuse ended on April 2, 2021, hours after Macciolo dropped Corey off at his father’s home, when the child reportedly woke up from a nap with nausea and was dazed.
Gregor, a realtor, previously worked as a math teacher, staffer in a nursing home, and for a mental health hotline
Before his arrest, Gregor lived at a sprawling New Jersey estate valued at over $1 million, online records show
He died hours later in hospital, with a forensic pathologist ruling Corey’s cause of death to be blunt force trauma. Gregor’s attorney claimed he actually died from pneumonia.
One instance of alleged abuse was shown this week at Gregor’s trial, where surveillance footage showed the father appearing to force his son to sprint on a treadmill.
In the CCTV video, Corey is seen continuously falling off the treadmill, while Gregor keeps lifting him up and putting him back on it.
Gregor is seen at one point appearing to bite his son on the back of the head before forcing him to run again.
In opening statements, Gallucci admitted the jury were ‘going to be horrified’ when they saw the footage, but argued it did not contribute to Corey’s death.
‘You’re going to be mortified,’ he warned. ‘(But) Corey’s death had absolutely nothing to do with that treadmill.’
In emotional testimony this week, Micciolo said she immediately noticed bruises and scratches on her son after the trip to the gym, as she claims to have done after numerous other visits.
Days after the gym visit, the boy’s mother Breanna Micciolo, who shared custody of Corey with Gregor, saw her son’s injuries and reported them to a caseworker with the New Jersey Division of Child Protection and Permanency
In sickening CCTV video shown in Gregor’s ongoing trial, Corey was seen continuously falling off the treadmill, while Gregor keeps lifting him up and putting him back on the machine
She added that he also had other cuts on his body, including one on his chest that ‘looked like a scrape.’
A pediatrician examined the injuries, and although they said the mother should not be concerned, she testified that Corey told the doctor that he was forced to run on the treadmill ‘because he was too fat.’
Micciolo also reported the injuries to a caseworker with the New Jersey Division of Child Protection and Permanency, with Corey’s death coming just one day after courts rejected an emergency filing seeking custody of her son.
She previously warned authorities as far back as July 2020 that her son would return from his father’s home with black eyes, bruises, scrapes and even ‘bite marks.’
Gregor was arrested three months later on charges of child neglect, with his arrest warrant noting the gym surveillance video as a reason for the arrest.
‘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,’ the warrant read.
In September, a forensic pathologist ruled that Corey’s cause of death was homicide due to chronic child abuse, including blunt force injuries to his abdomen and chest, and a laceration to his heart.
It was also found that the boy suffered cardiac and liver contusions with inflammation and sepsis.
Although Gregor is reportedly claiming his son died due to pneumonia, it is unclear if any medical staff found this to be the case in hospital, where Corey also suffered a seizure during a CT scan.
On March 9, 2022, almost a year after his son’s death, Gregor’s charges were increased to murder.
August 14, 2024
Is 25 Years In Jail Enough For Death Of A Child?
Defense Attorney Mario Gallucci and Christopher Gregor at his sentencing on August 2, 2024. (Photo credit Tanya Breen/Asbury Park Press)
As Christopher Gregor was sentenced to 25 years for endangerment and aggravated manslaughter in the death of his son, people following the case were upset that he didn’t get the maximum.
The video of Gregor putting his son, Corey Micciolo, 6, on a treadmill and speeding it up so the boy fell off multiple times – and then biting the boy’s head – has become infamous and leant weight to the sentencing, the judge said.
However, the charge of endangering only received a sentence of 5 years out of a maximum of 10.
The treadmill incident, which took place on March 20, 2021, did not contribute to the death from blunt force impact to the chest and abdomen on April 2, 2021. The exact cause of these injuries might never be made public, but Gregor was sentenced to 20 years in prison for the aggravated manslaughter charge in relation to the boy’s death. The maximum is 30.
Gregor will have to serve 85 percent of the 20-year sentence before being eligible for parole. The 885 days he has served since his arrest would be subtracted. The 5-year sentence will take place immediately after the 20-year sentence.
Gregor, now 32, will have 5 years of supervised parole after all that.
“It was not as long as we wanted but at least he will not be able to start his life over,” Corey’s mother Breanna Micciolo told reporters outside the courtroom.
Corey Micciolo (Photo courtesy Micciolo Family)
Family Members Speak
The final part of the trial was a sentencing hearing, where Judge Guy Ryan listened to the parties involved.
Gregor stood up and read from a speech written on yellow legal paper. “I’m sorry that we lost Corey. He was simply the best. I know we’ll miss him for the rest of our lives,”
“Corey, wherever you are, I just want to say I’m proud of you,” he said.
Although he said the treadmill incident was “inexcusable,” he said that he did nothing to cause Corey’s passing. “I regret not bringing him to the hospital sooner. I didn’t know. I just thought he was tired.”
Gregor cried through his statement. Corey’s other family cried during most of the hearing.
After the sentencing, Breanna Micciolo said those tears were for himself, not for Corey. Gregor was crying because he was afraid of getting the maximum sentence.
Following Gregor’s statement, Supervising Assistant Prosecutor Christine Lento advocated for the maximum penalty by law – 10 years for endangering and 30 years for aggravated manslaughter.
She outlined Gregor’s actions and how they fit into legal definitions that would get to that maximum sentence. She painted a picture of Gregor’s rage, actions to cover his tracks, and history.
“He’s a person with no impulse control and he will commit more crimes,” she said.
Lento noted how Gregor tried to coach his mother’s testimony as a way to game the system.
“There is nothing I can say that is more important than the facts of the case,” Lento said. “Christopher Gregor abused his son. He ended his life, and he left him alone in the hospital to die. I can only imagine what was going through Corey’s mind.”
Lento described the fatal wound, a laceration to the heart, and also a bruised lung and lacerated liver. “While Corey’s body was shutting down, the defendant ordered food.”
Gregor didn’t tell Breanna where Corey was when he called her for her insurance information from the hospital. “Not only did he take Corey’s life, but he took the last moments with his family.”
As for past brushes with the law, Gregor had no indictable offenses but showed a pattern of not following the law, she said.
Vito Micciolo, Corey’s grandfather, read a letter from Corey’s Aunt Nicole who was too emotional to read it. He described how Corey came home from his first visit with his father with a fat lip that Gregor attributed to playing sports.
The family wanted to keep him from spending time with Gregor but the State Division of Child Protection and Permanency (DCP&P) required him to go.
Judge Guy P. Ryan (Photo by Stephanie Faughnan)
“Corey didn’t have a choice and wasn’t shown any mercy and Chris shouldn’t be given a choice or shown any mercy,” he read from the letter.
Corey’s grandmother, Rebecca Micciolo, also took the stand. She talked about how Corey should be preparing to go back to school. She wonders what he would look like today.
“This is not a man who should be shown mercy,” she told the judge. “I see that treadmill video in my nightmares. He didn’t shed a tear while watching that video.”
She also noted some legal issues Gregor had in the past.
“The system failed Corey. This man has never had to answer for any bad behavior,” she said.
She said that Corey knew that something bad was going to happen. He had written “I die” in chalk near the front door. He had asked her “Does God see what Daddy does to me?” When she answered that He sees everything, the boy responded “Why doesn’t He help me?”
Rebecca said she couldn’t see her grandson after his death because the body was considered evidence.
It was then Breanna’s turn to talk. She began when she began a romantic relationship with Gregor. She was 16 and he was 21.
“You’ve heard a lot about my past,” she said, referencing drug use that Gregor’s attorney described. “I admit I abused drugs. But I stand here today clean and sober.”
She suggested that Gregor hit Corey either because Gregor’s sick or because he was angry at her. She is haunted by the fact that she dropped him off to his father’s home and never saw him again.
She dreads normal smalltalk now. What if someone asks how many children she has? She has a daughter now, who is one and a half. When they go to visit Corey’s grave, the little girl plays with the toys that have been left there.
“He looked up to you,” Breanna said to Gregor. “And he so wanted you to be a role model.”
Corey died surrounded by medical professionals, which was cold, but at least Gregor’s face wasn’t the last one he saw, she said.
“All this monster could have done was say he did not want to be a father,” she said. “I truly believe if he ever gets out (of jail), he will kill me.”
David Gregor, Christopher Gregor’s father, was given an opportunity to speak as well. While Corey’s blood relatives spoke from the witness box, David Gregor spoke from the audience.
“It’s unfair to say he was afraid here,” David said about Corey’s time at his house in Monroe before Christopher moved to Barnegat.
He also said that there is information about the Micciolo family pertinent to the discussion that might never be brought to light.
Corey’s gravestone was updated thanks to the generosity of a southern Ocean County businesswoman. (Photo by Stephanie Faughnan)
The Judge’s Decision
Finally, it was Judge Guy Ryan’s time to review everything that was presented in order to determine how many years Gregor should spend in prison. He said he had read numerous letters praising Gregor’s character, and numerous victim impact letters.
He said that those praising Gregor talk about how he gave up his career in special education to come home to be a father, and the behavior on the treadmill was a way of teaching Corey “if you fall, you get back up.”
“That’s not what we saw,” Ryan countered. “That was abuse of the most egregious sort.” Corey was ejected like he was on a conveyer belt.
“I remember the jury sucking in their breath” when they saw that, Ryan said.
“A picture is worth a thousand words, but that video is worth 10,000 words,” he said.
That footage or another video of Breanna dropping Corey off to Gregor demonstrated no kindness between them. “(Corey) was treated by the defendant as if he was a stray dog.”
Ryan didn’t say that any abuse happened in the Gregor home in Monroe, but both sides have a right to closure, and they should stop attacking each other.
Several things were unable to be entered into his decision. He couldn’t take Gregor’s previous brushes with the law into account if they didn’t result in charges. One marijuana charge wouldn’t even be a crime today since it’s been legalized. He couldn’t consider hearsay. “I don’t have the luxury of expressing opinion.”
The fact that after Corey’s death, Gregor was located in Arkansas 45 minutes from Mexico shows his intent to flee. He tried to manipulate the trial through his mother’s testimony.
Sometimes, a defendant will serve two sentences at the same time. They are shown leniency.
Ryan instead ordered that Gregor will have to serve the 5-year term first and the 20-year one separately. This is following case law directed to making it so there are no free crimes.
When the years were spoken, there was audible disgust from members of the Micciolo family.
Breanna Micciolo talks to media after the sentencing. (Photo by Chris Lundy)
“They obviously failed my grandson, that’s for sure,” Vito Micciolo told JerseyShoreOnline.com outside the courtroom. “The whole system failed him.”
Micciolo said that throughout the trial, Judge Ryan had been meticulous to minimize any chance of appeal.
Indeed, Ryan had said that the maximum sentence is “legally unsustainable.”
“Christopher Gregor will spend the rest of his days here on earth knowing that he caused the death of his son Corey,” Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer said. “While nothing can bring this precious child back to his family, I hope that today’s sentence brings some sense of closure for those who knew and loved Corey. At long last, justice for Corey has been accomplished.”
Protection For Other Victims
“I don’t think we’ll ever get closure,” Breanna Micciolo, told JerseyShoreOnline.com after the sentencing. At the very least, she won’t have to see Gregor again.
However, she said her work is just beginning. She has been speaking to lawmakers about “Corey’s Law,” which would put children in a safe environment while child abuse is being investigated.
DCP&P needs a complete overhaul, she said.