A ‘deadbeat dad’ on trial for killing his son through relentless physical abuse called his parents to advise them on his testimony.
Christopher Gregor, 31, is accused of forcing his six-year-old son, Corey Micciolo, to exercise because he was “too fat” to the point of falling and hitting his head.
Prosecutors alleged this was a blatant example of a pattern of abuse that led to Corey’s death weeks later from blunt traumatic injuries.
His parents, David and Carol Gregor, took the stand last week to give testimony about the moments they learned of Corey’s death and the threats they received.
After testifying Friday, Gregor called his mother from the Ocean County Jail, where he is being held, and tried to tell her what to say.
Christopher Gregor, 31, is accused of forcing his six-year-old son, Corey Micciolo, to exercise because he was “too fat” to the point of falling and hitting his head.
After his mother testified last week (pictured), Gregor called her from the Ocean County Jail, where he is being held, on Friday and tried to tell her what to say.
The phone call was revealed in Superior Court in Ocean, New Jersey, on Wednesday and caused Gregor’s defense to abandon cross-examination of Carol.
Gregor’s mother was not receptive to his instructions and his father also called to tell him to leave, before hanging up.
‘This is the end of the call, it’s over, stop, stop, stop, stop,’ his mother said before ending the call, which the jail recorded, according to reports. Asbury Park Press.
Defense attorney Mario Gallucci urged Judge Guy Ryan not to dismiss testimony from Gregor’s parents during Wednesday’s trial.
“She did everything she could to stop him from talking, but he persisted. She hung up on her son because he kept insisting,” she told the court.
Christopher Gregor’s father, David Gregor, becomes emotional as he testifies during a hearing before Superior Court Judge Guy P. Ryan in Toms River on Thursday.
He was questioned about Wednesday’s call (pictured) in an argument over whether his testimony should be admissible.
Both parents were expected to testify for the defense on Wednesday, but Gallucci decided not to call them after Ryan ruled that prosecutors could question them about the call.
The judge ruled that the call would be admissible to demonstrate “consciousness of guilt” on Gregor’s part and examine whether it influenced his testimony.
During her testimony, Carol broke down while describing a phone call she received from Gregor at the hospital where her grandson had died.
“Chris is hysterical,” she said, adding that he was furiously shouting “what did he do to her?” about the boy’s mother, Breanna Micciolo.
Gregor’s mother then choked back tears as she described the exact moment Gregor told her that “Corey passed away.”
“Then I call my husband, I’m crazy at home,” she said, adding that she was screaming hysterically after receiving the devastating news of her grandson’s death.
Gregor, 31, is accused of forcing his six-year-old son, Corey Micciolo, to run on a treadmill because he was “too fat.” The child died shortly after from injuries sustained from the alleged abuse.
Gregor is seen breaking down in tears from where he was sitting in court. He wiped his tears with a handkerchief as he cried.
As Carol recounted her shocked reaction to Corey’s death from the stand, Gregor burst into tears from where he sat in court. He wiped his tears with a handkerchief as he cried.
“I was very worried,” she said. “He was so adamant that something happened when he (Corey) was with his mother.”
Carol then revealed how her youngest son, Danny, received threatening phone calls on her home phone while she and her husband were driving to the hospital following the “devastating” news.
Later in the trial, the prosecution shot Gregor’s mother for not remembering the time of day when asked. She replied, “I wasn’t looking at the clock.” She was hysterical because my grandson had just passed away; he wasn’t timing things.’
On the fifth day of Christopher Gregor’s murder trial, the New Jersey father spent much of the testimony staring at forensic pathologist Dr. Thomas Andrew, appearing emotional at times as he described the fatal injuries inflicted on his son Corey.
Andrew said Corey, who died in April 2021, lost his life due to blunt force injuries to the chest and abdominals, lacerations and bruises to the liver and a laceration to the heart.
The pathologist ruled that Corey had signs of “stress cardiomyopathy,” a heart condition caused by ongoing stress that, he testified, “suggests there was ongoing physiological stress likely due to mistreatment or abuse.”
Christopher Gregor, 31, faces murder charges in the death of his son and seemed emotional as the jury heard heartbreaking testimony about the extent of his injuries.
Corey Micciolo, 6, died in 2021 after a year of alleged abuse, and a forensic pathologist ruled that he died due to blunt force trauma.
In sickening CCTV footage shown at Gregor’s ongoing trial, Corey is seen continually falling off the treadmill, as Gregor continues to pick him up and put him back on the machine.
Early in the trial, the court was shown shocking footage of Gregor forcing his son to run on a treadmill and lifting him off the ground several times as he fell off the machine.
The images were taken at a New Jersey gym less than two weeks before Corey died, where he was rushed to the hospital dazed and unconscious hours after his mother dropped him off at his father’s house.
Corey’s mother, Breanna Micciolo, who also testified against Gregor last week, alleged that he had not even met her son until a year before his death, and that Corey routinely returned home from his father’s house with new cuts and bruises.
Prosecutors alleged that Gregor showed a pattern of abuse for months before Corey was killed, and the forensic pathologist ruled that the cause of his death was blunt force injuries that were administered “by another person.”
Andrew, who did not perform the autopsy but was brought in to give his verdict shortly after the 2021 death, offered horrifying new details about how the six-year-old boy died.
Micciolo was the first to take the stand as a witness in court last Tuesday. He sobbed and wiped his eyes as he watched the disturbing treadmill video.
Corey’s mother shared sickening images on social media of the abuse she claims was inflicted by the father, including black eyes and bruises all over his body.
Corey allegedly often returned from his father’s house with new bruises and wounds.
Starting with a contusion under Corey’s diaphragm, he said the boy suffered two major injuries to his liver, including a laceration to liver tissue that caused blood to pool in his pelvis.
Andrew testified that Corey’s body was also found to have a “pulmonary contusion” to his lung causing internal bleeding and several bruises to his scalp.
Notably, Corey also suffered a fatal laceration “near the tip” of his heart, Andrew said, which was exacerbated by the “ongoing chronic stress” in his life.
“The immediate cause of death was blunt force injuries on the day of his death,” the pathologist said. “But stress cardiomyopathy suggests that there was ongoing physiological stress, probably due to mistreatment or abuse.”