In the American state of New Jersey, the trial has started against a 31-year-old father who is being prosecuted for the death of his 6-year-old son. A few days earlier, he had forced his son onto a treadmill, after which the boy fell several times and died a few days later. . According to prosecutors, there is chronic abuse. The man faces a life sentence.
It’s not pretty, what happened in March 2021 in the Atlantic Heights fitness store in Barnegat. Surveillance footage shows Christopher Gregor (31) forcing his 6-year-old son Corey to walk on a treadmill and then increasing the speed. The boy falls six times, each time face first on the ground, and each time he has to continue. The images have caused horror at the trial against Gregor in New Jersey in recent days.
According to the public prosecutor, Gregor’s actions led to the boy’s death just under a week later. He is accused of chronic abuse resulting in death. He risks life in prison for this, after he turned down a plea deal with an offer of 30 years in prison.
Alimony
Gregor’s defense argued in court that Gregor did not know of Corey’s existence until his mother, Breanna Micciola, filed for alimony in 2017. At that time, the American combined his studies at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland with an additional income at Urban Teachers, a charity that offers education to which children have little or no access. “And then he suddenly discovered that someone was asking him for money for a child he had never seen and did not know was the father,” his lawyers said.
That mother, Breanna Micciolo, had gone to police the day of the treadmill incident. She did not trust the case because there had been suspicious moments before when her boyfriend had, according to her, handled their son roughly, even though he always had an explanation.
“Too thick”
When Corey died a few days later, according to the autopsy as a result of injuries caused by violence with a blunt object resulting in heart and liver contusions and acute inflammation and sepsis, attention was immediately drawn to Gregor. After the incident, Corey told the doctor that his father thought he was “too fat” and that was why he had to walk so much.
According to prosecutors and the mother, Corey’s death was the father’s fault and even constituted chronic abuse. Gregor’s lawyers contradict this. “The images you see on the treadmill are gruesome and inexcusable, but they have nothing to do with his death,” they said in court.
The trial continues on Monday.
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