Father allegedly abused his six-year-old son to death as he suffered fatal heart stress before a final beating fatally-damaged the organ and killed him.
Father allegedly abused his six-year-old son to death as he suffered fatal heart stress before a final beating fatally-damaged the organ and killed him.
On the fifth day Christopher Gregor’s murder trial, the father spent much of testimony glaring at forensic pathologist Dr Thomas Andrew, appearing emotional at times as he described the fatal injuries inflicted on his son Corey Micciolo, 6.
Court Heard
Andrew ruled that Corey, who died in April 2021, lost his life due to blunt force injuries to his chest and abdominals, lacerations and contusions on his liver, and a laceration to his heart.
Earlier in the trial, the court was shown shocking footage of Gregor forcing his son to run on a treadmill, and picking him up off the floor several times when he falls off the machine.
The footage was taken in a New Jersey gym less than two weeks before Corey died, where he was rushed to hospital dazed and unconscious hours after he was dropped at his father’s home by his mother.
Mother Testifies
Corey’s mother Breanna Micciolo – who also testified against Gregor last week – alleged that he had never even met his son until a year before his death, and Corey would routinely return home from his father’s home with fresh cuts and bruises.
Cause of Death
Prosecutors alleged that Gregor showed a pattern of abuse for months before Corey was killed, with the forensic pathologist ruling that his cause of death was blunt force injuries that were administered ‘by another person.’
Andrew, who did not perform the autopsy but was enlisted to give his verdict soon after the 2021 death, offered horrific new details of the manner of the six-year-old’s demise.
Beginning with a contusion below Corey’s diaphragm, he said the boy suffered two significant injuries to his liver, including a laceration to the liver tissue that caused blood to pool on his pelvis.
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Andrew testified that Corey’s body was also found to have a ‘pulmonary contusion’ to his lung causing internal bleeding, and several scalp contusions.
Notably, Corey also suffered a fatal laceration ‘near the tip’ of his heart, Andrew said, which was exacerbated by ‘chronic ongoing stress’ in his life.
‘The immediate cause of death was blunt force injuries on the day he died,’ the pathologist said. ‘But stress cardiomyopathy suggests there was ongoing physiological stress, most likely due to mistreatment or abuse.’
