Christopher Gregor, the US father accused of killing his 6-year-old son by forcing him to endure a gruelling treadmill workout, was seen carrying the boy’s limp body into a hospital shortly before he died.
Harrowing video played during Mr Gregor’s trial showed him carrying Corey Micciolo’s tiny, battered body as he approached the front desk at Southern Ocean Medical Centre, in Stafford, New Jersey, 130km east of Philadelphia, on April 2, 2021.
Corey barely moved as he slumped in his dad’s arms — and took “dire, almost end-of-life breaths,” according to court testimony from William Doyle, a registered nurse on duty at the time, reported the New York Post.
The boy “was not showing any signs that he was verbal,” his head tilting backward as he was brought into an examination room, Doyle said in court, according to the Asbury Park Press.
The injuries were so severe that Corey suffered a seizure during a CAT scan, forcing medical staff to take emergency measures in a doomed attempt to save his life. However, they were unsuccessful, and he was pronounced dead shortly before 5pm.
An initial autopsy found Corey died as a result of blunt force injuries with cardiac and liver contusions with acute inflammation and sepsis.
Two weeks earlier, surveillance video showed Mr Gregor, 31, putting his son through a sickening workout at the Atlantic Heights Clubhouse fitness centre — allegedly because he thought his son was too fat.
He put Corey on the treadmill and rapidly increased the speed and the incline until the boy flew off.
Mr Gregor is seen picking him up and putting him back on the belt, but the child falls another half-dozen times and continues desperately struggling to keep up until his dad eventually lowers the speed.
Testifying at the trial at Ocean County Superior Court, in Tom’s River, New Jersey, Corey’s mother, Breanna Micciolo — who was in a custody dispute with Mr Gregor — said she later noticed “odd-shaped” bruises on her son.
She said she took him to a pediatrician, who found no real cause for concern — although the boy revealed the nature of the alleged abuse to the doctor.
The day he died at the hospital, Corey had woken up from a nap nauseated, stumbling around Mr Gregor, of Barnegat, New Jersey, was arrested three months later and charged with child neglect, based in part on the video.
A forensic pathologist determined in September 2021 that the boy’s death was a homicide due to chronic child abuse, including blunt force injuries to his chest and abdomen and a laceration to his heart.
Mr Gregor was arrested on murder charges connected to Corey’s death on March 9, 2022.
The dad turned down a 30-year plea offer and now faces life in prison if convicted.
This article was published in the New York Post and is reproduced with permission.