'I feared for Corey's life,' Breanna Micciolo says during treadmill abuse trial

TOMS RIVER — After noticing bruises on her young son's body in late March 2021, Breanna Micciolo said she feared for his life and made an emergent application to a family court for sole custody of the boy.

On April 1, 2021, Micciolo said she learned that her application was denied.

Then, just after 5 p.m. the next day, 6-year-old Corey Micciolo was dead.

Now, the boy's father, Christopher Gregor, 31, of Barnegat, is on trial, charged with his son's murder and with endangering the welfare of a child.

The child was fine when his mother dropped him off at his father's apartment in Barnegat on the morning of April 2, 2021, Jamie Schron, an assistant Ocean County prosecutor told a jury in her opening statement Tuesday at Gregor's trial.

In fact, Breanna Micciolo had brought her son to a pediatrician and hospitals the previous day, and examinations revealed no problems except for some bruises, Schron said.

But by 4 p.m. on April 2, 2021, Corey's body had gone limp, and his father brought him to Southern Ocean County Medical Center in Stafford, where the child coded twice and died at 5:03 p.m. after life-saving measures proved unsuccessful, Schron said.

The assistant prosecutor said Corey died as a result of blunt-force trauma. He had contusions all over his body, and his heart and liver were lacerated, she said.

Micciolo took the witness stand and told the jury she noticed bruises on her child in late March of that year.

"He had a bruise on his forehead,'' she testified. "It was very odd-shaped. It looked like an impression. He had one on his chest. It looked like a scrape.''

Christine Lento, an assistant Ocean County prosecutor, asked Micciolo why she filed an emergent application for sole custody of her son.

"I was in fear for Corey's life,'' she responded.

Gregor's attorney, Mario Gallucci, told the jury that his medical experts and the state's disagree on what caused the child's death.

He said the defense experts will testify that Corey died as a result of sepsis caused by a bout of pneumonia.

Gallucci told the jury that  Breanna Micciolo signed her son out of Community Medical Center against medical advice when they told her he might have sepsis.

It was only when the child's mother brought Corey to the hospital to see a child-abuse specialist that he revealed an incident that occurred on March 20, 2021, in the gym of the Atlantic Heights apartment complex where he lived with his father.

Surveillance footage at the gym showed the child running on a treadmill in the gym as his father lifted weights. But it also showed Gregor eventually coming to the treadmill and continually increasing its speed, causing Corey to fall off of it face-first about six times.

The treadmill incident and playing football were the source of Corey's bruises, Gallucci said.

But, he insisted the treadmill incident did not cause the child's death.

"When you see that video, you're going to be horrified, you're going to be mortified,'' Gallucci told the jury. "Corey's death had absolutely nothing to do with that treadmill.''

Breanna Micciolo dabbed tears from her eyes on the witness stand when prosecutors played that video for the jury.

She said she had Corey when she was 17, and when the boy was four, a paternity test confirmed Gregor was his father. It was her mother's idea then to seek child support from Gregor, she testified.

Gallucci, however, said that when Gregor learned he was the boy's father, he and his family took the boy into their home to live with them. At one point, Breanna Micciolo lost visitation rights because of drug problems, he said.

Breanna Micciolo acknowledged her bout with drug addiction on the witness stand, but said her visitation rights were restored after she sought treatment to get sober.

Still, Gallucci brought out on cross-examination that Micciolo, on the same day her son died, texted her then-boyfriend, asking him to get her methamphetamine.

Micciolo said she never did do drugs that day.

"But you wanted to?'' Gallucci asked.

"Oh, yeah, I was very upset about my son being abused,'' she responded.

Micciolo also admitted under cross-examination that she and some friends vandalized the home of Gregor's parents after her son died.

Gallucci asked her if she and her friends threw eggs and dead goldfish at the house, Micciolo said she didn't think it was goldfish, but instead, fish purchased from a supermarket.

"So you were throwing rocks, dead fish, bones and eggs at Christopher's parents' house?'' Gallucci asked her.

She responded affirmatively.

Micciolo is expected to be back on the witness stand today.

The trial is before Superior Court Judge Guy P. Ryan.

Kathleen Hopkins, a reporter in New Jersey since 1985, covers crime, court cases, legal issues and just about every major murder trial to hit Monmouth and Ocean counties. Contact her at khopkins@app.com .

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: 'I feared for Corey's life,' Breanna Micciolo says during treadmill abuse trial