The New Jersey man accused of beating his son to death one day after the boy's mother lost her bid for emergency custody is appealing his manslaughter conviction, his attorney says.
A jury convicted Christopher Gregor ofaggravated manslaughter andendangering the welfare of a child last week, while finding him not guilty of second-degree murder .Those convictions stem from two incidents involving Gregor and his 6-year-old son, Corey Micciolo.
Gregor's attorney, Mario Gallucci, said outside court last week thatGregor does not accept the outcome of the trial."Yes," Gallucci said when asked if Gregor will be appealing the verdict.
The jury convicted Gregor of endangering the welfare of a child after seeing seeing surveillance video from the gym inside his apartment complex taken on March 20, 2021 that showed him forcing Corey to run at full speed on a treadmill and then picking the boy up and forcing him back on the machine each time he fell. At one point in the video, Gregor even appears to bite his son on the head.
This incident prompted Corey's mother Bre Micciolo to petition the court for emergency custody of her son. A judge denied that bid on April 1, 2001, writingin his ruling that the court "does not find that ... Corey is in danger of imminent and irreparable harm. Therefore, the Court does not find a temporary modification of the parties' custody and parenting time arrangement appropriate at this time."
The following day, Bre dropped Corey off at Gregor's home. The jury convicted Gregor of aggravated manslaughter after Corey died just a few hours later.
Prosecutors do not know what happened to Corey and did not offer any suggestions during the trial of what could have transpired. The conviction of Gregor on that charge is due in large part to the fact that Bre took Corey to see both a doctor and a specialist on April 1 at the suggestion of the judge who denied her bid. The examinations and tests performed on Corey by doctors that day provided evidence that the boy's fatal injuries were not suffered until he was in his father's custody.
An autopsy determined that Corey's cause of death was blunt force injuries, including blunt force trauma with cardiac and liver contusions with acute inflammation and sepsis. A second autopsy done almost one year later found the manner of death to be homicide.
Gallucci previously spoke with Inside Edition Digital about what he says caused Corey's death.
"Corey Micciolo died from complications from Pneumonia. Our expert and even the Ocean County Medical Examiner agreed on this early diagnosis. While it is tragedy it is not a homicide," Gallucci said. "My client completely denies all the allegations and is looking forward to a trial in a courtroom and not a trial by social media, as the Micciolos have been so diligently attempting to do.”
Gregor is set to be sentenced on Aug. 2 and faces up to 30 years in prison on the manslaughter charge and 10 years in prison on the endangerment charge. That sentence will also be subject to the No Early Release Act, which requires those convicted of violent crimes in the state of New Jersey to serve 85% of their sentence before becoming eligible for parole.
Bre has also filed a wrongful death suit against the State of New Jersey, Department of Child Protection and Permanency (DCPP).
She says in her civil suit that her son Corey might still be alive had the agency and its case workers "adequately, properly, and fully [investigated the] reports of abuse" she made concerning her son and his father.
She accuses the agency of "negligent, reckless, and demonstrated palpably unreasonable conduct" in the suit, and is seeking both wrongful death and survivor damages, having filed the suit on behalf of Corey's estate.
Inside Edition Digital obtained a copy of the suit, which was filed in Ocean County Superior Court.
"This lawsuit will not bring my son back, but it will hold DCPP accountable for him losing his life to a monster," Micciolo tells Inside Edition Digital. "They had an obligation to protect my son, they didn’t do that. They are at fault for my son's death, as well as the person who physically murdered him."
Micciolo gave birth to Corey when she was 17 and Gregor was 22. She raised Corey on her own for the first five years of his short life, and then shared custody with Gregor after he petitioned the court for joint custody. That is when the abuse started, according to Micciolo.
"The more he got away with it, the worse the abuse got," Micciolo said. "And he was aware after the first time I reported it [in 2019]."
DCCP did not respond to multiple requests for comment.chri
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