Content warning: This article and the corresponding video mention graphic details of abuse and violence toward children. Some may find this content disturbing. Reader and viewer discretion is advised.
(NewsNation) — New Jersey father Christopher Gregor received a 25-year prison sentence Friday for the manslaughter and endangerment of his 6-year-old son, Corey Micciolo.
Judge Guy P. Ryan sentenced Gregor to 20 years for manslaughter and five years for child endangerment. Gregor must serve the sentences consecutively — meaning he must serve the endangerment sentence before the clock starts for his time on the manslaughter sentence — for a total of 25 years.
Prosecutors had asked for the maximum possible sentence of 40 years, but Gregor’s limited criminal history made him ineligible, Ryan said.
The ruling came after a four-week trial and nearly 3 1/2 years since Corey’s April 2021 death. A jury found Gregor guilty of child endangerment and manslaughter in May after hearing evidence that Gregor forced Corey to perform abusive treadmill workouts that led to the boy’s death.
Addressing the judge in court ahead of his sentencing Friday, Gregor said his actions were “inexcusable” but denied responsibility for his son’s death.
“I did nothing to cause Corey’s passing,” Gregor said. “I didn’t hurt my son. I loved him, and I still do. I regret not bringing him to the hospital sooner. I didn’t know how sick he was. I didn’t know. I just thought he was tired. “
Corey’s mother, Breanna Micciolo, rejected Gregor’s comments during her own statement, calling him a “monster” who made her life “an absolute living nightmare.”
“Are you that crazy that you convinced yourself you didn’t do this?” Micciolo asked through tears. “I hate you, and I will never forgive you.”
Gregor met Micciolo when she was 15 and he was 21, she said in court Friday. The two shared custody of Corey but weren’t together and lived separately at the time of his death.
Micciolo said she reported suspected abuse toward her son more than 100 times over 18 months but didn’t receive the help she and her family needed.
The boy’s grandma on his mother’s side said Corey “knew he was going to die.” The Sunday before his death, she undressed him for a bath and said he was “covered” in bruises in various states of healing.
Later, he asked, “Hey, (Grandma), does God see what my daddy does to me?”
“I told him God sees everything,” she said. “His voice got very low, and he said, ‘Why doesn’t he help me?’”
Corey then asked “why his daddy wasn’t going to hell.”
“I replied, ‘He will someday,'” the boy’s grandma said during Friday’s sentencing hearing.
That same day, Corey wrote “I died” in chalk near the front door of the home. Five days later, he was getting ready to go to Gregor’s house when his grandma told him to take her cellphone and hide it and use it when — not if — “his dad beats him.” The boy told his grandma he couldn’t use the phone or run to a neighbor’s house. He died that day.
“Corey knew nobody could help him,” she said. “He knew he was going to die, and he accepted it.”
Treadmill abuse
Gregor, 31, was initially charged with first-degree murder and endangerment of the welfare of a child stemming from surveillance video from the gym in his apartment complex that showed Gregor forcing his son to run at high speeds on a treadmill in March 2021.
The video shows Gregor continually increasing the treadmill’s speed, causing his son to fall off the exercise equipment about six times.
At one point, Gregor can be seen on video appearing to bite the child in the head out of frustration.
Corey Micciolo died a few days later due to blunt force trauma and lacerations to his heart and liver, according to autopsy reports.
The prosecutor alleged the child died from injuries sustained by the father’s abuse, and the jury agreed.
The jury convicted him of the lesser offense of aggravated manslaughter.
Mother speaks ahead of Christopher Gregor’s sentencing
On Thursday, Breanna Micciolo posted a photo of her son on Facebook, saying she misses him every day and that she finally completed her victim impact statement for Friday’s sentencing.
“Miss you every day, baby boy,” she wrote. “Finally finished my victim impact statement. It took forever because I rewrote it so many times. Nothing feels right and nothing feels enough. I just want to scream the whole time. But I know that this is important, and I want him to get the maximum sentence, so I need to do it the right way.”
Ahead of Friday’s sentencing, a group of Corey Micciolo supporters gathered outside the courthouse for a final vigil.
Gregor faced up to 30 years in prison for the aggravated manslaughter charge and a maximum of 10 years for the child endangerment charge.
According to New Jersey laws, Gregor will be required to serve at least 85% of his sentence before being considered for parole.
NewsNation’s Safia Samee Ali and Rich McHugh contributed to this report.