Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - 9 Shocking Moments in Christopher Gregor's Child Murder Trial: 'Not One Scintilla!'

Episode Date: May 10, 2024

Christopher Gregor, 31, is on trial for the murder of his 6-year-old son, Corey Micciolo, on April 2, 2021. Gregor's defense has argued that he is innocent and has cast blame on Corey's mother for his death. During the second week of Gregor's trial, a nurse who cared for Corey in the hospital testified along with an Ocean County sheriff's detective, a child abuse hotline screener and a forensic pathologist. Gregor's parents also testified in a hearing where the jury wasn't present. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy goes through the biggest moments in the testimony from the week in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.Host:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5CRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoAudio Editing - Brad MaybeGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@LawandCrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this law and crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. There's no, zero, not one scintilla of evidence of sepsis or any other infectious process in Corey's autopsy. The second week of testimony in Christopher Greger's murder trial ends with a bang, a forensic pathologist ruling out a defense claim that Corey Michelo died from sepsis. What were your immediate observations of Corey's condition in room six at the emergency room? Corey was very lethargic, pale. He was very sick.

I'm laying out what happened in week two of Christopher Greger's trial. Thanks for joining me for Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. Corey Michelo was an adorable six-year-old boy. He died on April 2nd of 2021 after his father, Christopher Greger, showed up at the emergency room at Southern Orange County Medical Center. Surveillance video showed Christopher Greger carrying Corey into the ER. Lindsay Carnival was one of the nurses on duty that day, and she was assigned to take care of Corey. Who brought Corey into the emergency room that day? His father. When Corey was admitted into the emergency room, what room was he taken to?

In room six. What nurse brought Corey to room six? Bill Doyle. Were you Corey's assigned nurse on April 2nd, 2021? I was. Where did you first observe Corey in the emergency room? In room six. Was Corey's father inside room 6 when you first saw Corey? Yes. Did you speak to Corey's father? Yes. Did you learn his name? Yes.

What was Corey's father's name? Chris Grager. What were your immediate observations of Corey's condition in room 6 at the emergency room? Corey was very lethargic, pale. He was very sick. Were vital signs taken? Temperature was 96.9, I believe. And what about blood? Was that drawn?

Yes. Cory's body temperature was lower than you would expect, at 96.9 degrees. Carnival answered questions about Chris Greger's demeanor that day and the condition of Cory's body. What was Greger's demeanor that day and the condition of Corey's body. What was the defendant's demeanor? He was shown lack of emotion, kind of emotionless.

While you were in room six, who else was present in the room? Dr. Prachati and other nursing staff. And what about Nurse Doyle? Yes. And did he stay in the whole room or did he leave? He left. And when you observed Corey in room 6, did you see any bruising on his body? Yes, we did.

Can you tell the jurors what bruising you observed? I observed a bruise on his chest, a bruise under his chin, and one on his temple, his left side temple. While you were in room six, did medical staff speak to the defendant about a case history relating to Corey? Yes, we did. And what did the defendant say about the bruising? He said the bruising was from Corey playing football and riding his bicycle. What did the defendant say about Corey's mother? That she was a drug addict. What did the defendant say about contacting Corey's mother at that time? He said that he did not want her contacted.

And what did the defendant say about Corey being at Jersey Shore Medical Center? That his mom had had him there the night before. What did the defendant say about Corey's symptoms before he was brought into the emergency room? That he had been vomiting and he was complaining of light and body pain. Now, the jury had heard from Corey's mother, Brianna Michelo, earlier in the trial. In treating Corey, Lindsay Carnival described what she did and how Corey responded to the treatment. What was Corey's condition? Corey was very sick. He mumbled a couple words to me. He seized. Can you tell the jurors what happened regarding Corey's treatment at the emergency room and his condition?

Corey seized and then his heart stopped. He had stopped breathing. So we initiated CPR. Dr. Prachati intubated him where he put a tube in his trachea and into his lungs and ventilation was provided along with CPR. After that, Carnaval said they attempted to take Corey for a CAT scan, but they lost his pulse. She described taking him back to the emergency room. Corey was not breathing, his heart was not beating. He was basically dead at that point. Did the defendant then re-enter the room at Soch? No. At approximately 4.51, did the defendant re-enter the room at Soch? He did at that point, yes.

And were you present at that point inside of room 6 with Corey? Yes, I was. And what was Corey's condition at that time? His heart was not beating and he was not breathing. Did the defendant exit room 6? He did. And did the defendant then ever come back to room 6 again? No, he did not.

And who stayed with Corey? We did. We were the only ones with him. What time was Corey pronounced? 5.03 p.m. And were you present in the room? I was. So you heard Lindsey Carnaval say that Chris Greger was not in the room when Corey died. He left the room. Only medical personnel were with him. The prosecutor played a clip of surveillance footage that showed a nurse and Chris Greger leaving room six where Corey was being treated. Another video clip showed Greger being led to a chair, looking upset and distraught, and then going back into the room. Greger eventually leaves the room and you can tell he's very upset. He leans over a chair looking distraught. Carnival said Gregor never went back into the

room where Corey was being treated as nurses and doctors tried to save his life to no avail. The defense maintains that Corey died of sepsis. That's an infection in the blood. On cross-examination, Gregor's attorney questioned Carnival specifically about Corey's oxygen level when he arrived at the hospital. Yes, the initial one says 85%. What's normal? What's normal? 92 to 100.

So he's seven, what is it? Seven percentage points lower than what's normal, right? Correct. Okay, so that's consistent with the child being short of breath, right? Not necessarily. Could have not been on his finger correctly or not recording correctly, which happens often. Okay, well, you're the nurse, right? Did you check to see if that was going on? We were more worried about him and keeping him alive, and he was very lethargic. Well, lethargic.

Mm-hmm. And loopy, would that be a condition of a low oxygen level? Yeah, hypoxic. Okay. So if he was hypoxic, that would be a concern of yours. Am I right? Of course. He's loopy and tired and has shortness of breath

and you see there's a low oxygen level. Is that an indication that you put the thing on wrong? Or the thing is telling you, whatever you call it, is telling you that the oxygen is low. He wasn't short of breath. He wasn't struggling to breathe. It was lethargic. Okay. Lethargic. And that's a sign of low oxygen. It could be. Okay. So you're getting a low oxygen level, aren't you?

Shallow breathing can be a sign of sepsis in children, so the defense is really trying to make a point here. The defense also questioned Carnival about Gregor leaving the room. So you're saying that he was escorted out of the room because he wanted to get escorted out of the room? I can't answer that. I don't know. I was paying attention to Corey. Okay. So if you're paying attention to Corey, how would you know he was under emotional? Because I saw him the second time he came in. Okay. So you're looking at him, not paying attention

to Corey, or you're not looking at him and paying attention to Corey? Both. You're doing both. Okay. So you're saying that he was escorted out of the room. You don't know if he was escorted out of the room because he wanted to leave the room or because he was escorted out of the room because you were performing life-saving techniques? I don't know why he was escorted. But was he brought to a waiting room? I'm assuming yes.

Is there a waiting room in Southern Ocean Medical Center? There's multiple. Okay. Is there a waiting room outside the pediatric unit or wherever we were where room 6 was? He went to the family waiting room. Okay. So if this is the bed that Corey's in, where are you? Right next to the bed. Okay. So, you're here.

Where's the doorway? That way. How far? A couple feet. By their desk or closer to their desk? Closer to their desk. Okay. Is that right?

I guess, yeah. I wasn't there. Yes. Okay. So you're saying you're standing here, and you don't see them bring a chair. You don't see him crying. You don't see any of that. I didn't see them bring a chair, no.

Okay. Did you see it just now? I did. Okay. Did you see them just now? I did. Okay. Did you see them have to bring screens to give him privacy? We do that with every... Did you do it in this one? I don't care about everybody else. Was it done? It's common practice, yes.

Okay. But it was done, right? Yes. Okay. Was he having a breakdown? Uh... You don't know? But did you just watch the video? I did. I saw the video. Okay. When you saw the video, did you see him cry? I saw him cry. Did you see him show emotion? Yeah. Did you see him upset? I guess. The prosecution followed up on that line of

questioning. Obviously, the defense is saying that Nurse Carnival couldn't see Christopher Greger becoming emotional. Where was the defendant located when he was emotionless? In the room, most in the room. Now, when the defendant left the room, was Corey deceased at that time? No, we were still providing life saving care. There was no pronoun. Yeah. I think the prosecution's point here is that most parents wouldn't have left the room. They would have stayed in the room with their child.

That's where I think they're going with all of this. Richard Cicero was the next witness for the prosecution. He was a call screener for a child abuse hotline. And he said that he took a call from Chris Greger the morning of April 2nd. That's the same day that Corey died. Here's part of that call that was played for the jury. E-R-E-A-N-M-A, same last name. Same last name as Corey? Correct.

Okay, and where does she live at? High in London, Georgia. Okay, all right. And what were the concerns today for the child? So, essentially, his mother has put in an alert application after filing. For custody, sir? Yeah, for the more. My son came back this morning, and he was saying to me that his mom said that he had to tell the doctor that I had hit him and since the dad was here and coaching him.

I tried to call the police worker, but of course he's not answering. She said that the police worker told her to take regard to the institution and to go to the hospital. So, which I imagine is not the case. Because we had all two seven days to do so, that didn't have to be done the same day So in the call, Chris Greger said that Corey told him that his mom, Brianna Michelo, who testified earlier in the trial, was telling him to say that his dad hit him.

Greger told Cicero that Corey's visitation with his mom was unsupervised, and he was concerned that she was coaching Corey. Brianna Michelo has been vocal that she made complaints believing that Gregor had been abusing Corey and she felt like her complaints were ignored. Honestly, he presented information that was concerning for him relating to, you know, we all heard the call, relating to concerns that mom was coaching the child. He seemed concerned about that. Okay. He wasn't aggressive, right? He was not aggressive. He seemed like a concerned father.

Correct. Nothing further, Judge. Thank you. Can you read the record? Did the defendant say on that phone call that he made at 10.02 that Corey was injured? No, he did not say anything about it. Did he say in that phone call that he made at 10.02 on April 2nd that Corey was sick? No. Thank you. Nothing further, Your Honor.

Anything else? No, Judge. Sheriff, thanks so much for coming in. Sadly, we all know what happened hours later. Corey died at the hospital. A detective from the Ocean County Sheriff's Office testified about searching Chris Greger's vehicle in Tennessee on April 6th. That was four days after Corey died. He said that he found two cell phones in the car and one was a prepaid phone. Did you find any blood evidence in the car? No, sir. Okay. Did you find any children's clothing in the car?

Any children's clothing? I don't call. I have to review my inventory. Do you have that? I don't have a copy of my report, sir. Did you receive anything when you processed the car of evidentiary value? Yes. What would you receive? from the car We collected the electronic devices. There was a bottle of GNC niacin pills from the passenger rear door compartment and there was a track and field pole and a baseball bat Okay, and you took all those and processed them and then you sent them to the lab Yes, sir. Okay. Do you know if the lab processed them and then you sent them to the lab? Yes, sir.

Okay. Do you know if the lab processed those items? No, sir. No further questions. A computer forensics examiner then testified about searches from Chris Greger's phone that were ultimately deleted. The last test involved a deleted search history that was identified within the Safari web browser. The initial terms that were identified within the Safari web browser. The initial terms that were identified as deleted were Neptune, not emergency police, Jersey Shore Medical Center, lost consciousness, sleepy, and nauseous.

So what we wanted to do is go in and verify that these records were deleted and to identify when they were deleted. So in this case, I saw inside the physical analyzer software, if an entry is identified as or detected as it might be deleted, there'll be a little X in a column which represents deleted artifacts. I opened up the database and found the raw search still saved in there. So while it's no longer logically available in the database tables, that spreadsheet I was talking about before, the raw text was still available in the database. And most importantly to do is when you have

a deleted artifact is to verify and validate the times being reported are accurate. So I can see that the search for Jersey Shore Medical Center was conducted on April 1st, 2021 at 2049.05 p.m. I repeated that process for the other searches, such as the Neptune non-emergency police. So I could tell that search was conducted on April 1st, 2021 at 20.43.36 p.m. And I repeated the same process for lost consciousness, sleep, and nauseous,

and could tell that that search was conducted on April 2nd at 3.08.37 p.m. While these searches were deleted, I don't really have an accurate way to tell you when these were deleted. The defense countered that testimony on cross-examination. And you're not able to say it was done manually or automatically? It depends on when it was deleted. So, again, if the system states message to retain forever and they're missing, it would be indicative that it was deleted manually. If it goes back for 30 days and records in those 30 days are missing, again, it would be indicative that it was deleted manually.

But here you can't say when. For this, I mean, I can give you an approximation, And records in those 30 days are missing. Again, it would be indicative that it was deleted manually. But here you can't say when? For this, I mean, I can give you an approximation, but the exact date and time, no. The jury also heard about Corey's autopsy. Dr. Thomas Andrew, a forensic pathologist, testified about Corey's cause and manner of death. Corey Michelot died of blunt impact injury of the chest and abdomen with laceration of the heart, contusion of the left lung, and laceration and contusion of the liver. It's a traumatic cause. The manner of death is homicide. It was at the hands of another person. He didn't do it himself and it didn't happen accidentally. So Dr. Andrew's opinion is that Corey died as the result of blunt

force trauma caused by another person. The prosecution, of course, says that person was Chris Greger. The defense questioned Dr. Andrew about his findings. Now, you also said that initially you put your opinion that it occurred between 4 and 12 hours, right? Yes. And then you changed your opinion based upon certain things that you were given afterwards, right? Incorrect. Okay. I did not change my opinion. My opinion was amended or modified on the basis of new information. The basic opinion was still the same.

The time frame was narrowed because of additional evidence that suggested that he couldn't have possibly have sustained those injuries prior to 9 o'clock. So now when you met with Detective Mitchell and you met with Ms. Lento, did they discuss with you that if you put it between the 4 and 12-hour period, that he would have actually been in the care of his mother for some of that time? Well, I knew that he did not get dropped off for custodial care to his father until 9 o'clock. So whether or not they mentioned it, I knew that that was the case. So now you're stating that you saw a 33-second video

of a child speaking to his mother. By the way, is that diagnostic or not diagnostic? It certainly aids in the diagnosis. It is not diagnostic in and of itself. However, a child is not going to respond in that fashion if he has already, he or she, has already sustained those ultimately lethal injuries. Dr. Andrews was steadfast that Corey's death was not the result of sepsis. Did you make any findings regarding sepsis or infection? Once again, that issue came up on the initial examination. And based not only on the autopsy findings, but my review of the medical records, there is no, zero, not one scintilla of evidence of sepsis or any other infectious process in Corey's autopsy.

Now remember earlier, I told you about how Chris Greger took off for Tennessee after Corey died. The prosecution says that shows consciousness of guilt. The judge agreed that that evidence could be considered by the jury. Therefore, I conclude that evidence of flight has been properly presented to the jury and the jury has been properly instructed on the limited and specific purposes for which it can consider this evidence. Chris Greger's attorney wanted to counter that, arguing that Chris Greger fled because of threats and harassment the family started receiving almost immediately after Corey died. Greger's parents, David and Carolyn, testified during a hearing where the jury wasn't present to determine whether the jury could hear

their testimony about the threats and how that may have prompted Chris to take off. Some of the testimony was very emotional. David Greger, who's retired from the New Jersey State Police, testified about meeting Corey for the very first time. Did there come a time when now Corey Mitchell became part of the Gregor family? There did. And do you recall when that was? Corey's first visit was in the beginning of August of 2019. It was just a visit for a couple hours.

I remember it because Christopher went to pick him up. It was a big day for us. It was my only grandson. He came for a couple-hour visit, and the preparation of everything at the house was about Corey. I remember going through all, I had four children. They all played sports, so I was going through all the old equipment now that the children were older and pulling out all kinds of balls and baseballs and footballs. So you met him at that time.

You testified that he was your only grandchild at that time? Yes. As you heard, Corey was David Greger's only grandson. Chris Greger's lawyer asked David Greger if he'd ever watched the treadmill video. So now, between from the moment you met Corey until the moment Christopher moved to Barmahit, did you ever see Christopher mistreat, abuse, or hit Corey? Never. Have you watched the treadmill video?

No. Okay. Why not? Because I don't want to see. I don't want that to be my remembrance of Corey, that he was mistreated in that single instance on the treadmill. Gregor testified that after Corey died, his family received threats almost immediately. I was aware people were sharing with me what was out there in terms of information being put out. Well, did you see any of the information? I did.

What did you see? You physically see? I saw numerous wanted posters, wanted for murder posters of my son. So when you say a wanted forfor-murder poster, what was the poster of? It was a poster of Chris with wanted-for-murder. Okay. Was it a picture of him? It was. And can you describe for us what that picture looked like?

The picture had a... The one that I saw had a jail bar superimposed in front of his face. And where were these pictures located? They were located on social media. Were they located anywhere in your neighborhood? There came a time where there were various postings put up in our neighborhood, on our neighbor's vehicles and on the street lamps and poles surrounding my house.

Now, prior to that, when you spoke to Danny, that's when these events were beginning to happen. That was the beginning. Okay. And did you convey that to Chris? I did. Okay. And, by the way, do you know where Chris was at that moment? I don't know exactly where he was. Okay.

Did you tell him to come home? I did. Okay. I started with, don't leave. Okay. Because he was at the hospital at the time during a couple of the conversations. And I said, I'm getting there as fast as I can. I don't go.

Chris's mother, Carolyn, offered similar testimony. She described what Chris told her and the threats the family started receiving after that. If you remember, did he tell you why he was taking Corey to the hospital? Because he was lethargic. He did see something's wrong with him. Something's wrong. Has has to take him. I took him to the hospital. My husband was at the dentist at the time. I called him to let him know something was going on. I get another phone call from Chris that something's really wrong with him. What time was that? I don't know. I don't know.

You were still home in Monroe? I was home. I was home. In Monroe? In Monroe. And the next phone call I receive, Chris is hysterical. Hysterical.

What did she do to him? What did she... He's screaming on the phone. And I'm like, you know, what's screaming on the phone and i'm like what you know what's going on and he tells me cory passed so i called my husband i'm flipping out at the house and my son danny's home my youngest and i'm screaming he upstairs. What's going on? Thank God my husband came home very quickly after that. We got in the car and went down there. Greger continued discussing the calls she received on the way to the hospital. Chris is, I was so worried because he just was so adamant that something happened when he was with his mother.

Something happened to him. So I said, Chris, don't go there. Don't go to their house. Don't, don't, just please wait for us. So we left. As we're driving, my son calls me. Which son? Daniel, my youngest. He was home by himself. I don't know how long after this was. He calls me. He's getting phone calls at the house,

on our house phone. Threats. People are, your brother's a murderer. You know, this was like, it was ridiculous how quickly. So, when you talk about how quickly, I'm trying to develop a time frame. Yeah. Were you and Mr. Greger in the vehicle

that you were driving to Southern Ocean Methodist when you see that horse? Yeah, I believe so. You know, it's like the whole thing was such a... such a...

We were devastated. We're crying in the car. We're calling the police in the car because no one was there. There was no police. Nobody. So we're calling the police. We're trying to find out what's going on.

At some point, we get to the hospital. Were you questioned for that? No. Okay. No. And Danny calls us again. That's not... Rebecca was at the house. And she was making threats. I just said, you know, go in the house.

Just lock the doors, go in the house, just stay in the house. The judge then questioned Carolyn Greger about the threats and what they said Brianna Michelo had done. Ma'am, I have a couple of things to ask you to clarify. Dany's calling you while you and your husband are on the way to Southern Ocean County, right? Yes. And then Danny later calls you again that same night to tell you that Rebecca

Mitchell showed up at the house. Yes. And you're saying that she's making threats. Yes. Except what you're really saying is she's saying Chris was going to be charged with murder. And she was saying things along the line, and I'm paraphrasing, that you people are going to watch it and just crazy stuff, saying crazy stuff like that.

And was the threat to burn down your house? No. Was it to assault you? No. Assault your husband? Not directly, no. And the wanted posters are that he's wanted for murder? Yes. The judge determined the only information about the threats that the jury could hear

would be threats that Chris might be arrested and charged with murder. The state just has one last witness, but that witness will be called out of order on May 22nd and then rest. The defense will start calling witnesses next week. And the final defense witness will be renowned forensic pathologist, Dr. Michael Bodden, who will offer his opinion about Corey's death, which will differ from the pathologist's opinion. And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Ann Jeanette Levy. We'll continue to follow the trial of Christopher Greger for you. You can watch it on Law and Crime's Trials YouTube channel. We will see you next time.