Prime Crime: Solved Murders - Corey Micciolo: Betrayed by The Monster At Home

Episode Date: May 16, 2026

A 6-year-old boy was rushed to the hospital by his father after he woke up from a nap while experiencing multiple health issues. Corey Micciolo would die at the hospital later that day. The medical examiner initially ruled the cause of death as “undetermined,” but soon, investigators uncovered a much more disturbing truth. Find out what happened to Corey Micciolo on this episode of “Prime Crime with Jesse Weber.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What is the fifth plant from the sun? It's just big. It's made of gas. It's just stupid. Where he was and still is my life, my world, and my everything. You have this adorable six-year-old boy who dies, and he shouldn't have. It's fucked our whole family up. I mean, there's no better way to say it. We're not right. We're never going to be right again. This treadmill video surfaces. It's a very disturbing video to watch.

And it all comes down to the mother's word against the fathers. I hate you for not letting me see goodbye to my son, but I thank God your face is not the last one he saw. Look at him. Look at him. That's not a man. Oh my God, I killed my child. That's a man. Oh my God.

God, my child is dead. Stafford Township, New Jersey, Christopher Greger brings his six-year-old son, Corey Michalo, to the emergency room. The child was in great distress. He arrives at the hospital. He takes that young child, Corey, he throws him over his shoulder,

he runs into the hospital, looking for them to tend to him immediately. The child was lethargic and nauseous. So they bring him in for a cat scan to try and see what's going on internally with that child. Unfortunately, during that process, the child went into cardiac arrest, and they were unable to resuscitate.

Ultimately, Corey was pronounced at around 5 p.m. on April 2nd of 2021. Corey's father steps outside the room and seems to have some kind of an emotional reaction to it. You can see his hands on his head. You can see him bending over, and then he leaves. You have this adorable six-year-old boy who dies, and he shouldn't have.

And the question that everyone is asking is, what happened to Corey Michalo? Corey was always a happy kid. He was very artistic. He loved outer space. He liked playing sports. He loved playing with his friends. He was just a very happy kid before everything happened.

You know. Sorry, guys. Corey was playing with his little bay blades. He just wanted to pretend he was making a YouTube video for his friends, and I recorded him. If you all be rude blighter, you have to do it just like, look at my style. Corey was funny.

He was a little jokester. He was loving, caring. He always liked to help others, very kind, considerate. He loved to draw. He was just a happy, good kid. This is my face. Nice. Turn the budget to subscribe our video.

We were probably closer than most grandparents with a grandchild because Brianna lived with us with Corey. My most fond memories of Corey were when I would get him by myself. Like if he would wake up, I would always say to him, Come get G-Ma when you wake up. Don't wake up mommy, because then I could be with him alone, you know, and I could just eat him up for a little bit. And we would just snuggle and he'd play with my phone or we'd watch something on TV. So, guys, this is my mommy. My relationship with Corey, we were very close.

I feel like a mother and son bond is like unbreakable. We went through a lot together. I was 17 when I had him, so like I grew up with him. We were very close. He loved to dance. I have so many, like, silly videos of him dancing to music. Corey would always make silly faces, and I have so many pictures of that.

He always joked a lot. This is, I call it, my memorial shrine to Corey and to his Uncle Gino. A lot of these items here were sent to us from people all over the world, and you know justice for Corey members. Some of these things were on Corey's grave for a long time and then I've retired them from there and brought them home.

I like to just look at it and remember them. I feel like they're here. I just don't want them to be forgotten. They were both unique people and they deserve to be remembered. While I'm here, it needs to be here. We just need to be much. We just need to remember them and there's like little things that were quarries there.

Like there's a Bayblade that was his that he played with his yearbook. A COVID mask. A COVID mask. Yeah. We just needs to be here and we haven't thrown anything out. We have his clothes. We have his Easter basket from the year he passed that he never got. I've been staring at that little, it's like a PlayStation controller, but it was like a keychain.

I remember it because the night. before he passed at the hospital, he kept pushing it and it would make this noise and it was really annoying. And now it doesn't work anymore, but it just pops out to me. And the Rubik's Cube is a very fond memory to me because it kind of represents Gino and Corey

because they both loved it. I think Gino got Corey into it. He put a larger Rubik's Cube in Corey's casket when he passed. And that kind of makes me happy when I look at that happy, sad. Certain things have different meaning and some make you happy, some not so happy. It's fucked our whole family up. I mean, there's no better way to say it. We're not right. We're never going to be right again. I don't claim to be okay. I'm not okay. On the day that Corey died, Detective Dennis Mitchell from the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office

is alerted. He's made aware of a child's death at Southern Ocean Medical Center. I was advised that a six-year-old boy that was identified as Corey Mitchellow presented to the hospital at approximately 3.45 p.m., and he was pronounced dead at approximately 503 p.m. Shortly thereafter, approximately 20 minutes or so, the victim's father, identified as Christopher Greger, left the hospital. The Ocean County Prosecutor's Office was notified, myself, along with other members of this office, responded, and we started to conduct the investigation into the death of Corey Mitchell. Now the next morning, Detective Dennis Mitchell observes the post-mortem examination of Corey, and this is conducted by medical examiner Dr. Dante Regassa. Dr. Regasa determined the cause of death of Corey Mitchellow to be blunt impact injuries to the heart and liver, as well as sepsis as a contributing factor. You know, having to perform an autopsy on a child in and of itself is horrible. But what it does

also is it reveals some very important but disturbing details in this case. The first step in any investigation is looking at the victim's body, seeing if there's anything that his body is going to tell us about what led him to be in this position. In Corey's case it was the bruising that was in varying areas of his body that was of great concern to us, specifically bruising that didn't seem to align with any type of accidental injury. The manner of death matters immensely when it comes to a homicide investigation, because unless the manner of death is homicide, you don't have a homicide investigation. In this case, the manner was undetermined. What that means to us is we need to provide the doctor

with more information about the attendant circumstances of the victim's death. In this case, provide a detailed timeline of the events surrounding the death of Corey Mitchell. Very few cases are designated undetermined. A lot of times when we would do these child death reviews, those were the ones that we flagged as we need to look at these very, very carefully. We have a child who is deceased, who died of some injuries. The first thing you want to do as an investigator in this case is get the timeline down and as precise as you possibly can so you can start ruling people in and ruling people out. They have to look at, was this an accident? And if it wasn't an accident, how did it happen and who was responsible?

So, you know, they want to be objective in their approach. They want to be comprehensive. They want to be careful. So what are you going to do? First of all, you're going to interview the parents. Now, Corey was in the care of his mother, Brianna Michalo, from midnight to 9 a.m. From 9 a.m. to 3.30 p.m. he was in the care of his father, Christopher Greger. The timeline is extremely important.

When we know that an injury occurred on April 2nd, and we don't know exactly what time had happened, we don't know exactly what happened, formulating a timeline is extremely important. It's important in that we're able to see what people are doing before and after the event, and even more so than that, we're able to see what people aren't doing. We're able to see where people are deviating from that normal human behavior

and how a parent would react in this situation. Detective Dennis Mitchell interviews Brianna, and she agrees to speak with him without an attorney present. During our conversation with Brianna, we learn about the history of Corey. We learn about the history of Christopher Greger. When Greger comes into Corey's life and how things start to shift at that point. In fact, she responds with a binder full of paperwork that included medical records and DCP&P records. The interview with Dennis Mitchell, it was hard because A couple hours before they just told me Corey passed,

I could barely, like, form a sentence. He was very nice, but he was trying to get information. I remember, like, he just asked for my phone. I'm like, here, I gave him the password. I just, I wanted to help as much as I could. I'm like, you need to go look for Chris. I'll tell you whatever you need and go find Chris. Christopher Greger met Brianna Mitchellow at a house party in Monroe Township.

At the time, Brianna was 16 years old. Christopher was, I believe, 19 or 20 at the time. That's when their relationship began, and from what we gathered throughout the investigation, that is when Corey Mitchell was conceived. Their relationship, as the pregnancy progressed, kind of deteriorated. Chris separated himself from Brianna.

His grandparents were very involved in his life, having such young parents. Brianna's family in particular took care of him for the first portion of his life. Christopher Greger found out, He was Corey's father approximately two years prior to Corey's death. It came about as a result of Brianna applying to the state for benefits for Corey. When she was applying for these benefits, she was asked to disclose the father's name,

which she disclosed as Christopher Greger. The state trying to verify this information reached out to Christopher Greger, and at some point a paternity test was ordered by the state. Christopher had no relationship with Brianna, none whatsoever. He had met her initially at a party. They must have gotten to know each other very well because five years later, he was tapped as the father of this child. He didn't remember her. He took a paternity test and lo and behold, he was Corey's father.

So he went from living in Baltimore, teaching in Baltimore, going to Johns Hopkins University to stopping all of that. And moving back to New Jersey to take care of a child, he just found out that he was the father of. Corey was five when Christopher became more involved. Chris started coming around. I think Corey wanted to have a relationship that you would think you would have with a dad. But he didn't get it.

I think Corey feared him very early on, but I think Corey was hopeful. I think Corey was hopeful. Throughout her life and during the life of Corey, Brianna had struggled with some addiction, which she fought to overcome through rehab programs. The custody arrangement for Corey between Brianna and Chris, it varied through the years.

Initially, Brianna had full custody. At one point, she lost custody again due to her addiction. Her mother, Rebecca, assumed full custody at one point. As Chris came into the picture, the two of them ultimately shared joint custody with Chris Greger having primary residential custody of Corey Mitchell and Brianna having visitation rights. When Corey first came into Christopher's life, he was overweight, he had learning difficulties, he was not doing well in school. Christopher moved into his family home and took care of

Corey on a daily basis. As a result of that, Dave Greger went into his garage. He pulled out all of the old baseball equipment from his children, the basketball stuff, the football stuff. They made a room in their house for the six-year-old child that they were now bringing home to them, and they created a new life for this grandson and son. As a result of Christopher and his family,

he became athletic, he was actually competitive in sports and doing very well in school and communicating very well. He was one of the top students, and very well liked by not only the teachers, but also by the other students. So Corey, as a result of Christopher coming into his life, had changed drastically from the life he had previous to that. Corey's relationship with his father,

I would describe it as Rocky because Corey looked up to him still. He wanted to be like him and he loved him, but he also was being a beautiful, used by him. So when you're a kid, you don't understand like what's going on. You still love the person that's doing it. During Brianna's interview with Detective Mitchell, she's informed that her mother, Rebecca, has retained an attorney on her behalf. But despite that, Brianna insists she wants to continue speaking without an attorney present. We asked her if she would provide us with consent to search her home, which she did. We learned that Corey stayed in the basement of the

residence with Brianna when he was there. So that was our primary focus in regards to that residence. Looking around her room and Corey's room, it was neat and orderly. There was nothing of real concern. There was nothing that would jump out at us to show us that this child was mistreated in any way while in this home. It's at this point that police then interview Brianna's mother, Corey's grandmother, Rebecca Mitchell. In every homicide investigation, anyone that had contact with our victim as a suspect until they're not. In this case, we look at both the mother, the father, the grandmother, anyone else who had contact with Corey in the days and hours prior to his death,

Rebecca Mitchellow voiced some concerns for child abuse, telling us about specific incidents that occurred from the time that Chris was first present in Corey's life and the injuries that occurred thereafter up until the time that he died. When Corey was going to meet David and Carolyn Greger, Chris's parents, The arrangement was Corey was going to spend a few hours. It was the first time he was meeting the Greger family,

so it got to be around the time Chris was supposed to drop him back off, and he didn't come back. And I text and call David Greger's phone number. He said, Corey's going to spend the night. I said, well, no, that's not the arrangement that was made, so I'd appreciated if, you know, Chris could bring him back home. Chris dropped him at the bottom of our driveway. Corey walked through the garage and when he got into the light, he had a busted lip, blood on his shirt, his shorts.

Reese said, oh, what happened? And he said he didn't want to talk about it. So of course I called Chris, I called David Greger. I text, you know, Corey came home with a busted lip and blood all over his clothes. Did something happen? Nobody answered. So that's when we called the police department and went there. and they in turn called DCPMP. That was the first time that I remember.

We were able to extrapolate information from DCP and P.P. And corroborate what she's saying with what we're seeing in these reports. DCPMP stands for the Division of Child Protection and Permanency. This is the agency that is tasked with investigating reports of child abuse and child neglect in the state of New Jersey. There were a number of referrals to DCPMP, some named Christopher Greger as the alleged perpetrator. I think there was maybe one or two that listed Rebecca as the alleged perpetrator, none of which listed Brianna as being suspected of abusing Corey. We have to take all these things with a grain of salt,

especially given the circumstances where now we seem to have this custody battle over a six-year-old where they're throwing allegations back and forth at each other. We're not able to tell just based on these reports what's true and what's not, because a number of these were deemed to be unfounded by DCPMP. Digging further into these allegations of abuse, Detective Mitchell decides to speak with Christopher Greger's parents, David and Carolyn. They showed some concern for abuse, but more so they wanted to talk to us about the allegations of abuse as far as they were concerned. That's all it was merely accusations. There was no actual abuse occurring.

They showed concern for their son, given the situation that was occurring in that they were alerted to the death of their grandson by their son, Christopher. And when they arrived at the hospital, Chris had already left. They made us aware of a text message that he sent them shortly after leaving the hospital. He said to them that he didn't plan on returning for a while and asked them to take care of his dog. When Christopher texted his parents that he's going away for a while and please take care of my dog, those comments suggest he was going away and he was not coming back. After seeing these alarming text messages, that's when detectives obtain a search warrant for Christopher Greggar's residents. When we look at Christopher Greger's home in comparison to Brianna's home, we're seeing two very different parents.

When we're looking at Brianna's home, we're seeing pictures of Corey everywhere on the wall. We're seeing sonograms, things that you would expect to find in a mother's home. When we look at Christopher Greger's home, we're seeing very few, if any, pictures of Corey. We're seeing an apartment of what looks like a bachelor with workout supplements everywhere. Corey did have a specific bedroom in Christopher's house, which was, as you would expect a six-year-old's bedroom to be, a twin-sized bed, a desk for him to do his schoolwork and painting. There was nothing of real concern until we started to look through the trash. We de-layered his garbage. At the very top of his garbage was a McDonald's bag with a receipt. Underneath that McDonald's wrapper was something very unsettling to investigators.

Soiled clothing belonging to Corey. We would expect that a parent when their six-year-old child is vomiting and defecating themselves, that they would bring them into a bathroom and clean them off. They would take their clothes and clean their clothes. When we're seeing someone like Christopher Greger, who is now taking his son's clothes, and not only putting them in the garbage, but putting them in the garbage under other garbage, as if to conceal them, we're looking at that behavior as highly suspicious. Here's the thing, though, investigators still can't get in touch with Christopher Greger.

So Detective Mitchell speaks with the attending nurses at the hospital where Corey died, and they too noticed something odd. They alerted me to the fact that he left the hospital in a very rushed manner, panicky. As a result, we were able to review surveillance video from the hospital. We were able to identify the vehicle and the license. and we put out an alert to all police agencies that we were looking to get in contact with him. We're looking to find out where he's going because he is the last person that's with Corey while he's alive. Two days after Corey's death, Detective Mitchell is notified that Christopher Greger is stopped in his vehicle by police in Alcoa, Tennessee.

They pulled them over in Tennessee because there was a bulletin put out on his car. He cooperated with them. No one of your accident. Yes, sir. I'll probably say they hurt here anyway. Yes, sir. Christopher reaction to the death of Corey was dramatic. He didn't know what to do.

He had this perfectly healthy child two days ago, and then now that child is dead. And he was upset. He called his parents. He ran out of the hospital. His mother told him. us that he was inconsolable. He was driving to his brother's in California, parking, I left out of 5.30 Friday after me. I drove straight to God in the city.

He was driving to his brother's house. He wanted to be by his brother. I couldn't mention saying he were in Texas, but if you were in Texas, where in Texas do you know? I know if I guess it was in Arkansas. I mean, if you have to give a text, right? I don't know, sir. I'm not, sir, and speaking with Christopher, they inquire as to why he left the area, specifically New Jersey. He provides me. You can't say it.

I mean, if you stay, you might believe. Alcoe police and speaking with Christopher, they inquire as to why he left the area, specifically New Jersey. He provides several explanations, one of which he was going to visit his brother in California, Another was that he needed to go clear his head because he was afraid that he was going to go do or say something to the decedent's mother that he wasn't supposed to. He tells them that he just went for a ride and that when he was stopped he was actually on his way back to New Jersey. We reviewed all that footage and what we're seeing on there is someone who isn't acting the way you would expect, given the circumstances and the situation he would. was in. We're seeing somebody that's joking, somebody that's smiling, that's deflecting, not someone that appears to be grieving their six-year-old son.

I'm freaking out right now because there's like, I asked her. Yeah. Or did you guys and a job. Yeah. And I was a math teacher. So you know, I don't know that. I just, like those that can't you teach, but it's been interesting past two years to say what we've. Anytime that someone flees town immediately after someone's death, that immediately sets off a red flag in our minds, that this is someone or something that we need to look further into. That behavior could be easily explainable or that could show consciousness of guilt. I haven't slept up, so it's just, I'm like numb at this point with everything going on and this now I'm like a little freaked out.

In his conversation with the Alco Police Department, he does tell them a little bit about what happened with Corey about the doctors. I didn't know what he thought of something. Oh, did? No. He's not good. Just like, I knew when you got home, and I knew something was wrong. But I just thought she had a home baby for everything. Chris.

Oh, you know. And I should have took it away from the future. There's a lot of these things, like, you know, it's partially my fault in the sense that it eventually did someone. We would actually be able to try out and her puppy. The blood would still be alive if I never came back from balls in order for the time. Like, my desk to go through my head this all drive. She's a special kind of a pair of act.

Chris actually says to the police officers, that if I never came into Corey's life, he might still be alive today. In isolation, that might not mean a lot, but when you look at that with the surrounding events, the flight is behavior up to that point. It doesn't sit right. And it leads you to believe that he truly means that if he wasn't there, that Corey would still be alive. Now, authorities end up letting Christopher Gregor leave. But then investigators come upon something that changes this entire story. They get critical new evidence. We were first made aware of the treadmill video and speaking with the DCP&P caseworker that was in charge of Corey's case.

He made us aware of an incident that occurred on March 20th of the same year. That incident occurred in the gym of the apartment complex of Chris Greger and that it was on video. He ultimately provided us with that video the following day. This treadmill video surfaces. If you have small children, you may not want to watch it. It's a very disturbing video to watch. It wasn't until the day after Corey's death on April 3rd that we were actually provided with this video. We see Christopher Greger.

He immediately directs Corey towards the treadmills. Corey gets on a treadmill. It was unbelievable what this kid could do on a treadmill. He was set world records. After about nine or so minutes of Corey running on the treadmill at a decent pace, Chris walks over to the treadmill, and you can see his demeanor that it appears that he's yelling at him, that he's agitated. He then appears to turn the speed of the treadmill up. As Corey starts to pick up pace, you can tell that he's struggling to keep up with the speed of the treadmill as it's being

increased. You see Christopher kind of moved to the back of the treadmill as Corey started to go towards the back, unable to keep up with the speed. At this point, we're looking at this video and saying, okay, he's moving to the back. Like, yes, he recognizes he's going to fall, but he's going to be there for him when he falls. the opposite. We do see Corey start to fall, start to lose footing, and instead of Chris reaching out his arms, attempting to brace him from hitting the ground or being injured, he actually steps out of the way to allow him to fall and hit the ground. He then picks him up by his shirt, places him on the treadmill in a forcible manner, and appears to open his mouth and bite down

on the top of Corey's head. As that's happening, Corey is unable to keep footing on the treadmill, But Chris is still holding his shirt so he doesn't fall again at that time. He picks him up, allows him to regain his footing, and continue running. Let's all keep in mind, this is a six-year-old. When you watch this video, you know that the speed is getting up to 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 miles an hour with this kid, because this kid cannot keep up with it. It is running at very close to the top speed. He falls another five times off the back of the treadmill as Chris instructs Corey to go back.

onto the treadmill from behind to jump onto the moving track, whereas a safer way would be to either turn off the machine or instruct him to step on the sides and grab the handles and then regain his footing that way. So we're seeing the dad almost watch and instruct his kid to hurt himself on this treadmill. It's a chilling video. This is one of the most disturbing things that I've seen.

You're watching a helpless six-year-old be abused over and over, by his father, you're seeing complete disregard for Corey by his father. You're starting to see inside the mind of Chris because you're seeing who he is when nobody's watching or he thinks nobody's watching. I was horrified. That video is stomach churning for anyone who has known or even cared about a small child because it would appear that he keeps trying to run on the treadmill and he keeps trying make his dad happy and he keeps falling. It's heartbreaking to watch.

When we're watching the end of that video, we watch them leave the gym. From the outside camera, we see Chris come out of the front of the gym and the door starts to close and then shortly after, Corey comes almost as if the door is hitting him on the way out. Chris has complete disregard, complete lack of concern or empathy for his son and what he had just gone through, seemed to be more focused on his own anger. I noticed Corey had like a bruise on him. He had this big mark on his forearm and Corey told me that Christopher made him run on a treadmill really fast. He was calling him fat and so I immediately filed a complaint with DCP&P.

Nearly three months after investigators review that treadmill video, Christopher Greger is arrested. He was charged with second degree endangering the welfare. of a child as a result of that dreadmill incident. Subsequent to Christopher's arrest, he appeared in court and was released on bail reform. While the investigation into Corey's death is continuing, Brianna does something. She goes on social media, and she creates the group,

Justice for Corey. Justice for Corey is a Facebook group. I created about three months after he passed, after feeling like no one was doing anything. It was just a way to tell everyone what was going on and put pressure on the prosecutor's office. We started planning rallies. We'd stand outside the prosecutor's office or DCP&P with like 50 people and signs. It was just started to advocate for Corey for him to get justice. Justice for

for Corey was a Facebook page that was created by Brianna Macholo to basically vilify Christopher Greger and the Greger family. And yet, the world, she had hundreds of thousands of followers from all over the world, to vilify the Gregor family. It turned out to be this vigilante justice system to destroy the Gregors. While all of this is happening in the public eye, there is something going on behind the scenes in the investigation. They are looking very closely at Gregor's phone. We're looking deeper into cell phone data, expanding the scope of our investigation. to get even a bigger picture of what's happening.

We all have our cell phones on us 24-7, and if you want to get the clearest picture at somebody's life, you look at their cell phone, because that's where their most unfiltered depiction of themselves is going to be. In this case, his search history was particularly relevant. He's searching things shortly after Corey died that are abnormal and suspicious.

He's searching things like, can my phone be tracked in airplane mode, can my car be tracked, how long after an autopsy can murder charges, be filed. So it's starting to paint more of a picture of who Christopher Greger is because we're getting that raw, unfiltered, uncensored version of him in his phone. Prior to Corey's death, one of the searches that was conducted on Chris Greger's phone was in reference to red marks and if they will turn to bruises. When you look at the circumstances surrounding it, you're starting

to see that consciousness of guilt. I did think it was Chris and I told that to Detective Dennis Mitchell. Dennis Mitchell took a lot of shit from us in the beginning. We used to call him like every day just telling him off. Like are you even doing your job constantly? And I'm like just asking all these questions bashing him and he would take it and be like, listen, I'm doing what I can. I think he did a very good job. I think he cares about Corey. I mean, I'd never dealt with anything like this before. So I just felt like things weren't happening quick enough and I would let him know that. Based upon the investigation to that point, and the injuries that we were seeing,

we decided to reach out to an expert in pediatric pathology, specifically in child abuse, and ask him to review the case. We reach out to Dr. Andrew in September of 2021. In March of 2022, Dr. Andrew returns a finding that Corey's cause of death was blunt for his injuries to the heart and liver, and that the manner of death was homicide.

In addition to that cause of death, Dr. Andrew also lists a contributing fact to Corey Mitchell is death as ongoing child abuse. I knew Christopher would kill Corey. I told DCP&P and the police, any police department that would listen to me, which nobody ever did. I said that he was going to kill him if they didn't do something. So when it happened, I didn't know it was going to be that day,

but I knew it could happen. Almost one year after Corey Mitchelow's death, Christopher Gregor, Christopher Greger is arrested and charged with Corey's murder. When Dr. Andrew returned his opinion, we finally were able to have a doctor say that, but for someone else's actions, this child would still be alive. And at that point, it allowed us to charge Christopher with his son's death. If you want to just take all of his property, then he's gotten his possession and take it from you. There were two separate charges on two separate dates.

The allegation was done on March 20th of 2021. The treadmill incident led to the endangering of welfare of a child, and then he was charged on April 2nd, some 12 days later with the murder now of Corey. So the initial incident was the endangering. The second was the April 2nd murder. Do you guys want to switch off? Okay, so I'm going to take this left hand off you,

put your left hand on top of your head, okay? That's right. Neither one of those things had anything to do with each other, and that's why we made what you call a motion to sever, and that is a motion to say that he's going to be prejudiced by the treadmill case and the murder case being tried together,

because everybody needs, knew that the treadmill had absolutely nothing to do with his death in April and that if the jury was seeing the treadmill and that together that it would lead them to one conclusion. So we made a motion to sever, which was denied and we proceeded to trial on both counts. Oh my man back with me? Go ahead. Get to housekeeper. Oh my God.

I didn't believe it because it took almost a year for that to happen. I felt like a weight was kind of lifted off my shoulders because for a whole year we were outside rallying at various places, begging them to arrest him and just asking for answers. Because if they're not arresting him, do they think he didn't do something to him? Then what happened to court? So it just validated everything for us. For the charge of first-degree murder of his son, Corey Michalo, he could face up to life in prison.

One of the biggest hurdles in this investigation specifically is that typically in a homicide investigation, you know exactly how someone was killed, you know, what happened when it happened. Here, we're given a period of time where an injury occurred, and we don't know exactly. exactly how Gregor inflicted that injury upon Corey. So we spend that time trying to determine exactly what that injury was and how it was inflicted, as well as the events surrounding that injury. It makes us focus more on the outside of that injury, that timeline, to get as detailed as we possibly can.

Members of the jury, the defendant has pleaded not guilty to the charges. As the judges of the facts, you are to determine the credibility of the witnesses, and in determining whether a witness is worthy of belief and therefore credit, So more than three years after Corey Mitchell's death, Christopher Greger finally goes to trial in Ocean County, New Jersey. And he faces one charge of endangering the welfare of a child for the treadmill incident and one charge of murder for the death of Corey. And by the way, if convicted, he faces a sentence of life in prison. Corey, Travis, Mitchellow, he liked the solar system. You like to play outside.

his mom describes him as silly and happy. Corey was six on April 2nd, 2021, when his father murdered him. His father is this defendant, Christopher Greger. This case is about Corey, and how Corey became the ultimate victim of this defendant's punishment and abuse. The prosecutors, Christine Lento and Jamie Shrone, that were amazing. And I love that they were women because Chris hates women.

Corey was alive and well at 9 a.m. when he was with his mom. And he was gone by 503 p.m. after only being with his father, this defendant. The state submits that after you've heard and seen all of the evidence in this case, you will be firmly convinced that this defendant is, guilty of abuse and murder because healthy six-year-olds don't just die during the course of a business day and neither did Corey Mitchell L. So I thought the prosecution's case with the murder charge was weak at best. They had no proof that Christopher had done anything to Corey on the days from April 1st into April 2nd that he wasn't even in his cover.

custody, care, or control. Brianna had him for the 40 hours prior to bringing him to Christopher's house. So I thought it was going to be very difficult for them to tie Christopher into the murder. This is kid. No child should die. No child should die.

But it's not murder. Getting a testimony from a Dr. Andrew who's a forensic pathologist, I believe, from New Hampshire. You're going to hear from our expert, Dr. Michael Botton, who's here in New York, and they both completely disagree on the result of Corey's death. Dr. Bodden, supported by medical records, is going to testify that Corey died from sepsis as a result of pneumonia. natural causes that the bruises from March 20th

had absolutely nothing to do with his death. He wanted to say Corey died of pneumonia and sepsis. I was shocked because I'm like, I was with him a couple hours before and he wasn't sick. So how can you even, and there's no medical record saying that he was sick. You're gonna see that on March 20th, Christopher, takes that young boy, into a gym.

And in that gym, you're going to see Christopher go over to that treadmill and speed it up. And you're going to see Corey Fall. And you're going to see him pick that boy up six times. And six times put him back on the treadmill. And I'm going to tell you right now, you're not going to like him and I don't care if you like him

when you see that video you're going to be horrified but I'm telling you right now that the evidence you're going to see of Corey's death had absolutely nothing to do

with that treadmill the treadmill video was going to be horrible. And I knew that. So I opened on it. When I saw that video, I was horrified. The second time I saw that video, I was horrified. The 2000th time I saw that video, I was horrified. So I needed to blunt that. Since the timeline of events is so important in this case, Execution needs to start with a strong witness. And the first witness they call is Breonna Michalo. Brianna, on March 20th of 2021, at approximately 415, did you drop off Corey to his father at the clubhouse gym at the Atlantic Heights apartment complex?

Yes. What was the defendant's demeanor when he let Corey into the gym at that point in time? He was very angry. The prosecution played the treadmill video for the court. The jury was just as horrified as every other person that watched that video for the first time. I saw their faces. I think one woman actually turned her head away.

He's picking him up by the top of his shoulders and shirt, and you can see Corey's legs that he does not want to get back on that treadmill. He treats him like a rad doll, right? He's picking him up. legs are swinging. This is what the defendant does while he's trying to put Corey on a moving treadmill. The defendant bites Corey's head. What kind of father would do this to their son?

Brianna, who is the child located in that video? That's Corey. And how old was Corey in that video? He was six. And who was the adult male located in that video? The defendant. I saw the treadmill video for the first time, a week before the child. They offered to show me it for a while and I didn't want to see it.

And if I had the choice, I wouldn't have watched it. It's traumatizing, definitely. To see someone picking up like a 60-pound kid and buy this, the back of his shirt and then biting him. Especially when it's your kid, you're like, what the fuck? Like it's traumatizing. You know, what a piece of shit. If you can do that to a kid, you can kill them, definitely.

The most important thing is to prove who had access to the child when, thus who could have inflicted these injuries. The liver didn't lacerate itself. The heart didn't lacerate itself. This is not something that just spontaneously occurs in children. So someone must be responsible for it. So the timeline is what was the most important. And frankly, that video was incredibly important.

While you were with Corey, did you see any bruises on him? I did. And can you describe for the jurors the bruises that you saw? He had a bruise on his forehead and it was very odd shaped. And it kind of looked like an imprint of something. And besides that bruises, you see another bruise? He had one on his chest. It looked like a scrape.

What was Corey's demeanor when you spoke to him about the bruises that you saw? He just seemed upset and scared. Seeing the bruising on his body was shocking. I believe there were about 14, scratches, abrasions, contusions all over his body. The prosecutor then asks Breonna. about this additional bruising that she saw on Corey a few days later. Well, Corey was at your home after the flag football triads. What if any bruising did you see to his body?

He had a large bruise on his chest. He had, it looked like fingerprint bruises all over his arms and legs. And he had a very, it was very large on his hip on his side. What type of contact was? allowed for first grade flag football. It's no contact. Brianna Michalo was very concerned with bruising that she found on Corey's body.

She was seeing bruising in places that you normally wouldn't expect to find it on a child. As a result, she reaches out to DCP&P regarding these bruises and her concern who instruct her to go to a pediatrician, which she ultimately does. Calling your attention to March 31st of 2021, did you file an emergent application for full custody of Corey with the family court? Yes.

And can you tell the jurors why you did this? I was in fear for Corey's life. I filed for temporary full custody and taking away all of Chris's time with Corey and rights until the DCP&P investigation was over. My thought was just get Corey away from Christopher so he can't abuse him anymore. until DCP and P and P can, they can charge, but they can, you know, take him away, like fully, take away his rights. So that's why I went and filed.

On April 1st, 2021, Brianna Mitchell learns that her application was denied. Still being concerned for this bruising, Rebecca and Brianna make an appointment for Corey Mitchellow to see a pediatrician in Tom Juror. Brianna at the time was allotted three hours to spend time with her son, Corey. That was her visitation.

for that week. So Brianna Mitchell, is taking her three hours that particular week to take her son to the doctor. The prosecution calls up Dr. Nancy Deacon. This is the pediatrician who examined Corey on April 1st. Could you take me through the observations that were on Corey's body

that you documented please? So I'm going to start the head and work my way down front side of his body first. Present on his left forehead was what I described as pink granulation tissue with a tiny scab. Second, there was a blue-gray bruise over his left cheek, and I'm pointing to the bone right here on his left side of his face. While after pediatrician, Dr. Deacon reviewed

Corey's body, and she actually completed a diagram with the different bruises that were happening on Corey's body, as well as the different stages of healing that they were in. So we were able to see that these bruises didn't happen from one particular event, that these bruises that happened seemingly at all different times was something that was ongoing in his life. 14 was another large yellow-green bruise, and it was located at the waist. My assessment was numerous bruises with different stages of healing.

There were bruises that you could explain with falling, with the play that children do. And then there's areas over soft tissue that takes more of a blow to have that size of a bruise and that kind of injury. It takes a bigger, harder force. The bruising on Corey's body was from far more than just the treadmill incident. It says here, this is true, Corey says, He says he got his chest arm, hip bruises, and far-hack bruises. Was he playing football outside on turf? Number one.

He said that his dad was teaching him how to catch football, number two. And I pressed him further. He said he had more bruises when he fed from your treadmill. To me, that's great. My impression, what he was talking about, was playing football with his dad. He wasn't described that way, but that was my impression. Corey, for the first time,

discloses to someone other than a family member that there may be some abuse that's going on between him and his father. Specifically, he tells Dr. Nancy Deacon, he received some of these bruises on his body as a result of falling off of a treadmill, and that he had to do so because his father thinks he's too fat. Show me in your chart where you talk about what Corey told you that he was reluctant to say that to you, that you needed to prompt him, that you needed to show him he was safe? Can you show me anywhere in that chart when you wrote it? That by the way, I would believe are important in an evaluation by a doctor who is asking about child abuse. Where is it in that

chart? In that assessment? So I did not document exactly what I said to court. And as a matter of fact, 10 minutes before this jury walked into this room, did you testify to here? And it's a matter of hearing in this courtroom. Yes. And did you at any time during that questioning, before the jury was in this room, say anything about that you had a prompt Corey, you had to encourage him, he was reluctant to answer the questions. Did you say that one time?

I thought I said he was reluctant. When I asked him, he hesitated. I believe that's what I said. I didn't say in the record that he hesitated. I said just what he said. And you can't tell anybody here when they occurred or how they occurred. No, I can just describe what I saw.

There was no abuse prior to the treadmill. There was no abuse allegation after the treadmill and we were able to demonstrate that he got the bruises from playing football and from being a typical six-year-old boy. The DCP and P worker, as well as Dr. Deakin, seeing these bruises, coupling it with the information that was just provided by Corey, recommended to Brianna that she'd take Corey to Jersey Shore University Medical Center, where they have a pediatrics division that specializes in child abuse and a specific doctor that specializes in child abuse. But when Brianna arrives at the

emergency room, a child abuse specialist is not at the hospital. They did blood work, they did x-rays, They said he was fine, but, you know, Corey told them that Chris was making him run on a treadmill and hurting him. So they just made an appointment for the next day with a forensic abuse expert. Here's the thing, though, after being examined by multiple doctors outside of the bruises, Corey appears to be in good health. After the hospital, we were discharged at about 1 a.m. We got home like 1.30. we went to sleep. Did you offer to bring Corey home back to Barnaget after Jersey Shore Medical Center?

Yes. And did the defendant ever respond to your request to do this? No. Was there a scheduled appointment for April 2nd for Corey to see a CPC pediatric specialist? Yes. Did the defendant cancel? disappointment. Yes.

Could you take Corey to see the specialist without the defendant? No, he wouldn't allow it. What time did you and Corey wake up the next morning? Around 7, 7.30. When Corey woke up, did you dress him? Yes. What did you dress Corey in? I put him in a sweatshirt, jeans, and sneakers.

And what about his underwear? They were blue underwear. And what was the condition of... of the clothes that you dressed Corian. They were clean. Brianna, of course, was a doting, loving mother. But the one thing to me as a parent that stuck out was she remembered exactly what she dressed him in

when he was going over to his father's house, I mean, down to blue underwear. That is a salient fact for all the rest of the parents that are on the jury. When you went upstairs to eat breakfast in the kitchen, who was there? My mom and her boyfriend, Richie. And did Corey have breakfast?

Yes. And did he eat? He did. And do you remember what he ate? He ate a bagel and a goger. Were you with Corey the entire time that he was eating breakfast? Yes. And can you tell the jurors what was Corey's physical condition in the morning when he was eating breakfast?

He was okay. The last time I saw Corey was April 2nd. He ate breakfast and he was getting ready to go back to his dad's. I tried to get him to take my phone with him and hide it. And I told him when Daddy Sturke's beating you to call me or call the police and he said he couldn't. I told him to make a lot of noise to get a neighbor and he said he couldn't. I don't know why, but I said, well, just be a good boy, which was probably making him think that he wasn't. And that's why this was happening.

I didn't know what else to say. And I didn't think that that would be the last time I would see Corey, but it was. Can you please tell the jurors what the defendant texted you, including the date and the time of the text message? Yes. On 4-221 at 8.37 a.m., he said, I mean, considering you did kidnap my son for an entire day and night, the minimum that is happening is an entire day and night is going to be removed from your next visit maximum. Hopefully the courts will agree with my application this morning and you will lose all rights. And about what time did you get to the apartment complex to drop off court that morning? Around 9 a.m.

And when you got there, where was the defendant's car? I'm not sure. It wasn't there. And did you text the defendant asking where he was? Yes. And what did the defendant say to you in regard to where he was? He said he was home. And before Corey had left the car, did you provide Corey with a piece? piece of paper.

I did. It was a paper from the hospital that had information so the defendant could look at his records. And why did you do that? I was just being nice. Did you speak to Corey in the car before you sent him into the defendant's home? I did. Was that the last time that you spoke to Corey? It was.

I took him to Christopher's house and it was odd because I pulled up and Christopher's car wasn't there. his car wasn't there like it always is. You know, I had a conversation with Corey, like, oh, I don't think your dad's here. And he's like, so I don't have to go? And I was like, no, you have to go. And then Chris texted me saying, have Corey come in. So I kissed Corey. I hugged him.

And I told him I loved him. And we kissed and he went inside. The prosecutor then asks Brianna about the text messages that she received from the defendant after she dropped Corey off. And by the way, these are messages that Gregor, later deletes from his phone. Starting with the top message, can you please help the jury about your conversation with the defendant?

Yes, at 9.48 a.m., I said, stop being so cocky. If I were you, I definitely wouldn't be. He said, yes, I am a ludicrous charged by you that when you went to court yesterday, he was completely thrown out and disregarded. He said, shows how much evidence there is, doesn't it? You're going to be in for a rude awakening today. When Christopher's phone was downloaded, he believed that he had deleted all of the text messages with Brianna.

Unfortunately, Brianna had not deleted them from her phone, and she gave up her phone quite readily to police and allowed them to download the entire thing. So all of the text messages with Christopher and Brianna were obtained by the prosecution. What is the next time that you heard from the defendant on April 2nd of 2021? Around 3.30. What did the defendant tell you about Corey? He was lethargic. His legs were hurting. He was sleeping all day, and he was throwing up and just didn't feel good. And then he told me to send Corey's insurance card to him.

And did you send the defendant, Corey's insurance card? I did. And did the defendants say anything about taking Corey to the hospital? Yes. And did the defendant say anything about taking Corey to the hospital? defendant tell you what hospital he was taking Corey to? No. Was that the last time that you had spoken to the defendant on that day?

Yes. At that time, what did you do? I started calling the hospitals to see if Corey was there. I told my mom and we started calling like all the hospitals in the area and they all said he wasn't there. So I called the police and reported him missing and she finally got a call back from one of the hospitals and they said that he was there. So I was on my way out to go to the hospital to see him and two cops knocked on the door.

The way I was informed was him asking me how long my son has been dead for. So that's how I found out. And I was like, who's? Not mine. Mine, I have a six-year-old. Now on Cross, the defense goes quite hard after Brianna's credibility,

and they really are focusing on her struggles with addiction. So there comes a point in January of 220, we were having an issue with drugs. Yes. Yes. And at that point, you lose custody of cord. Yes. All right.

And what was the drug you used? Methamphetamine. And did you go to rehab at that point? I went to a drug program, yes. Now on 4221, at what time? Did Christopher ask you to send him the insurance claim? Around 3.30. Do you remember in this Facebook chat at about 3.49 p.m.

asking a person named B. To bring me a bump. Yes. So that's the day Corey died. It was. And you're asking to bring you a meth or infamidate? Yes. I actually, that day I didn't do it.

Okay. But you wanted to do it. Yeah, I was very upset about my son being abused. So on the day that you are complaining that your son was allegedly abused by Christopher, you're asking you to bring you a vet there, better? I did. Oh, the cross-examination of her was brutal. I actually had to stop myself at one point.

I thought I was going too far. I got somewhat into her drug addiction, her demons. I was allowed to, because it goes right to her credibility. And credibility is always an issue. I wanted the juror to see that. The prosecution calls ER nurse Lindsay Carnival to the stand. And she describes Christopher Greger's last moments with Corey. When Corey was initially in room six of the emergency room,

What was the defendant's demeanor? He was shown lack of emotion. And what was happening with Corey's condition at this time? Corey was not breathing, his heart was not beating. He was basically dead at that point. At approximately 451, did the defendant re-enter the room? He did, at that point, yes. Were you present at that point inside of room six with Corey?

Yes, it 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 six? He did. Did the defendant then ever come back to room six again? No, he did not. And who stayed with Corey?

We did. We were the only ones with him. Christopher did not leave the hospital prior to Corey passing. He was told that Corey passed. The prosecution in the case said that he, didn't emote enough. I don't know if they're experts in emoting who was able to tell somebody how to emote and how not to emote. He can't even get in the room. Look at him. Look at him. That's what they called under emoting. They had to get him a chair. He's inconsolable. That's not a man. Oh my God,

I killed my child that's a man oh my god my child is dead did you just watch the 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 did you see him have to sit in a chair did you see people have to come to his aid did you see him put up privacy screens you saw all that right you always do yeah you always do but you did in this case right Okay. So he was not emotionless? He had lack of emotion. Okay.

David Greger, the defendant's father, is called by the defense. On April 2nd, did you hear from Christopher? I did. What was Christopher's demeanor during that conversation? Hysterical. When's the next time you heard from that? A few months later. He was inconsolable. He just lost his son.

You spoke to your son while you were driving down to the hospital in Stafford, correct? Correct. And when you spoke to your son, you told your son that you were going to contact the police, correct? I did. And when you got to the hospital, after you had told your son that you were going to contact the police, Your son wasn't there at the hospital, correct? He wasn't in the emergency room now.

And when you got to the hospital, Corey was there by himself without any family member, correct? That's correct. They want to let my wife and I in. And in the time between from when your son left until you got there, Corey was alone in the hospital without any family members, correct? As far as I know. From the moment you met Corey until the moment Christopher moved to Barham hit, did you ever see Christopher mistreat, abuse, or hit Corey? Never.

Have you watched a 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. Forensic pathologist Dr. Thomas Andrew, who specializes in pediatrics,

is then called by the prosecution. Do you have an opinion after you reviewed all of this material in regard to the decedent's cause of death? Yes. Corey died of blunt impact injuries of the chest and abdomen, with laceration of the heart, left pulmonary contusion, and laceration and contusion of the liver. Did you formulate an opinion as to the decedent's manner of death?

Corey's manner of death is homicide. In Corey's case, these injuries, given their pattern and distribution, are consistent with having been inflicted by another person, So Corey's death was at the hands of another person, therefore it is a homicide. I think Andrew is the critical witness in this case. He's the one who first determines it was blunt force trauma and abuse that led to the injuries that led to the death. Two particular findings that he talked about and in his report are the lacerations to the liver and the heart. So he's got a partial thickness tear of the heart inside the left.

Now, doctor, can you tell the jurors about the severity of the tear and the relation to thickness? This is a severe injury. This is an injury that triggered cordons. This laceration didn't go all the way through the heart muscle. It's not a hole in the heart. It's not a tear that goes through the heart. the heart. In this instance, in that it was partial thickness, his heart could at least for some hours compensate for this injury. So that's how this injury mediates his death. The heart tries to compensate, the heart eventually decompensates, and he sustains a cardiac arrest due to his trauma. Now the defense calls their own medical expert. The world-renowned forensic pathologist

Dr. Michael Bodden. Some of Dr. Bodden's investigations include the assassinations of of Martin Luther King Jr. and John F. Kennedy. He's a big deal. Now, doctor, there's been a lot made about an injury to Corey's heart. In the medical examiner's report, I believe it's described as a one and a half inch laceration to the heart. Do you have an opinion as to how that one and a half inch laceration to the heart occurred? My opinion is that that that Laceration occurred from continuous CPR compression of the heart that happens with sufficient compression of the heart. The heart has no place to go between the sternum and the thoracic spine so that injuries are common in the heart and lacerations of heart are not the most common but can occur.

So now if somebody was to sustain a one and a half. flacceration to the heart, would that be something that could trouble? Absolutely. And how long would it take a person to die had they received a one-half laceration to the heart? Well, the heart would stop beating within a minute or two. If that injury had occurred at 202 in the afternoon, up until 3.43 in the afternoon, when that's when Mr. Greger arrived at the hospital with Corey,

would he have been dead already? He couldn't live more than two minutes with that kind of injury. Yes, absolutely. Baden tries to argue that the lacerations to the heart happened as a result of CPR on the child. And that's true. It can happen. It's unlikely that it would happen in a hospital setting, but it doesn't explain the lacerations on the liver.

In my opinion, given the age of these injuries, it is entirely incompatible with them having been produced by CPR because they wouldn't have had this inflammatory response. It takes hours to develop. The constellation of all of these findings and the distribution of them throughout the heart says to me that this is not related to CPR, but it's related to chronic ongoing stress.

So while Corey's immediate cause of death was the blunt impact injuries that he sustained the day that he died, the presence of stress cardiomyopathy suggests that there was ongoing physiological stress most likely due to ongoing mistreatment or abuse. In addition to the laceration of the heart that Dr. Andrew found, he found what he described as stress markers in Corey's heart.

The markers, discolorations that he found in the heart were a result of chronic, ongoing stress that was being placed on Corey Mitchell. He said it was stress that would have been far greater than even an athlete training for the Olympics. This is something that happened to Corey's heart. as a result of constantly being in fear of someone or something. Doctor, did you make any findings regarding bruising on the decedent's body,

which was significant in regard to your formulation of your opinion? In assessing the potential for child abuse, it's not so much that contusions are life-threatening in and of themselves, but it's the pattern and distribution of injuries that suggest that a child has been mistreated. And Corey had contusions over a wide area of his body of varying ages from under his chin, his head, his trunk, his extremities.

There was one fairly large one just on the left side of his chest. So my concern was not so much with the severity of the bruising, but the pattern and distribution of the bruising as being suggestive of child abuse. The importance of Dr. Andrew's testimony is that it goes into critical detail of the timeline of injuries leading up to Corey's death. In my opinion, these injuries occurred at roughly the same time, and their age could have been as recent as four hours, but as old as 12 hours prior to when Corey actually died at 5 p.m. on the second. In the initial findings by Dr. Andrew, he found that the time frame of that fatal injury occurred somewhere between 5 a.m. and 1 p.m. on April 2nd, 2021. The significance of that time frame is it's split in the middle where we have four hours where Corey's under the care of his mother.

We have four hours where Corey's under the care of his father. Doctor, can you tell us about the additional evidence that you saw to applying to that time frame? There was a video that was alluded to, and it wasn't an intentional video, and there were no people in the video. It appears as if the phone was like on a car seat or something. And it was represented to me that this was Corey's mother dropping him off for custodial care with his father. And they were having a conversation. Well, this was at about 9 o'clock. Corey was answering questions.

He was conversational. He was normal. Audibly. So if that's at 9 o'clock, the period of time of injury from 5 o'clock to 9 o'clock, in my mind, is eliminated. A person with these injuries is not going to be responding like Corey Wood in the car. So that puts us between 9 a.m. and approximately 1 p.m. I can't narrow it down any more specifically than that. But I am confident that that is the range of time in which, which Corey was injured.

Did he ask me? Well, he's your other parent, so it's his right. He needs to see it because you want to the doctor, and I just wanted to make sure he sees that, okay? I'm not sure where he is.

Yeah, he's inside. I don't know why the car's not a human, it's strange. But Gregor's defense attorney, Mario Galucci, he questions Dr. Andrew's timeline. You also said that initially you put your opinion that had occurred between four and 12 hours, right?

Yes. And then you changed your opinion based upon certain things that you were given after. 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. It is not normal for an expert to change his opinion unless there is something demonstrative to make him change his opinion. So when Dr. Andrews made his initial opinion, it put Brianna directly in the crosshairs.

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 four 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.

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 sustained those ultimately lethal injuries. We look at the time that he spent with his mother inside of that time frame, and we're able to say that for a significant period of that time that he's with his mother, he's either asleep or traveling in the car.

So that limits the time period with his mother greatly. And we're able to even narrow that time frame down a little bit more with the uncovering of the audio recording that Brianna took on her phone, unbeknownst to her, of Corey talking at 9 o'clock that morning on his way into Chris's house. You're able to hear Corey speaking. He's speaking clearly. He's not slurring his words. So we were able to use that video to provide to Dr. Andrew. And as a result, based on Corey's behavior, in that video, he was able to narrow the time frame of the fatal injury between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. when he was in the sole custody of Christopher Greger.

Now, the defense is medical expert again, Dr. Michael Bonden, gives his opinion on the cause and manner of Corey's death. Do you have an opinion after you review all the material in regard to Corey's cause of that? I think that Corey's cause of death has been confused because of extensive injuries caused by the CPR process. But I do agree with the inflammation and sepsis part of his diagnosis. The inflammation and sepsis part of Dr. Regas' diagnosis refers to inflammation in the lung and the finding on culture of bacteria in the lung

that could cause pneumonia and sepsis. In my opinion, the most likely cause of death was a very severe, rapid pneumonia. Did you form an opinion as to, to the manner of death. Well, my opinion would be that the manner of death for all the information we have is natural. Dr. Michael Bodden was trotted out by the defense

as kind of a celebrity medical examiner. He testified in the O.J. Simpson case. He is a big name in the forensic science community. And he testified that the child died of pneumonia brought on by sepsis. I think that the point of that was to say that, oh, the child had an illness. N pneumonia is fluid in the lungs, and the fluid that was there was blood because his heart and his liver were bleeding.

So it was quite a clever way, I thought, to try to explain these injuries away and make it not Chris's fault. Did you make any findings regarding sepsis or infection? That issue came up on the initial examination, and And based not only on the autopsy findings, but my review of the medical records, there's no, zero, not one scintilla of evidence of sepsis or any other infectious process in Corey's autopsy. A number of doctors testified here about numerous injuries to Corey's body, a bruise to his chest, a bruise under his chin, and abrasion to his hip. some life losing on his back. Did you see those injuries? Yes.

In your opinion, did any of these injuries have anything to do with Corey's death? They did not. Dr. Barton is probably the world's greatest forensic pathologist. He's been doing this for, I don't know, 200 years. He invented forensic pathology, let's just say that. And he was able to corroborate every single fact about how Corey died. He went through the anatomy. He went through the biology. He went through

the cell breakdown. He demonstrated that the bruises on his body had absolutely nothing to do with Corey's death. Dr. Baden's testimony that was compared really with Andrews and that made it a little bit of a horse race at the end. As the trial is now heading into closing arguments. This case is shaping up to be a battle, a battle between the testimony of Dr. Baden and Dr. Andrew. Did Corey die from chronic abuse or did he die from natural causes? And who is the jury going to believe? We all want justice for Corey. Justice is not convicting a man for murder who did not commit a murder. there's only one conclusion you could make.

And that's the same conclusion Dr. Bonnet made. Corey died from natural causes. This is not a homicide. Is it tragic? Hell yeah. Said, yes. There's no witness she's sitting here crying. He's sitting here crying.

there's no winner here. Corey died. That's it. There's only one bird that I believe we can come up with. And that's that. Christopher Greger did not kill or abuse Corey. This case is about punishment. On March 20th of 2021,

Corey's mother brought Corey home two hours late. Corey was punished. He was put on a treadmill. We have a video of this treadmill. On April 2nd of 2021, Corey was brought home 14 hours late. Corey was punished.

The person who loved him the most inflicted, blunt forced trauma, which is child abuse. This treadmill video speaks for itself. The treadmill, ladies and gentlemen, is the defendant's mechanism for abuse. You can use this video to show that what happened on April 2nd wasn't an accident or mistake, right? So that's how these two things correlate.

And in this court order, it says the court. reviewed the letter of investigatory findings, right? And Brianna's request for custody was denied. What's really interesting about this is that the court did not have the video. The court only reviewed a letter, and Brianna did not receive custody. Certainly those of us who were parents and who were trying and fighting for our child to protect them and make sure that no harm comes to them. And to be told, this is the mechanism to do that.

And then you go there. And then time and time again, and that mechanism does not respond. And that ultimately the very thing you warned it of happens. And that is tragic and it's devastating. Dr. Andrew's testimony proves that the defendant, murdered his son Corey. The cause of the death, as per the pathologist, was a lethal train of events

and without which death would not have occurred. A strike, a hit. That's what one-force trauma is. Dr. Andrew is able to determine that these blunt-force trauma injuries were inflicted on Corey between 9 a.m. and 1. So the laceration to Corey's heart and liver occurred roughly at the same time. The defendant was the only person who was with his son when these injuries were inflicted.

He was murdered by his father, the person who was supposed to protect him and take care of him the most. His case is about Corey and how he became the ultimate victim of the defendant's punishment and abuse. Six-year-olds just don't die, and neither did Corey. After strong closing arguments from both the defense and the prosecution, the jury begins their deliberations. The jury went back into the deliberation room, and at that point, we realized that it's out of our hands. and we hope we did all we could to present this case in a manner that would serve some justice for Corey Mitchell. We were there when they were deliberating.

We didn't know. We were just hoping for the best. We went to a church and prayed and... They did that a lot. They were a trial. And then hung out with our friends and family outside of the courthouse. So after two days of deliberations, the jury reaches a verdict. Matter four person has the jury reached the verdict.

Yes, sir. And is that verdict unanimous? Yes. Ma'am, I'm going to read to you each count. Please give me the jury's unanimous response. One, how do you find as to count one endangering the welfare of a child? Guilty.

Two, how do you find us to count two murder? Not guilty. When they said not guilty on murder, I thought I had it in the bag. I thought there was a chance that Chris maybe found not guilty, only because law enforcement and the agencies in place to protect hadn't done that yet. They failed us and Corey all along, so I thought there could be a chance. I knew it was a jury that had to decide, but I wasn't sure.

How do you find us to the charge of aggravated manslaughter? Guilty. And you did not answer question four? No, sir. Thank you, Matterford. At this time, I'm going to pull the jury. Chris is not found guilty of murder, but is found guilty of aggravated manslaughter of a child and child endangerment. I think I was just grateful for the manslaughter conviction because, you know, in the beginning of this whole thing, you were just thinking, like, he wasn't going to be charged with anything.

So I was grateful for that conviction. At this time, I would ask the clerk to record and note in the minutes that the verdict is Janaphas. I was very surprised when they convicted him on the aggravating man. I mean, I blasted Andrews. Bonin blasted Andrews. How they didn't believe Dr. Bodden is beyond me. The treadmill count, the endangering, should have been a separate trial.

It should have been severed out. The jury should have never seen that treadmill. That treadmill, without a doubt, is the only reason why Christopher Greger got convicted on the manslaughter. While everyone's out here sacrificing in the heat, I just want to say, hell is a lot hotter. Now, after not taking the stand during the trial phase of this case, Christopher

Greger finally addresses the court during the sentencing hearing. Mr. Greger, sir, is there anything you like to say about yourself or your case? I just want to say thank you for the opportunity to speak today. And Brianna, we haven't talked since Corey passed away. With everything that has been said, I just want to tell you that I'm sorry that you lost Corey. He was, say simply, the best. I know we'll miss him for the rest of our lives. In the two years that I knew Corey were very difficult, but they were the greatest years in my life.

I feel like the way he said to Brianna, I'm sorry you lost Corey. It made me want to jump up and say, Corey's not lost, asshole, you killed him. I'm sorry you believe I could have done this to our son, that I could have hurt the most important person in my life. What happened on March 20th, was inexcusable. To you, Brianna, your family, and mine, I want to apologize that you had to see

Corey treated that way. Never deserved it. I want to assure you that on April 2nd, I did nothing to cause Corey's passing. 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 higher. And whether you believe Dr. Bodden or Dr. Andrew's version of the events, the outcome is still the same. Corey is gone. I understand you have a job to do today, Your Honor. I ask you to sentence me fairly, taking me into consideration my entire life and not just based on the 12 days. It was fake. He wasn't apologizing for anything. It didn't mean anything. It was bullshit. it. Before Christopher Greger is officially sentenced, Rebecca and Brianna Michalo deliver their victim

impact statements. Your Honor, Corey knew he was going to die. On the Sunday prior to Corey's death, just five days before his death, Corey was at my house and preparing to take a bath. When he undressed, he was covered in bruises. I had to turn away so Corey didn't see the tears in my eyes. Once Corey was dressed, we sat in my bed. Cori looked at me and he said, hey, Jima, just God see what my daddy does to me? I told him, God sees everything. This voice got very low. He said, why doesn't he help me? My heart was breaking as I told him that God was helping someone else who needed him more right now. That same Sunday, Corey was outside writing with chalk on the sidewalk. Later in the day, Brianna and I noticed Corey had written, I died near our front door. Cori knew nobody could help him.

He knew he was going to die, and he accepted it. Your Honor, my conversation with Corey five days prior to his death, and the day of his death will forever haunt me. Please teach this man that his actions have consequences. Corey wanted a daddy, but instead he got this monster, Chris Greger. Your Honor, please give Corey justice today. Thank you. Your Honor, my name is Brianna Mitchellow, and I appear before you today not only as a grieving mother, but also an advocate for justice.

Corey was and still is my life, my world and my everything. On April 2nd of 2021, I hesitantly dropped Corey off at the defendant's home, which is a mistake that will haunt me for the rest of my life. I kissed my son goodbye unknowing me for the last time. I wish I knew it was going to happen and I would never let him go. My new reality is explaining to my daughter. What happens to her big brother and why is he not here? I take her to the cemetery.

to see Corey every weekend and a year and a half old, she knows where Corey is buried. It is heartbreaking. She sits in police with the cars and toys we left there for him. Throughout everything he did to Corey, Corey still loved him. He looked up to you and he wanted, still wanted to be, I'm sorry, and he still wanted him to be like a real father.

who treated him like his son. Instead of being a good role model for Corey, he decided to beat him to death. I hate you for not letting me say goodbye to my son, but I thank God. Your face is not the last one he saw. I'm sorry. Your Honor, Corey should be going into fifth grade in September.

Hang now with his friends. Playing sports and enjoying his life. Christopher roused him of his entire future. I beg you to not allow this injustice to continue. and he must face the full consequences of his actions. Judge Guy Ryan doesn't just then hand down his sentence. He's got some words for Christopher Greger. I need to impose sentence.

I'm also entitled to consider as aggravating factor three that the defendant committed these two separate acts on separate dates. That the treadmill video shows a callous display of the defendant towards Corey. And then after Corey falls repeatedly and then they walk. out. There's no loving interaction. There's no pat on the back. Good job, son. There's no hug. Are you okay, son? There's nothing. So while I respect the character letters I received saying what a loving father he is, a picture is worth a thousand words and a video is worth 10,000 words. So whatever happened that day, Corey was not receiving love or companionship or

kindness or support. That was abuse of the most agreed. It's short. And it doesn't square with the defendant's statements today. On count two, aggravated manslaughter, I sentenced the defendant to the custody of the commissioner of department of corrections for a term of 20 years. On count one, endangering the welfare of a child, the second degree crime, I sentenced the defendant

to the custody of the commissioner of department corrections for a term of five years. I conclude that count one and two should be consecutive. anytime that we're able to convict someone of a homicide-related charge, in this case, was the aggravated manslaughter, it brings a little bit of justice. However, there's no amount of jail time or anything that can bring back Corey Mitchell, that can bring him back into his mother's life. We do as much as we can, but we know that we're never going to be able to fill that void. So I have a fiancé and my daughter.

Everything's great, but you always feel deep down like something's missing. It changed everything. You know, my brother passed away. And I have to, you know, be on antidepressants, like probably the rest of my life. I never returned to work after. Corey's uncle, Gino, my son, passed away a year after Corey. Gina was a struggling addict. You know, he'd been clean for quite some time.

But I think this might have pushed him over the edge. She and Corey should both be here today and they're not. I tell my daughter about Corey all the time. She knows his name. We take her to visit him, you know, at the cemetery. I just tried to make her as happy as I can and be the best parent I can to her. This is where Corey's buried with his great-grandmother. They're together.

And this is where we come to sit with Corey. We didn't want Corey to be alone, so it made sense to put him with my mom. When he first passed away, I was here like three times a day. I didn't want to leave. Now, I would say, like, weekly. I'll come on the weekends with my daughter, like every Saturday or Sunday. And then every holiday, of course. Every holiday, yeah.

We used to bring, like, lawn chairs and just sit up here. Or a blanket and just sit here. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, dear. Corey. How he's saying. Happy birthday to you. All right, blow it out.

We're done. Oh, yay. Thank you. Do you want to hold them? I don't want Corey to be remembered as the treadmill kid or the kid on the treadmill because he was so much more than that. That's why I continued to talk. I've written a book that's not published yet because I want to tell Corey's story. I want everybody to hear it.

I hope Corey's legacy will be. will be, we love his story to help other children, and I try to do that as much as I can, and we just want there to be awareness on child abuse. I want there to be awareness that DCP&P fails a lot of kids, and I think Corey would love for us to do that and to help other children. We're trying to get a law past what we're hoping

will be named Corey's law. There were a lot of people that failed Corey. One being the Child Abuse Expert is not available 24-7 in a hospital. Guess what abuse happens all the time, not 9 to 5. So I would hope that this law is put in place and it can save another child because Corey would want to do that. He loved helping.

He loved taking care of other people. What better way than to save a life? If we don't change the laws, laws don't change. So Rebecca and Brianna have presented the outline of a bill called S4093 to a New Jersey state senator. And the three central pillars of this bill are a mandatory immediate forensic examination in suspected abuse cases. B, independent interviews away from alleged abusers. And C, real-time cross-agency coordination between ERs, pediatricians, police department, schools, and daycares. Brianna and Rebecca, they hope that by passing what they're calling Corey's law,

this can not only protect children, but potentially save their lives in future cases of abuse.