Thomas Valva Froze In Icy Garage 'For The Sin Of Being Autistic': ADA

LONG ISLAND, NY — The jury has begun deliberations in the murder trial of Angela Pollina and is slated to continue Friday morning.

Summations wrapped up Thursday in the murder trial of Pollina — former fiancée of Michael Valva, an ex-NYPD officer convicted of murder in the death of his 8-year-old son Thomas, who died of hypothermia after being forced to sleep in his father's frigid garage — as Assistant District Attorney Kerriann Kelly fiercely delivered her scathing closing arguments, leaving the jury visibly upset.

Kelly painted a vivid picture of Pollina, saying she "acted in concert" with Valva and was responsible for brandishing cruel punishment — forcing the boys to sleep in a freezing garage, go without food, and attend school in urine-soaked clothes, sneakers and pull-ups — all because of their "sin of being autistic," she said.

Valva and Pollina were arrested Jan. 24, 2020, and charged with second-degree murder and four counts of endangering the welfare of a child. Each faced 25 years to life in prison, and both pleaded not guilty.

Jurors convicted Valva of second-degree murder and four counts of endangering the welfare of a child. The boy froze to death in the Center Moriches garage. His father was sentenced to 25 years to life behind bars.

Kelly began her summation: "The boy has a name. His name is Thomas Valva."

Pollina's defense attorney Matthew Tuohy and even Pollina herself during her testimony had repeatedly referred to Thomas as "the boy." He was, Kelly said, "at the age of 8, brutally murdered at the hands of the people who were supposed to protect him from harm at any turn."

Tuohy, Kelly said, often told the jury to "stay in the play," and remain focused on the events of the day Thomas died. Pollina "stayed in the play — and the play was to force those boys to live in a freezing cold garage, with no bathroom," because they were autistic, Kelly said.

It was because of Pollina, Kelly said, that Thomas was outside the morning in the freezing cold, being hosed down with icy water, because she had for months refused to let the boys use the bathrooms in the house or wash inside.

The only difference on that morning was that Valva was home and not at work, but had it happened on any other morning, Pollina would also have forced Thomas to be cleaned off or urinate outside, Kelly said.

"No matter what, he was not allowed inside to use the bathroom," Kelly said. "They acted together as one that day. It was no different than any other morning."

In a video Jan. 5, when Valva was working and Pollina was home, the boys were also shown sleeping in the garage, struggling to stay warm, with Thomas taking a dirty towel from the laundry to try and cover himself, she said. Pollina texted Valva the video, calling Thomas an "SOB" and a "sneak."

"If that isn't cruel,I don't know what is," Kelly said.

Kelly showed a photo in school, smiling bravely and giving a thumb's up in a place where, she said, he knew he was loved; his hands were violently red and chapped from the cold. In the next photo, Kelly showed the photo of Thomas, so small and "terribly thin," his face marked by bruised and cuts, taken at his autopsy — just 24 hours after the first photo was taken.

"The very next day he was dead," Kelly said. "She forced him to be out in the cold," she added, turning quickly to point at Pollina and stare directly at her.

The photos, she said, showed how thin Thomas was because he wasn't fed when he didn't behave the way Pollina wanted; teachers said he was eating crumbs off the floor at school and out of the garbage.

Kelly showed a final photo, taken on October 31, 2019, the final Halloween the 8-year old ever got to celebrate. He was dressed as a prisoner.

"How pathetic is that?" Kelly asked. "How pathetic is it that he died a prisoner in a cold garage?"

She added: "The evidence that she forced Thomas and Anthony to live in that garage is overwhelming."

Just Wednesday, Pollina testified that texts she'd written described the brothers as "dirty, stinky, filthy little boys. So she locked them up like caged animals because she didn't want them to stink up her house," Kelly said.

Pollina wanted the boys to go back to their mother, Kelly said. "She didn't want those boys in her home. She kept poking the bear that was Michael Valva and that was why they were in the garage."

She read a series of text sent by Pollina, saying the boys "stink." "One one day she wrote, "I want my garage and home back," she said. "This is disgusting. It stinks in here."

Thomas was outside cold and naked on Jan. 17, 2020 "because of her," Kelly said. "It was cruel and unusual punishment for little boys whose sin was autism."

Teachers testified that the boys had started school in 2017 happy and healthy, toilet trained and doing well in class, Kelly said.

"But within a matter of months there was a drastic change," she said. The boys also no longer saw their biological mother for two years before Thomas died.

"When that happened and she was no longer in the picture, they had to rely on this defendant, acting as their mother figure, and she racheted it up, because now they were hers all the time and she could delegate the boys to the garage and take away the bathroom."

Valva and Pollina never took advantage of special services offered by the district; Kelly maintained it was due to Pollina, who was in charge most of the time while Valva worked 70 miles away in Brooklyn.

"She could have been patient and loving," Kelly said. "But she resorted to what she reluctantly told you yesterday was cruel and unusual punishment. It was evil."

Kelly said the only reason Pollina acknowledged it was to "mitigate liability. Don't let her get away with that," she said. "There is evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that she shared equal responsibility."

By the time Thomas died, he and Anthony were living in the garage, sleeping, eating, playing and talking, "but definitely not allowed inside to use the bathroom." The rest of the family, including the dog Bella, were sleeping in the warm house.

Pollina, she said, bought three separate dog beds for Bella. "You know what those boys had for a bed? Nothing!" Kelly said. The dog had blankets, food, and water bowls and the "children had nothing," she said.

Kelly also reminded the jury about the text from Pollina saying Valva had made the garage "too comfortable" for them and saying that she wanted nothing that belongs in a bedroom, including books and clothes, to remain.

By the time Thomas died, even the mattress was gone and was later burned, a symbol of "guilt, evidence that the kids stayed in the garage," Kelly said.

Pollina tried to convince the jury that by Jan. 17 when Thomas died, she was not responsible for putting the boys in the garage or for his death. "Don't let her get away with that," Kelly said. "She stayed in the play, like Mr. Tuohy said. "It's all because of her."

Pollina could have allowed Thomas and his brother to use the bathroom, to come inside the warm house when Valva was working, 70 long miles away, she said. In fact, one text showed Pollina angry because Valva let the boys inside when she wasn't home, she said — and the punishment? "She said, 'That's fine. We'll see if he has a mattress tonight.' . . . There is overwhelming evidence that this was all because of her."

During Kelly's summation, one juror wiped away tears.

"Is there any doubt in your mind that this child was outside, washed in cold water, because he wasn't allowed in the house because of this defendant?" Kelly asked.

Thomas was wearing the same clothes he'd worn to school the night before he died, she said.

Valva texted Pollina that his son "was not going to be treated like an outcast, exiled. I'm not having it anymore," Kelly said; he also said Pollina's methods didn't work. "I know you hate being wrong but I don't want my son living like a prisoner," Kelly said Valva texted.

"He is not coming into this house," Pollina's text said, according to Kelly.

Although their photos depicted a perfect, Brady Bunch-like facade, it was all a lie, Kelly said. "They were living in a shroud of secrecy because of what was going on in that house." The reality was "twisted," she said. "It was a coverup," their treatment of the boys "sadistic," she said.

Kelly then said that Valva and Pollina were "complicit" and shared equal responsibility for what happened to the boys: Both made them sleep in the garage, both didn't give them bedding or proper clothing, both starved them, both denied access to the bathroom, she said.

"They denied those children the basic necessities of life, together — that's acting in concert," Kelly said.

On the morning Thomas died, it was 19 degrees out — Valva and Poillina had had a conversation with Valva saying it was too cold for him — and yet Pollina made no move, not once, to take the boys out of the garage; instead, she continued doing her bills and making a dental appointment, Kelly said.

"The duty of care existed for her, just like any other day," Kelly said, but still, Pollina never suggested bringing the boys in or asking if Thomas was okay after Valva told her he'd fallen on the concrete outside. While Pollina said her relationship with Valva had gone downhill, she still owed the boys proper care, Kelly said: "Responsibility and care for a child isn't something you can turn off like a light switch."

Valva and Pollina had a normal conversation that morning, despite the fact that the boys were freezing in the garage.

Even when Anthony knocked at the door asking for a sip of water, and Valva said okay, Pollina told him she never gave them water in the morning. "Immediately, he did exactly what she wanted. That's how you know she's the reason Thomas was in the backyard that day."

Kelly said Pollina's testimony was "evasive and wasn't credible," and definitely not transparent.

"She wants you to believe she didn't know Thomas fell. That was a lie, according to the video," Kelly said.

Pollina was more concerned about the neighbors would think than she was about Thomas when she heard Valva screaming at him outside. "Like any household with abuse of children, you hide it," she said.

Referring to the testimony of Suffolk County's medical examiner Dr. Michael Kaplan, Kelly said it was likely Thomas was in the third or fourth stage of hypothermia that morning when he woke up, that's why he was falling and catatonic and why he was urinating and defecating for so long; Dr. Kaplan said just being outside in cold water for that short time wouldn't have brought Thomas' core temperature down to 76.1 degrees so fast, Kelly said. It would have taken hours, she said.

Kelly said it was possible Thomas actually died in the garage and when Valva called Pollina in, there were devising a plan on what to tell people. They waited an hour to call 911 to concoct the story, she said, adding that they had to call eventually because they couldn't leave a dead child in the basement.

Pollina, Kelly said, "didn't care about that child one iota. Not one bit."

When her daughter asked why Thomas couldn't walk that morning, Pollina told her he was hypothermic, Kelly said. "She knew exactly what was wrong and still didn't get any help," she said.

Kelly also said the reason Pollina's story waffled between Valva giving Thomas a bath, then calling it a shower, then a bath again, was because "that never happened. That was part of the story they concocted."

And, she added, Polina told the house cleaner that Thomas fell on the way to the bus — a lie, because he'd never even gone to the bus.

EMTs who got to the house found Thomas blue, freezing cold, his pupils fixed and dilated, with no pulse and no breaths; noting helped, Kelly said. "He never came back." He did not just suddently go into cardiac arrest and Pollina told the story the way they did to protect herself, Kelly said.

She also "surgically deleted the videos" from her phone, not Valva, Kelly said.

Although Dr. Kaplan said there are instances when someone in hypothermia can be saved, Pollina never told the EMTs or anyone Thomas was hypothermic, she said.

When Valva called her to the garage, Kelly told the jury, "Listen to the tone of his voice. That tone is, 'Oh, s---, this is bad,'" she said.

When Pollina told the house cleaner about Thomas, Kelly said, "The f------ idiot fell on the way to the bus." She added, "She couldn't even be kind to him in death."

Kelly scoffed at the idea that Pollina sat on the urine-soaked garage floor comforting Thomas, as she'd testified, putting her hand on his open wound and wiping away his tears. "None of that happened," Kelly said. "It absurd and insulting to think it did."

Also, Pollina kept saying she didn't believe Thomas was in grave danger; Kelly asked, then, why Pollina was crying in the video when she went to get the space heater, when Thomas was in the basement. "It was all part of the coverup," she said.

Pollina's testimony was "all mistruths and misinformation to cover up for herself," Kelly said.

The prosecution proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Pollina knew the risks to Thomas and consciously disregarded them, Kelly said. "We all know about the risks of cold," Kelly said, adding that's why people bundle children up in boots and mittens and hats. Even Valva texted Pollina when it was snowing on Jan. 4 and said, "I hope the boys don't get hypothermia," she said.

Pollina sent videos of the boys on the floor in the garage; they were curled up on the floor "because they are freezing to death— and in Thomas's case, he did," she said. Pollina evinced depraved indifference to human life, Kelly said.

Not giving Thomas a blanket after she said Thomas was hypothermic was depraved, not taking them out of the garage when she knew how cold it was depraved, and not calling 911 until an hour later was depraved, Kelly said.

"She failed to do what any human being under the same circumstances would do, with an 8-year-old in that state, witnessing that complete deterioration of him," Kelly said.

But even bringing him a blanket in the basement, "after he had gone over the cliff from life to lifelessness, was way too late in the game. It's liked pouring a bucket of water on a raging inferno — too little, too late," Kelly said.

And, Kelly said, Thomas backpack was still in the garage a week later, on the floor untouched, when Valva and Pollina were arrested, warm in their bed. His books, his lunch box, his handwriting, were all there in the backpack. "Right where it alway was — where he lived, in the garage," Kelly said. "If you think she'd didn't have utter disregard for his life, just think about that."

Matthew Tuohy finished his cross-examination Thursday before closing arguments.

Speaking with the press after he addressed the jury, defense attorney Matthew Tuohy had tears in his eyes.

"It's emotional," he said. "She's fighting for her life. It's in God's hands now."

Tuohy has maintained Pollina's innocence from the start of the proceedings..

"When we deal with the death of a child, the emotions impact everyone," he said.

Tuohy himself said one night in his office he saw the photo of Thomas taken at his autopsy.

"It's haunting," he said. "To see this beautiful boy, who had these long eyelashes, I sat there and looked at this and none of this makes any sense. It's senseless."

But, he said, "Convicting Angela Pollina of murder is not going to make this right. Angela Pollina did not murder this boy."

Tuohy has long maintained that Valva murdered Thomas. Pollina took the stand to "own up" to her bad actions and behavior that was cruel and "b-----," he said.

Using a sports analogy, his goal has been to "stay in the play" and focus solely on Pollina's actions on the day Thomas died.

"All that stuff that happened before, that's being used to vilify Angela Pollina, so you hate her," Tuohy said. "There's no crime for someone being mean, making bad judgments, being verbally abusive. There's no statute for that."

He added: "They want you to believe she acted with depraved indifference. That's not the case. Convicting her of a murder she didn't commit doesn't take us to the light — it keeps us in the dark."

Tuohy reminded the jury of presumption of innocence, and the fact that the burden of proof lies with the prosecution.

Pollina, Tuohy said, did not have to testify, but she did, to be transparent.

"She wanted to own up to what she did — and didn't do," he said.

Tuohy listed all the witnesses called by the prosecution and said that none of them were there the day Thomas died, or "in the play."

Thomas died of hypothermia, and it was Valva, he said, who brought him into the yard and hosed him in the frigid cold.

Pollina, he said, "could be mean, she could be a disciplinarian, she could exile them in the garage, but she had no part in that. That was all the father."

When Thomas was cold and injured after falling outside repeatedly on the cold cement, Pollina went to get blankets and a space heater. Valva put him in the warm bath or shower that could have been fatal, not Pollina, Tuohy said.

"Angela Pollina did not bring the boy out in the freezing cold. She did not hose him off. She did not bring downstairs and put him in the bath or warm shower. Michael Valva did that, and that caused the boy, who is in various stages of hypothermia, to go into cardiac arrest," Tuohy said.

The prosecution, he said, has not met their "burden of proof, by any means. There's lots of bad talk about my client. And there's lots of bad behavior, and we're not going to whitewash that."

But he questioned why the jury had never heard testimony from house cleaner Tyrene Rodriguez, also in the house the day Thomas died.

"Angela Pollina got up and testified because she's been so vilified and she's done some bad things, evil acts, exiling them to the garage. She did that. But she didn't put them in the garage on the day Thomas died. You can convict her of putting them in the garage, but don't convict her of murder. She didn't murder the boy."

On the morning he died, Tuohy said Pollina didn't believe Thomas was in grave danger and when she saw he wasn't responding, did run for a phone to call 911, he said.

"We don't convict people of murder because we hate them, because they are b------," he told the jury. "I have faith that you'll look at her and say she's not guilty of murder."

To reporters after his summation, Tuohy said, tears in his eyes, "It's in God's hands now."