A stepmom who described herself as “wicked” has been convicted of murdering her NYPD cop fiancé’s autistic eight-year-old son by “banishing” him to a freezing cold garage floor.
Angela Pollina admitted in testimony earlier this week that she helped keep her stepsons Thomas and Anthony sleeping in the garage of their Long Island home for months while she, her fiancé Michael Valva and their daughters slept inside in the warmth.
“I was angry. I banished them, I didn’t know what to do. My hands were tied,’ Pollina admitted.
However, she claimed that she didn’t believe stepson Thomas was near death shortly before he died of hypothermia, even though his body temperature had dropped to a shocking 76 degrees.
‘I’m not a doctor. He didn’t seem to be in any danger at this point. I didn’t see that he was blue.’
Angela Pollina, a stepmother who described herself as “wicked,” has been convicted of murdering her NYPD cop husband’s autistic eight-year-old son by “banishing” him to a freezing cold garage floor.
Instead of helping the boy, she returned to the kitchen to pay the family’s bills when he perished on the garage floor.
Tina Licari, Pollina’s daughter’s former piano teacher, testified that she saw Pollina have “vicious outbursts” toward the boys, the New York Post reported. She once said she heard her mocked Thomas’ autism and mocked him for not being able to speak.
Authorities discovered that Valva and Pollina were sending each other text messages showing their collusion, and Pollina destroyed them because “Michael ordered me to,” she confessed. They finally showed up clearly enough on security footage.
She could face 25 years of life if sentenced on April 11, according to CBS New York.
On Jan. 17, 2020, Valva — who was convicted of murder and is now serving 25 years to life himself — let son Thomas Valva sleep in her freezing garage the night before he died of hypothermia.
Prosecutors revealed over the course of a month-long trial that Valva and his then-fiancé forced son Thomas and older brother Anthony to sleep in the garage of their Long Island home when temperatures dropped below 20F.
They claimed in court that the boys were forced to endure 16 hours in the cold garage with no blankets or access to a bathroom as punishment for urinating and defecating at the Center Moriches home.
A coroner later ruled that Thomas died of hypothermia, as authorities said Michael refused to call 911 for at least an hour after he fell unconscious.
Michael Valva, a former NYPD officer, has been sentenced to 25 years to life for killing his eight-year-old son by forcing him to sleep on the concrete floor of a garage when temperatures plummeted below freezing
Thomas Valva, 8, died after being forced to sleep in the garage of his father’s house in central Moriches and told to hose down after soiling himself the next morning
“I am truly sorry, regretted, mortified, heartbroken and stricken with grief as I stand before you after contributing to the death of my son Thomas,” Valva said ahead of the sentencing hearing.
“I love Thomas with all my heart as I still love Anthony and Andrew.”
His lawyers had tried to portray Michael as a doting father who was being manipulated by his then-fiancée Angelina Pollina, with whom he shared the two-story Long Island home.
They said it was Pollina who came up with the idea of forcing the brothers to sleep in the garage, as Michael tearfully apologized in court for his actions, saying Thomas’ death was an accident.
At the sentencing hearing, Newsday reports, Judge Condon told Valva that he believes he is genuinely sorry for what happened to his young son.
“I don’t think you intended to kill Thomas, but there’s no getting away from the fact that Thomas and Anthony lived their lives in constant duress,” Condon said, adding that the fact that he was a at the time was a NYPD officer was, ‘Your actions affect so much unimaginable.’
The veteran judge, who plans to retire at the end of the year, was then swallowed as he said: “We can never let that happen again.”
He then passed the verdict as Valva was seen tearing as his bottom lip trembled.
Valva, 43, tried to apologize for his actions before his sentencing in Suffolk County Superior Court on Long Island on Thursday
Valva’s defense attorneys had tried to pin the blame on his former fiancee Angela Pollina, 42, (right), saying Valva was being manipulated by her and it was her idea to take Thomas and his older brother Anthony into the garage that day to force
Angelina Pollina allegedly participated in the abuse and castrated Thomas with cold water during the ordeal at the Center Moriches home. Pictured: Pollina and Valva
Following the announcement, Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said justice had been served in the “heartbreaking” case.
“Thanks to the great work of my prosecutors and the SCPD, there is a small measure of justice if Michael Valva receives the maximum sentence,” he said at a subsequent press conference.
“However, no prison sentence is adequate for the cruel treatment this defendant inflicted on his own children. The torture that killed Thomas and endangered Anthony’s well-being was nothing short of evil.”
“Thankfully, this defendant’s story ends here, but the quest for justice for Thomas and Anthony continues.
“We will continue to do everything in our power to hold those responsible for the torture and abuse of these children accountable and to ensure that Suffolk County has adequate safeguards in place to prevent such a case from ever happening again.” he added.
Authorities said they were first dispatched to the Long Island home where the boy had lived around 9:40 a.m. after his father said the boy fell in the driveway and passed out while running to the school bus.
Intervention officers found Valva performing CPR on Thomas in the basement. The boy was then taken to Long Island Community Hospital, where nurses recorded his body temperature at just 76.1 degrees.
He was later pronounced dead of complications from hypothermia.
A subsequent investigation found that cameras and microphones set up at Michael Valva’s home following a series of calls to child protection services recorded him ordering Thomas to hose himself down in freezing temperatures after waking up in the garage and soiled himself.
Prosecutors said this could have been an early sign he was suffering from hypothermia.
After beginning to hose himself down, authorities said Thomas lost consciousness and fell face first onto the concrete patio in the backyard several times.
Audio files, meanwhile, were recorded by the couple discussing Thomas suffering from hypothermia, having been washed with cold water, unable to walk and “planting his face” on the concrete.
They laughed as they said “he has hypothermia” and that he had “planted the ground in his face.”
Pollina remarked: “Do you know why he falls?”.
Valva replied: “Because he’s cold… boo f*****g hoo”.
According to prosecutors, it was another hour before Michael called for help.
After his death, Thomas’s brothers were placed in the care of their mother. while Pollina’s daughters were placed in the care of their biological fathers.
She now faces child endangerment and second-degree murder in a trial scheduled to begin in February and has pleaded not guilty.
Thomas lived in the home with his older brother Anthony, as well as a younger brother and Pollina’s three daughters
Prosecutors have described the two-story home as a “house of horrors” as they detail the abuse Thomas and Anthony endured
In the days that followed, investigators found repeated reports of extreme punishment and starvation being endured by the boys in the home.
Teachers have since testified that the boys came to school with bruises and were often so hungry they ate crumbs off the floor.
They often complained about being cold, the teachers said, and cried about their life at home at East Moriches Elementary School.
One teacher even shared how Thomas confided in her that one day he didn’t get breakfast because he “didn’t use my words” or verbally greeted Pollina or called her “Mom.”
East Moriches Elementary School principal Edward Schneyer said when suspicions of the child’s neglect were reported to Michael, he dismissed the concerns.
As a result, the school began “flooding” CPS with calls for Thomas’ well-being, Schneyer said.
Schneyer said that Thomas and his older brother, Anthony, were good looking when they first started school in 2017, but later came to class and looked “extremely emaciated.”
The young brothers came to school cold and hungry, and Thomas sometimes came to class with bruises and cuts on his face.
Anthony, who was 10 at the time, also once came to school drenched in urine.
The children’s conditions temporarily improved each time the school filed a new CPS complaint, but the changes were short-lived, Schneyer said.
Justyna Zubko-Valva, Thomas’ mother, recently got the green light to sue child protection services and school officials for $200 million after they refused to listen to her concerns about her ex-husband’s abuse
Zubko-Valva and her son Thomas before his death. Thomas’ father was awarded custody of Thomas in 2017
Justyna Zubko-Valva, Thomas’ mother, said she spent two years providing the school with evidence of alleged abuse by his father. The evidence ranged from audio recordings to medical records.
She recently got the green light to sue child protection services and school officials for $200 million, a judge ruled.
The father was awarded custody of his two sons – both autistic – in 2017, but Zubko-Valva claims that Thomas’s school did nothing to address their abuse allegations for a full year afterwards.
She claims she gave CPS a USB stick with 320 files containing evidence of abuse, including transcripts from Valva teaching his sons ‘Mom is mean’, ‘I don’t want to stay with Mommy’, ‘I don’t love’ too repeat mom.’
Zubko-Valva said Valva told CPS that she was the abusive mother, that she hit the children and poisoned them with “brown medicine.”
She accused CPS of lying about her findings and fabricated evidence to support the father’s allegations.
Thomas’ mother said that CPS noticed he looked “emaciated” but that they dropped their investigation into Valva 10 days before her son’s death.
SCHEDULE TO TRAGEDY: THE CASE OF THOMAS VALVA
Michael Valva, 41, is charged with second-degree murder and child endangerment in the death of his son Thomas, 8, who was on the autism spectrum and was forced to freeze in a garage overnight in January.
February 4, 2011: Justyna Zubko-Valva, Michael Valva’s now estranged wife, accused Michael of verbal and financial abuse.
September 14, 2011: Thomas Valva is born.
Late 2014: Zubko-Valva accuses Valva of having an affair with Angela Pollina.
2015: Divorce proceedings between Zubko-Valva and Valva begin.
July 2016: Zubko-Valva accused Valva of child abuse, including starvation, dehydration and not providing medical attention to son Anthony when he had a fever.
September 2017: Valva is granted interim custody, with Zubko-Valva receiving unsupervised visits every other weekend.
Fall 2017: East Moriches Elementary School staff express concern about abuse at the Valva home.
January 2018: Thomas and Anthony both accuse Zubko-Valva of abuse after meeting with a CPS worker.
April 2018: School psychologist Renee Emin sees bruises on Thomas that Valva allegedly inflicted on him.
February 2019: CPS report says Anthony goes to school with urine soaking.
March 2019: CPS report again cites potential malnutrition and garage penalties.
May 2019: CPS report says Valva threw a book bag at Thomas’ head.
January 16, 2020: Thomas and Anthony are allegedly forced to sleep overnight with blankets, pillows or mattresses in the freezer garage.
January 17, 2020: Suffolk County Police respond to the 911 call after Thomas fell in the driveway. He is pronounced dead at Long Island Community Hospital.
January 24, 2020: Valva and Pollina are arrested and charged with second-degree murder and child endangerment.
February 2020: Valva tells Suffolk Family Court he has been sacked but police claim he was simply suspended without pay.
June 2020: Zubko-Valva files a $200 million lawsuit against officials for failing to heed her warnings about the abuse Thomas was subjected to.
October 28, 2020: Valva resigns from the NYPD with his pension intact.
Source: Newsday