NEW YORK — A jury has reached a verdict in the trial of the stepmother of an 8-year-old boy on Long Island who died after being forced to sleep in the family’s freezing garage. The father of the minor and a former New York police officer has already been convicted.
Angela Pollina was found guilty on all counts Friday afternoon for her role in the death of Thomas Valva. The verdict comes after a harrowing trial in which prosecutors portrayed her as “riotous, evil and cruel” as well as a murderer. Pollina’s defense attorneys said that no matter what anyone might think about her behavior toward the boy, she did not murder him.
Valva and her older brother, Anthony, spent 16 hours in the garage of the Suffolk County home with no heat, on a night when the outside temperature dipped below freezing, according to prosecutors. The brothers, both with autism, were in the garage as punishment for constantly urinating and defecating in the house.
The two were washed in the backyard with cold water from the hose, because Pollina refused to let them into the house to bathe, prosecutors alleged.
In the days after Thomas’s death, investigators unraveled a series of disturbing allegations — repeated, extreme punishment, starvation, being locked in a freezing garage for hours — at the hands of his father and his then-fiancée.
Prosecutors tried to portray Polina as an “evil stepmother” who tortured the children out of frustration over their incontinence problems. They urged the jury not to believe Polina when she said she tried to help Thomas, who died of hypothermia and had a core temperature of 76 degrees when she arrived at the hospital.
“He told Gia she was hypothermic, he never gave her a blanket, that’s depraved… He never asked if Thomas was okay after he fell, or if he should see a doctor, that’s depraved,” prosecutor Kerriann said. Kelly. “She knew something was seriously wrong with Thomas and she didn’t do anything. That’s depraved.”
During the trial, Pollina was asked if she thought she had a “duty to protect [a los niños] from any harm” when she watched them while their father worked at night, or if he treated them differently from the other children. She responded in the same way on both occasions, simply saying “I did the best I could.”
He was also asked if he allowed the children to use the bathroom inside the four-bedroom, four-bathroom home. She said no.
Pollina’s defense team told the jury not to be swayed by witnesses who testified that she was a cruel and abusive stepmother. Despite the prosecution’s character attacks, her lawyers said that no matter how they looked at her, she was not the one who killed Thomas Valva.
“I wanted to be honest and say they can hate her, but she didn’t commit murder. I don’t think it’s even close, everyone has vilified her,” defense attorney Matthew Tuohy told jurors during closing arguments Thursday.
The defense sought to distance Pollina from Michael Valva, who is serving a 25-year to life sentence after he was convicted in November 2022 of murder in the death of his son. The jury also convicted him of manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide.
The defense at the father’s trial said it was Pollina’s idea to remove the children, while Pollina’s lawyers blamed Michael. Prosecutors at Pollina’s trial insisted the two acted together to torture the boy.
“They were not given access to a bathroom while in the garage. They denied those kids the basic necessities of life together, that’s acting in concert,” Kelly said.
There were text messages between Pollina and Michael Valva showing that Pollina had refused to let the children use the bathrooms in the house and even tried to punish them by taking away their mattresses and blankets in the garage where they were exiled.
A 2019 text from Michael Valva to Pollina read: “My son will no longer be treated as an outcast. He will no longer sleep on a concrete floor. He will not be exiled, I will no longer accept him.”
Another text message was sent on January 5, 2020 from Pollina. It said, “Everything is coming out of there, books, clothes, etc. They’re too comfortable a punishment because you made it a home. There shouldn’t be anything that belongs in a bedroom in there.”
Two weeks later, Thomas Valva died.
Pollina’s ex, and the father of her youngest daughter, said during her trial that “my daughter and one of the twins understood: just do what mom says and you’ll get the fewest reactions.”
