The jury reached a unanimous verdict Friday, finding Angela Pollina guilty of second-degree murder in the death of Thomas Valva. She was also found guilty of four counts of endangering the welfare of a child.
Pollina is the 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.
At 3:05 p.m., the jury announced that the verdict had been reached. Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney entered the courtroom to await the jury’s decision. Also present in the courtroom were jurors from the previous trial of Michael Valva.
The jury reached their decision after six hours of deliberation, one hour on Thursday and five, on Friday.
There were two points on which the jurors requested read-back of the evidence. The first was the testimony from Suffolk County chief medical examiner Dr. Michael Kaplan regarding the definition of hypothermia; Thomas, he said, was in Stage 4, with a core body temperature of under 77 degrees.
Kaplan said while dousing a boy already in hypothermia with cold water in icy temperatures outside could advance the stages of hypothermia, it would not cause a drop in temperature to 76.1. Sleeping for an extended period of time in a cold garage could do that, he said. Children, he said, are more susceptible to hypothermia.
The second request came at 11 a.m., when they asked for a read-back of the charge of second-degree murder and to define “depraved indifference.”
On Thursday, Assistant District Attorney Kerriann Kelly delivered her scathing closing arguments.
Pollina, she argued, had “acted in concert” with Valva and was responsible for inflicting cruel punishment on the boys because of their “sin of being autistic,” — forcing Thomas and his brother Anthony to sleep in a freezing garage, go without food, and attend school in urine-soaked clothes, sneakers and pull-ups.
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 Pollina of second-degree murder and four counts of endangering the welfare of a child, same as Michael Valva, who was then sentenced to 25 years to life behind bars.
The prosecution proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Pollina knew the risks to Thomas and consciously disregarded them, Kelly said, forcing them to live in a frigid garage in urine-soaked pull ups, because of her rules.
“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 when Pollina knew he was hypothermic was depraved, Kelly said; not taking them out of the garage when she knew how cold it was, 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 like pouring a bucket of water on a raging inferno — too little, too late,” Kelly said.
Dr. Kaplan said while bringing someone a blanket if they were in Stage 1 of hypothermia might help, it would not help in Stage 4.
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 always 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.”
Defense attorney Matthew Tuohy had tears in his eyes. He has maintained Pollina’s innocence from the start of the proceedings. But, he said, “Convicting Angela Pollina of murder is not going to make this right. Angela Pollina did not murder this boy.”
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