What to Know
- Thomas Valva and his brother were made to sleep in a freezing Long Island garage -- and subjected to other torturous abuse, prosecutors said; the father, Michael Valva, and stepmom, Angela Pollina, both were convicted of murder and other crimes. Michael Valva was sentenced in 2022
- In the days after he died, investigators unraveled a disturbing series of allegations -- repeat, extreme punishment, starvation, being locked in a frigid garage for hours -- at the hands of his father and his then-fiancée. Jurors were shown autopsy photos, as well as videos of the shivering boys
- Prosecutors sought the max for Pollina Tuesday, telling the judge she never showed any remorse and never even offered the kid, who died of hypothermia, a blanket; 'Ironically, prison life will be better than the hell she subjected 8-year-old Thomas and 10-year-old Anthony to,' Kerriann Kelly said
The "wanton, evil and cruel" Long Island stepmother, as prosecutors portrayed her, convicted by a jury last month of murder in the death of 8-year-old Thomas Valva received a maximum sentence Tuesday of 25 years to life in prison
"My only regret is they don't have a garage there, with no heat, no mattress and no blankets...where you could sleep for the rest of your life," the judge said of the prison where Angela Pollina will serve her time.
Pollina was found guilty on all counts in mid-March after a heart-wrenching trial. Thomas' father, ex-NYPD officer Michael Valva, previously was convicted of murder and sentenced to 25 to life in prison last year.
Thomas died of hypothermia in early 2020 after he and his brother were forced to sleep in the family's freezing garage with no heat on a night outdoor temperatures plunged below freezing, prosecutors have said. The brothers, both with autism, had to sleep there as punishment for constant urinating and defecating in the house, investigators said.
Pollina's defense team had argued that no matter how anyone may judge her parenting behavior, she didn't murder the boy. The jury disagreed, convicting her on all counts of which she was accused.
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The Suffolk County woman, whom prosecutors said was often the 8-year-old's primary caregiver, was visibly upset after learning the guilty verdict. It included four counts of child endangerment as well as second-degree murder and followed just five hours of jury deliberation. The trial itself lasted an emotional two weeks.
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Initially, one juror appeared disinclined to convict, but another member of the panel later said it was a readback of testimony from the medical examiner's office that convinced the person to vote guilty. The judge also apparently told the jury afterward that they made the right call in the case, as previously reported.
In the days after Thomas died, investigators unraveled a disturbing series of allegations -- repeat, extreme punishment, starvation, being locked in a frigid garage for hours -- at the hands of his father and his then-fiancée. Jurors were shown autopsy photos, as well as videos showing the two boys shivering on the garage floor.
Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said those pieces were huge in making the prosecution's case.
"It really created a compelling story of what happened to those two poor boys," Tierney said last month.
On Tuesday, lead prosecutor Kerriann Kelly described that evidence as "something that made the stuff of horror movies a reality."
At trial, Kelly had sought to portray Pollina as a "wicked stepmother" who tortured the boys out of frustration over their incontinence problems. Prosecutors said she refused to let them inside the four-bedroom, four-bathroom house to take baths, washing them with cold water from a hose in the backyard instead.
And they urged the jurors not to believe Pollina when she testified that she had tried to help Thomas, who had an internal temperature of 76 degrees when he got to the hospital on the day he died. Kelly said the woman "knew something was very wrong" with the boy and never even gave him a blanket.
Thomas, meanwhile, was described by Kelly as "a profile in courage," pointing to a photo of the smiling boy taken the day before he died.
Pollina never indicated she was sorry, either, Kelly said at her sentencing. There were five other kids living in the house at the time, she pointed out Tuesday, and Pollina never showed remorse for what they endured under her roof either.
"She testified, 'I was evil and I was cruel and those children witnessed it,'" Kelly told the judge. "Not once did she indicate that she was sorry for that either -- and that speaks volumes, in my humble opinion, of who this defendant is."
"Ironically, prison life will be better than the hell she subjected 8-year-old Thomas and 10-year-old Anthony to," she added. "And she will be surrounded by adults who will protect her from harm, something Thomas and Anthony experienced absolutely at school, absolutely not at home."
Asked during her trial if she thought she had a duty to do better in terms of protecting the boys or treated them differently than other kids, Pollina delivered the same seven-word response: "I did the best that I could."
Her attorney said that she is distraught and unconvinced of her guilt, saying "I know she doesn’t believe she’s guilty of the murder and that’s the issue."
