Thomas Valva and his brother struggled to stay warm in video Angela Pollina texted their father, evidence at Pollina's trial shows

Angela Pollina texted multiple videos of Thomas Valva and his brother Anthony struggling to stay warm in the freezing garage of their Center Moriches home to the boys' father months before Thomas died of hypothermia, video and texts displayed at Pollina's trial on Monday show.

“He is not coming into this house,” said Pollina, referring to Anthony, in a February 2019 text to the boys’ father, ex-NYPD officer Michael Valva. “He’s a stubborn [expletive] like his mother. I don’t even want him in the garage anymore.”

Pollina, who was Michael Valva's fiancee, is on trial for allegedly killing Thomas by forcing the 8-year-old to sleep in an unheated garage. She is expected to take the stand in her own defense Tuesday after the prosecution rests its case in the morning.

“I’m gonna call Miss Pollina as my first witness; I think she’ll be my only witness,” Pollina’s attorney, Matthew Tuohy, told Supreme Court Justice Timothy Mazzei at the close of testimony Monday.

Pollina, 45, has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder and child endangerment charges in Thomas' death, and the alleged abuse of Thomas and Anthony. Valva, 43, was convicted last year of Thomas’ death and is serving 25 years to life at an upstate prison near the Canadian border.

The prosecution’s final witness, Suffolk Police Sgt. Norberto Flores, on Monday narrated a series of text messages between Pollina and Valva and accompanying video clips showing the boys in the garage.

Ten days before Thomas died, according to the evidence the jury saw, Pollina texted Valva a video and cursed the boy for trying to warm himself with a towel.

“That son of a [expletive] Thomas went in the dirty laundry basket, took towels to cover himself,” Pollina wrote.

Earlier Monday, Dr. Michael Caplan, who performed Thomas’ autopsy as the then-chief medical examiner of Suffolk County, said a photo of Thomas’ “stunningly” bright red hand making a thumbs-up gesture the day before his Jan. 17, 2020 death, indicated a “reaction” to extreme cold.

“He was in a reaction period of previous hypothermia,” said Caplan, of Thomas' photo.

Caplan said Thomas was balding and also had damage to some of his organs — inflamed kidneys, which could have been caused by a lack of bathroom access, and a severely shrunken thymus organ — at the time of his death. The doctor also detailed spots on Thomas’ stomach, which are found in cases of fatal hypothermia and could also indicate “shock, starvation.”

 When asked by prosecutor Laura Newcombe about the cause of some of Thomas’ chronic medical conditions, Caplan agreed that they could have been the result of the “stress” of being screamed at and sleeping in a garage.

Prosecutors have said the pair acted in concert in connection with Thomas’ death by forcing the boys to sleep in the garage in subfreezing temperatures and denying them food. Prosecutors said Pollina showed a depraved indifference to whether Thomas lived or died. 

Pollina showed no emotion as autopsy photos of Thomas were displayed on a large screen in the courtroom. Tuohy winced and looked away at an almost full-body image of Thomas showing multiple cuts and bruises on his face and legs, and as Caplan pointed out, Thomas’ protruding hip bones.

Caplan said the injuries to Thomas’ face and head did not cause his death. The injuries, Caplan said, were consistent with multiple falls on a hard surface, such as concrete, and were sustained minutes or hours before Thomas died.

Prosecutors have said Valva and Pollina lied to authorities and said Thomas fell on the driveway while he was running to the bus. The delay, they argued, prevented Thomas from receiving medical care for hypothermia.

Tuohy has argued it was Valva who killed his son after hosing him off with cold water from an outside spigot after putting him in the garage and then placing him in a warm bath.

On cross-examination, Caplan told Tuohy the use of blankets to warm a hypothermic Thomas “could have some mitigation effects” and “could be beneficial.”

Tuohy has argued his client attempted to help Thomas by retrieving blankets on the morning he died, which he said is not indicative of a depraved state of mind.

On redirect, Caplan said the blankets wouldn’t have an effect on someone suffering from end-stage hypothermia, as prosecutors allege Thomas was on the morning he died with a body temperature of 76.1 degrees.

“That would not be a sufficient enough mitigation,” Caplan said.

 In a video apparently recorded by Pollina herself, that wasn’t presented to the jury during Valva’s trial, Pollina berated Andrew — the younger brother of Thomas and Anthony — because he was holding a sheet of paper before he had zippered his jacket.

Instead of helping the then-6-year-old, she screamed at him for not using “common sense.”

“Move it!,” Pollina shouted. “Put the paper down! Zipper your jacket!” 

By Nicole Fuller

nicole.fuller@newsday.com@NicoleFuller

Nicole Fuller is Newsday's senior criminal justice reporter. She began working at Newsday in 2012 and previously covered local government.