Angela Pollina admits she was 'evil,' weeps on witness stand at murder trial in Thomas Valva's death
Angela Pollina declared herself "evil" and admitted exiling 8-year-old Thomas Valva and his brother to the garage of their Center Moriches home after she tearfully took the witness stand at her murder trial Tuesday.
"Yes, I was wrong; Yes, I was evil," Pollina said as she testified in her own defense inside a packed Riverhead courtroom Tuesday afternoon. "I'm not justifying it. I'm not saying it was right. It was evil. … I put them in the garage. Yes, I did."
Pollina, who cried briefly when she described Thomas — the son of her then-fiance, Michael Valva — in pain and bleeding and later appearing unconscious on the morning he died on Jan. 17, 2020. She otherwise remained composed as she sat uncuffed on the witness stand under questioning by her defense attorney, Matthew Tuohy.
Pollina, 45, who has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder in Thomas’ hypothermia death, attempted to blame Michael Valva, the ex-NYPD officer who was convicted last year of murdering his son.
Pollina said she was not involved with putting Thomas and Anthony, who were on the autism spectrum, in the garage the night before Thomas died. She testified she was “shocked” when she saw Valva the next morning hosing down a naked Thomas outside through the kitchen window after the boy soiled his pants.
“I pretty much said, ‘what the [expletive],” said Pollina. “I was shocked at what I saw.”
Pollina, who said Valva could be “very sweet,” also accused her ex-fiance of having an explosive temper.
“That day, to me, he took a punishment to a whole other level,” said Pollina, who said she was a hospital biller for 17 years before she became disabled.
Prosecutors have said Pollina and Valva acted jointly to force Thomas and Anthony to spend their nights in the unheated garage of their Center Moriches home.
Thomas’ body temperature was 76.1 degrees minutes before he was pronounced dead at the hospital, according to trial testimony.
Pollina is also charged with endangering the welfare of Thomas and Anthony, who prosecutors have alleged were starved and both emotionally and physically abused.
Valva, 43, was convicted of Thomas’ murder and the boys’ abuse last year and sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.
Tuohy has argued it was Valva who killed his son by taking the child outside and hosing him off from a spigot and then placing him in a warm bath.
But prosecutors have pointed to Pollina’s own words — captured on audio from a surveillance video system that Pollina used to keep an almost constant watch over the children — when she said Thomas was “hypothermic” on the morning he died and then did “nothing” to save his life.
Tuohy has argued his client attempted to help Thomas by getting him blankets on the morning he died, which he said is not indicative of a depraved state of mind — a key element to the murder charge. And prosecutors are at best “speculating” about what Pollina was thinking, Tuohy has said.
Pollina, in her direct testimony, described herself as being angry with Valva during much of their relationship for not doing more to help Thomas and Anthony with what she described as incontinence issues.
“I exiled them,” Pollina said of Thomas and Anthony. “I didn’t know what to do. My hands were tied.”
When Valva summoned Pollina to the garage on the morning Thomas died — which prosecutors contend is when Valva realized Thomas was dead and he needed Pollina to help him concoct a story — Pollina said Thomas was "sitting on the garage floor" crying.
Pollina, who evidence has shown often berated and screamed at the children, described herself as consoling Thomas and trying to stop Valva from hurting his son.
"I said, 'Come on, sit on my lap,'" said Pollina, adding: "I kind of kept consoling him. I wiped his tears."
Pollina cried as she recounted touching Thomas' scraped forehead and nose — injuries that prosecutors said Pollina and Valva used as a ruse for investigators when they claimed Thomas fell running for the bus that morning.
"I put my hand on his forehead to feel the bump and wipe his nose," Pollina said. "He's like, ow, ow, ow."
Pollina said she noticed Thomas felt cold, but she didn't think he was in any immediate danger.
Thomas stood up, she said, and although he was shivering, he walked with her and Valva inside the house.
"Michael picked up Thomas in his arms and brought him downstairs,” she said.
"I saw how he was shivering a little bit. He had no shirt on,” Pollina said.
Asked by Tuohy why she didn't call the police, Pollina said Thomas was "alert" and "using the toilet" in the basement.
"I was very angry with him," Pollina said of Valva.
When Valva said he wanted to put Thomas in the bathtub to clean him off, Pollina said she warned Valva against it.
"I said, 'Do not do that,'" Pollina testified.
It was then that Pollina claimed she went upstairs to get a heater and a clean towel.
When she got back downstairs, Valva was taking Thomas out of the bathtub, she said.
“His eyes were closed,” Pollina said, weeping. “I called his name out. He didn’t answer me.”
Pollina said, "At that point I panicked and said, ‘Call 911.’”
Pollina took the stand around 3 p.m. after the lead Suffolk prosecutor finished questioning the prosecution’s final witness, Suffolk Police Sgt. Norberto Flores.
"At this time, the people rest," lead prosecutor Kerriann Kelly told the judge at 2:51 p.m.
The prosecution called 20 witnesses, ranging from the boys’ schoolteachers, who said Thomas and Anthony appeared “emaciated” and begged for food at school, to Pollina’s cousin.
Pollina again blamed Valva, saying she cooked but Valva served his children the portions he deemed appropriate. She didn’t explain how the boys ate when Valva was working.
During Pollina’s roughly hour-and-a-half time under direct questioning, State Supreme Court Justice Timothy Mazzei chided Pollina from the bench when she veered off topic.
“You’re not answering the question,” Mazzei told Pollina at one point, instructing her to answer “yes” or “no.”
Pollina’s mother, Gina Pollina, and her sister, Lucia Pollina, watched her testimony.
“Seeing her was depressing,” said Lucia Pollina, who called her sister’s testimony “shocking.”
“She was a good mother,” the sister said. “I can’t believe what I’m hearing.”
Angela Pollina declared herself "evil" and admitted exiling 8-year-old Thomas Valva and his brother to the garage of their Center Moriches home after she tearfully took the witness stand at her murder trial Tuesday.
"Yes, I was wrong; Yes, I was evil," Pollina said as she testified in her own defense inside a packed Riverhead courtroom Tuesday afternoon. "I'm not justifying it. I'm not saying it was right. It was evil. … I put them in the garage. Yes, I did."
Pollina, who cried briefly when she described Thomas — the son of her then-fiance, Michael Valva — in pain and bleeding and later appearing unconscious on the morning he died on Jan. 17, 2020. She otherwise remained composed as she sat uncuffed on the witness stand under questioning by her defense attorney, Matthew Tuohy.
Pollina, 45, who has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder in Thomas’ hypothermia death, attempted to blame Michael Valva, the ex-NYPD officer who was convicted last year of murdering his son.
WHAT TO KNOW
- The woman charged with murder in the hypothermia death of 8-year-old Thomas Valva took the witness stand Tuesday and wept when she described the final moments of the boy's life.
- Angela Pollina said she was "evil" and admitted she was "wrong" for banning Thomas and his older brother, Anthony, to the garage because the boys had bathroom accidents.
- Pollina said Thomas' eyes were closed and he didn't answer when she called out her name after she went to pick up a clean tower and heater to warm him up.
Pollina said she was not involved with putting Thomas and Anthony, who were on the autism spectrum, in the garage the night before Thomas died. She testified she was “shocked” when she saw Valva the next morning hosing down a naked Thomas outside through the kitchen window after the boy soiled his pants.
“I pretty much said, ‘what the [expletive],” said Pollina. “I was shocked at what I saw.”
Pollina, who said Valva could be “very sweet,” also accused her ex-fiance of having an explosive temper.
“That day, to me, he took a punishment to a whole other level,” said Pollina, who said she was a hospital biller for 17 years before she became disabled.
Thomas Valva, in an undated photograph, died of hypothermia on Jan. 17, 2020. Credit: Courtesy Justyna Zubko-Valva
Prosecutors have said Pollina and Valva acted jointly to force Thomas and Anthony to spend their nights in the unheated garage of their Center Moriches home.
Thomas’ body temperature was 76.1 degrees minutes before he was pronounced dead at the hospital, according to trial testimony.
Pollina is also charged with endangering the welfare of Thomas and Anthony, who prosecutors have alleged were starved and both emotionally and physically abused.
Valva, 43, was convicted of Thomas’ murder and the boys’ abuse last year and sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.
Tuohy has argued it was Valva who killed his son by taking the child outside and hosing him off from a spigot and then placing him in a warm bath.
But prosecutors have pointed to Pollina’s own words — captured on audio from a surveillance video system that Pollina used to keep an almost constant watch over the children — when she said Thomas was “hypothermic” on the morning he died and then did “nothing” to save his life.
Tuohy has argued his client attempted to help Thomas by getting him blankets on the morning he died, which he said is not indicative of a depraved state of mind — a key element to the murder charge. And prosecutors are at best “speculating” about what Pollina was thinking, Tuohy has said.
Pollina, in her direct testimony, described herself as being angry with Valva during much of their relationship for not doing more to help Thomas and Anthony with what she described as incontinence issues.
“I exiled them,” Pollina said of Thomas and Anthony. “I didn’t know what to do. My hands were tied.”
When Valva summoned Pollina to the garage on the morning Thomas died — which prosecutors contend is when Valva realized Thomas was dead and he needed Pollina to help him concoct a story — Pollina said Thomas was "sitting on the garage floor" crying.
Pollina, who evidence has shown often berated and screamed at the children, described herself as consoling Thomas and trying to stop Valva from hurting his son.
"I said, 'Come on, sit on my lap,'" said Pollina, adding: "I kind of kept consoling him. I wiped his tears."
Pollina cried as she recounted touching Thomas' scraped forehead and nose — injuries that prosecutors said Pollina and Valva used as a ruse for investigators when they claimed Thomas fell running for the bus that morning.
"I put my hand on his forehead to feel the bump and wipe his nose," Pollina said. "He's like, ow, ow, ow."
Pollina said she noticed Thomas felt cold, but she didn't think he was in any immediate danger.
Thomas stood up, she said, and although he was shivering, he walked with her and Valva inside the house.
"Michael picked up Thomas in his arms and brought him downstairs,” she said.
"I saw how he was shivering a little bit. He had no shirt on,” Pollina said.
Asked by Tuohy why she didn't call the police, Pollina said Thomas was "alert" and "using the toilet" in the basement.
"I was very angry with him," Pollina said of Valva.
When Valva said he wanted to put Thomas in the bathtub to clean him off, Pollina said she warned Valva against it.
"I said, 'Do not do that,'" Pollina testified.
It was then that Pollina claimed she went upstairs to get a heater and a clean towel.
When she got back downstairs, Valva was taking Thomas out of the bathtub, she said.
“His eyes were closed,” Pollina said, weeping. “I called his name out. He didn’t answer me.”
Pollina said, "At that point I panicked and said, ‘Call 911.’”
Pollina took the stand around 3 p.m. after the lead Suffolk prosecutor finished questioning the prosecution’s final witness, Suffolk Police Sgt. Norberto Flores.
"At this time, the people rest," lead prosecutor Kerriann Kelly told the judge at 2:51 p.m.
The prosecution called 20 witnesses, ranging from the boys’ schoolteachers, who said Thomas and Anthony appeared “emaciated” and begged for food at school, to Pollina’s cousin.
Pollina again blamed Valva, saying she cooked but Valva served his children the portions he deemed appropriate. She didn’t explain how the boys ate when Valva was working.
During Pollina’s roughly hour-and-a-half time under direct questioning, State Supreme Court Justice Timothy Mazzei chided Pollina from the bench when she veered off topic.
“You’re not answering the question,” Mazzei told Pollina at one point, instructing her to answer “yes” or “no.”
Pollina’s mother, Gina Pollina, and her sister, Lucia Pollina, watched her testimony.
“Seeing her was depressing,” said Lucia Pollina, who called her sister’s testimony “shocking.”
“She was a good mother,” the sister said. “I can’t believe what I’m hearing.”
Nicole Fuller is Newsday's senior criminal justice reporter. She began working at Newsday in 2012 and previously covered local government.
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