Detective: Thomas Valva's autopsy results prompted criminal probe 

Authorities realized that Thomas Valva’s hypothermia death was not simply a tragic accident when the county’s former medical examiner performed an autopsy on the 8-year-old boy’s body, a Suffolk police homicide detective testified Monday. 

Det. Michael Ronca, a 21-year Suffolk police veteran, testified that the autopsy performed by Dr. Michael Caplan indicated the injuries to Thomas’ face and forehead were superficial, even though his father, Michael Valva, had told on-scene medical professionals that the boy had collapsed not long after he injured his head. 

“It changed at that point from a non-criminal investigation to a criminal investigation,” Ronca testified in Riverhead at the trial of Valva, a former NYPD officer. 

Valva, 43, has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder and child endangerment charges in Thomas' Jan. 17, 2020, death and the alleged abuse of his older brother Anthony, then 10.

Both boys were on the autism spectrum but were high-functioning, prosecutors have said. An EMT who responded to the Valva home on Bittersweet Lane in Center Moriches testified last week that Michael Valva said the boy collapsed not long after hitting his head on a doorway.

Valvalater claimed that Thomas fell outside while running to the school bus, the EMT said.

The nature of the investigation, Ronca said, also turned after Suffolk investigators spoke with Dr. Charles Russo, the superintendent of the East Moriches School District, and teachers and staff at East Moriches Elementary School, where Thomas and Anthony were students.

Teachers reported that the boys came to school in dirty, urine-soaked clothing and were denied food. The boys were so hungry that they stole food from other students or picked it out of the trash. 

“The direction became criminal in nature,” Ronca testified. 

Prosecutors said in opening statements that Thomas and Anthony suffered through years of abuse and neglect at the hands of Valva and his ex-fiancee, Angela Pollina, before Thomas died from hypothermia on Jan. 17, 2020.

The boy died after authorities alleged Valva and Pollina forced the brothers to sleep in the unheated garage in their home when the temperature outside was just 19 degrees because the boys struggled with incontinence.

Before Thomas died from hypothermia, prosecutors said, he had spent 16 hours in the unheated garage. Thomas and his brother Anthony not only slept in the garage for months before Thomas' death, prosecutors said, it was also where they ate and did their homework.

Valva's attorneys have alleged that Valva never thought his son would die from sleeping in the garage and only agreed to the arrangement to please Pollina, who grew increasingly frustrated with the two boys' incontinence issues. Prosecutors have said the boys were fully potty trained and only had bathroom issues when they went to live with their father.

Ronca also testified that police executed a court-approved search warrant at the Bittersweet Lane home on Jan. 24, 2020 — a week after Thomas’ death — and arrested Valva and Pollina.

Investigators spent 12 hours at the home that day, video recording the premises and collecting evidence including cellular phones and other electronic devices, Ronca said.

Jurors watched a silent police video of the interior and exterior of the home, which Ronca at times narrated from the witness stand. The video showed the frame of the front door was partially busted.

Ronca said officers from the department’s Emergency Services Unit entered the home at about 6:10 a.m. He said officers “proceeded in that fashion” because of concerns about Valva, then still an NYPD officer, having a firearm in the home.

Among the evidence Ronca said detectives found was two black trash bags outside the home, which contained two infant mattresses that were “charred and burnt.”

Prosecutor Laura Newcombe said during her opening statement that Thomas and Anthony  initially allowed to sleep on an infant mattress in the garage, but it was later removed and he was forced to sleep on the bare concrete floor.  Suffolk Police Officer Jodi Rios testified last week that an infant mattress was leaning against other items in the garage when she photographed the area on the day of Thomas’ death. 

In the home’s backyard, Ronca said, police found what he called a “burn area.”

Ronca also testified that he instructed investigators to cut a hole in the wall of the Valva home’s garage to see whether there was any insulation. “There was no insulation in that wall,” Ronca said, adding: “It was quite cold,” in the garage.

On cross-examination, Valva’s attorney Anthony La Pinta attempted to get the jury to disregard the testimony about the insulation, questioning whether police had checked all the garage walls and the garage doors for insulation.

Ronca conceded that investigators had only examined one wall. 

The trial continues on Tuesday.