A Long Island woman has been convicted to 25 years in prison for the murder of her eight-year-old stepson.
The sentence comes a month after a grand jury found Angela Pollina, 45, guilty of of second-degree murder and four counts of endangering the welfare of a child. Pollina and her ex-fiancé former NYPD officer Michael Valva forced his son Thomas to sleep naked in the freezing garage of his Long Island home, where temperatures dropped under 20 degrees.
The little boy died as a result of hypothermia on 17 January 2020. In December, Valva was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole after 25 years served.
At the time of Thomas’ death, his father had partial custody of him and his older brother Anthony despite several attempts by their mother and teachers to report the rampant abuse the children were subjected to by Pollina and Valva.
“My only regret, Miss Polina, is they don’t have a garage with no heat and no mattress and no blankets and no pillows,” Suffolk County Court Judge Timothy P Mazzei told Pollina during sentencing on Tuesday, per ABC News.
During Valva and Pollina’s trials, prosecutors described in horrible detail how Valva subjected his three sons to neglect and cruelty amid a bitter divorce and custody battle with their mother, Justyna Zubko-Valva.
Pollina took the stand during her trial and argued that although her punishments had been evil, Valva was ultimately responsible for his son’s death, Fox reported.
Authorities said that the couple would often force the brothers to sleep in the garage while naked and without blankets as part of cruel punishments.
Text messages around the time of Thomas’ death show that Pollina asked whether she should send him to school the next morning. Valva answered: “F*** that piece of s*** Thomas. He’s not going anywhere.”
On the eve of Thomas’ death, Pollina sent videos of Thomas lying in the cold and freezing to Valva, local journalist Lisa Finn reported on Patch after the couple was indicted in 2020. Two hours before the 911 call was made, surveillance footage captured Pollina hosing Thomas down with water, according to Fox.
When paramedics arrived the next morning, it was 19 degrees outside and they found Thomas naked, with no blankets and his sweatpants pulled down to his knees.
His organs shut down hours later at the hospital.
School officials also testified that the Valva children often attended class soaked in urine and faeces and that they appeared to have scratches and bruises across their faces and arms. A teacher told the court that Thomas was so emaciated, he would eat crumbs off the school floor.
Teachers reportedly “flooded” CPS lines and the children’s mother said she sent the department a flash drive with 320 files of evidence of abuse, but an investigation into the abuse Valva took part in was closed just ten days before Thomas’s death.
Following Thomas’ death, his mother filed a $200m wrongful death suit against CPS caseworkers and investigators, school officials at East Moriches Union Free School District, her children’s attorneys in the custody battle and Nassau County Supreme Court Justice Hope Schwartz Zimmerman. Pollina and Valva are also named in the suit.
