Thomas Valva trial: Angela Pollina guilty on all counts in 8-year-old boy's death
Angela Pollina found guilty in all counts in murder of Thomas Valva
A jury found Angela Pollina guilty on all counts for her role in the death of 8-year-old Thomas Valva in January 2020. Pollina, along with former NYPD officer Michael Valva, forced the boy, who was on the autism spectrum, to sleep inside a freezing garage inside a home on Long Island as punishment for incontinence.
NEW YORK - A jury has found Angela Pollina guilty on all counts for her role in the death of Thomas Valva, an 8-year-old boy on Long Island who died after being forced to sleep in his family's freezing garage.
The 45-year-old was found guilty on all counts, including murder.
"The jury has spoken and we will continue to look at and try to learn lessons from what happened in this take and take steps to make sure something like this never happens again in Suffolk County," said Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney.
Pollina's conviction comes after Valva's father, former NYPD officer Michael Valva, was convicted of murder for Thomas' death.
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Through text messages, testimony, and surveillance video, prosecutors over the past two weeks told jurors that Pollina acted in concert with ex-NYPD officer Michael Valva, her then fiancé and Thomas’ dad, to torture 8-year-old Thomas and his brother because they were on the autism spectrum and struggled with incontinence.
They argued Pollina concocted a story about trying to save Thomas when in reality, she was the reason he slept in the garage in the first place. They also added she did nothing to save Thomas when he froze to death in January 2020.
Nick Pisano, one of the jurors, said he was confident in his decision.
"She constantly kept looking down and gave she off a feeling to me that she has a coldness to her," he said. "It made her hard to like because there was nothing there that made it attractive to run with the story she was presenting."
Pollina's attorney had attempted to argue that she never intended for Thomas to die.
RELATED: Angela Pollina admits she was 'evil' at murder trial in Thomas Valva's death
On Wednesday, Pollina admitted she was unaware of the frigid temperature inside the garage and said that she had been "evil" when she agreed to banish Thomas and his brother to the garage.
Pollina now faces 25 years to life in prison. She is expected back in court for sentencing on April 11.