'My Only Regret Is They Don't Have A Garage': Judge Sentences Pollina

LONG ISLAND, NY — She never once said she was sorry: So said the judge and prosecution about Angela Pollina, who was sentenced to 25 years to life Tuesday after being convicted of murder last month in the death of 8-year-old Thomas Valva. Thomas froze to death after being forced to sleep in his father's frigid Center Moriches garage.

She was also sentenced to a year each for the other four counts of endangering the welfare of a child. All sentences will run consecutively.

Pollina entered the courtroom wearing a black sweater and green shirt, her hair in a long braid. The jury reached a unanimous verdict of second-degree murder in March. She was also found guilty of four counts of endangering the welfare of a child.

Suffolk Supreme Court Justice Timothy Mazzei presided over the sentencing at the Arthur M. Cromarty Criminal Court Complex in Riverhead. Before sentencing Pollina, he said he'd been aware of the case and the "poor, spineless excuse of a man" — Michael Valva, an ex-NYPD officer who was convicted of second-degree murder and four counts of endangering the welfare of a child in November; he was sentenced to 25 years to life behind bars in December.

Valva and Pollina were arrested Jan. 24, 2020, and charged with second-degree murder and four counts of endangering the welfare of a child. Each faced 25 years to life in prison, and both pleaded not guilty.

"But it wasn't until I saw and heard what you did that I think we all realized how evil you really were," Mazzei said to Pollina. "'Evil' is not the word I came up with — you came up with that word to describe yourself, what you did to those poor little boys."

He added: "You tortured those boys, you tortured them."

Mazzei said he'd looked up the definition of the word "torture" and it said it was something that causes agony or pain, or the infliction of intense pain to punish, coerce or afford sadistic pleasure.

"That's what you did — and never once have you ever shown any sorrow, remorse, or compassion," Mazzei said.

Mazzei then said he'd had the opportunity to visit the prison facility where Pollina will be serving her sentence.

"My only regret, Ms. Pollina, is that they don't have a garage there, with no mattress, no blanket, no pillow — nothing that belongs in a bedroom — so you that's where you could sleep the rest of your life. That's where you deserve to be the rest of your natural life," Mazzei said.

Those in the courtroom applauded through tears.

Pollina did not speak at the proceedings and showed no emotion when the sentence was announced.

Before the sentencing, Assistant District Attorney Kerriann Kelly spoke to the judge. Looking at Pollina, Kelly said: "Not once did the defendant indicate, in any way, shape or form, that she was sorry for what happened to Thomas Valva, an 8-year-old little boy. Not once. Nothing. That speaks volumes, in my opinion, that's why I recommend a sentence of 35 years to life."

The Nest video and texts shown during the trial, Kelly said, were "the stuff of horror movies. And yet Thomas was just 8 and Anthony, just 10."

Speaking about a photo she'd shown during the trial, of Thomas at school the day before he died, giving a thumb's up and smiling, she said he was still innocent. "He thought goodness and love could return to his life. But what we know from the evidence was that Thomas wasn't surrounded by love — he was surrounded by nothing other than pure evil," Kelly said. "The redness of his hands and cheeks was evidence of that evil."

She said Thomas, exiled to sleeping on the cement floor of a freezing cold garage, was forced to use pullups and wash in the backyard; on the morning Thomas died it was 19 degrees, yet his father forced him outside naked to wash him with water from an icy spigot.

"Thomas was a profile in courage," Kelly said, tears in her voice. "He stared down the faces of evil he endured each day in the faces of his father and this defendant, a mother figure in his life for two years. He battled and fought but ultimately lost the war."

Kelly asked the judge to remember how Thomas spent the last special days of his life. On his last birthday, he was chastised because the teacher brought in sweets. On Halloween, he was dressed as a prisoner, "which he was." On Thanksgiving, he was in the garage with Anthony wondering what Black Friday was. And Christmas was spent, too, in the lonely, cold garage.

Thomas lost many things, she said — he never went to junior high school, never learned how to drive, never had a first date or bought his first home or had children.

People in the courtroom sobbed audibly.

Instead of being a happy, health 8 year old little boy, Thomas had stress-induced alopeci, a kidney infection and other ailments. "As an 8-year-old, he should have looked forward to playing with his dog, a favorite TV show, a Christmas gift. Instead, he was trying to figure out how to stay warm," she said.

Even on the day he died, Kelly said, Pollina showed Thomas no mercy, screaming at him for an accident in the night. She said Pollina knew Thomas was hypothermic when he kept falling but did nothing and Kelly added that she believes Pollina's testimony about sitting on the garage floor and drying his tears was a lie.

One text revealed Pollina telling Valva that she wanted all books, clothes and blankets out of the garage. "There should not be one thing that belongs in a bedroom in there," she wrote.

Even in prison, Pollina will have a warm bed with blankets, food, recreation, the things that were denied the boys for years, Kelly said.

Pollina's attorney Matthew Tuohy spoke and said she had lived a good life before meeting Valva, had a close relationship with her own family and had worked in the same job for about 20 years. He said, of Pollina, "Obviously, she has tremendous remorse for what happened. It's difficult for her to express it when she's under this kind of scrutiny."

He asked the judge to sentence Pollina to 15 years to life. And he also blamed Thomas' death on Valva, as he has since the beginning of the trial. "If Mr. Valva wasn't there, Thomas would still be alive," he said.

Michael Ichkhan, father of Pollina's twin girls, shared a statement with Patch: "Angela, today is the moment I’ve been waiting for the last three years because in my mind I knew it was coming. But, in my heart, I’ve been struggling with it — not just for me but for my daughters. Today you finally answer for your heinous acts from the past 14 years. All the years of physical, mental and emotional abuse and the disgusting and deliberate act of murder. You always thought no one can touch you – well, you thought wrong.”

He added: “Thomas is the reason I have my daughters back. This still doesn’t sit well with me. Do you want to know why? Because I have a heart, something you clearly don’t have. One final note, Angela: May you rot for what you did!”

Ichkhan and his wife, as well as Gino Cali, father of Pollina's youngest daughter, attended the sentencing, sitting together in solidarity and vowing to protect the girls forever.

Ichkhan said he wanted to go up to the judge and give him a high five for what he said to Pollina. "An eye for an eye," he said. "She's getting what she deserves."

His and Cali's focus is on the girls, he said. His daughters have had nightmares, he said, adding that they're doing better, but what happened will be with them forever.

Cali also spoke with Patch: "I want to celebrate that I have my daughter, but for Thomas to have died to make it happen is just insane,” Cali said. After the sentencing, Cali said: "It still won't bring Thomas back. None of it makes sense. I wish she would've just gotten life, so all of these kids can continue to heal. My heart goes out to Justyna," he said, breaking down in tears.

Cali and Ichkhan both vowed Pollina will never see her girls again.

“Over my dead body,” Cali said. Of Pollina, he added: "This is someone who's avoided karma her entire life and it just finally caught up to her." He said he agreed with the judge's comment. "I wish it was an eye for an eye. She should be locked up in a garage, suffer, not eat."

Cali added: "Even though I have my daughter, it's never going to be okay. Thomas is my daughter's guardian angel."

Juror Nick Pisano also spoke after the sentencing. "It's absolutely brutal, what happened in this case," he said.

Pisano said he felt compelled to come to the courtroom. He said it was "strikingly odd, strikingly cold" that Pollina didn't speak or apologize at the sentencing. "You made an active decision to take the stand and testify but yet you have no remorse. Not even enough to get up and say, 'I'm sorry.' It's sickening."

He noted that Pollina always wore the same green shirt and black sweater to court, symbolizing her character, he said: "In my mind, she's never going to change."

Speaking after the sentencing, District Attorney Ray Tierney said: "This case and the trials that ensued were not only heartbreaking, but they were also infuriating. As I’ve said before, while the story of these two defendants ends here, the pursuit of justice for Thomas and Anthony is not over."

Tierney said a "small measure of justice" has been served but the story of Thomas and his brother would continue. "We will continue to look into exactly what happened in this case, to take testimony, to make recommendations and to at the very least do everything we can to ensure something like this never happens again."

Tierney said the power of the DA's office includes the power of the grand jury, which will be utilized.

When asked if the current system was broken, Tierney said he had his opinions, but they were just that. "We want to use our investigative power to look and to confirm what's happening with the system and most importantly, let's improve it."

He added that the critical piece of evidence was the Nest camera, without which, "no one would have believed what went on in that house," Tierney said. He also thanked the teachers for their support and for the support they gave the boys.

For the first time, Kelly was able to speak to the media. Of becoming emotional while speaking to the judge at the sentencing, she said: "I have two children of my own, so it is a little more emotional for me." Each member of the prosecution team has children, she said.

Kelly said Tuesday's proceedings were difficult especially because she'd just spent the Easter weekend with her children. "They're my world," she said.

When asked why she'd called Thomas "a profile in courage," Kelly said, her voice filled with tears:. "I can't go in my garage now without picturing those two little boys. I can't tell you the countless number of times I've watched that video and either seen them curled up on the floor or staring at the camera. It's dark in the garage and you see their little eyes, just looking at the camera."

There was also a life-sized werewolf in that garage which was towering over the two little boys while they laid on the floor, she said.

"So when I say a 'profile in courage,' what courage he had to have to go into that garage every single night and come out every single day and go to school soaked in urine and feces and hold his head up and smile and try really, really hard," Kelly said.

Thomas, she said, did really well in school. He had beautiful handwriting. And he smiled and was happy and loved by his teachers. To be able to do that and continue to learn, despite what he was enduring, she said: "That's courage, to me."

After the jury found Pollina guilty, Tuohy told Patch that she plans to appeal.

Outside the courtroom, he told reporters, of the fact that Pollina got the maxiumum sentence: "Obviously it's upsetting. I know she's upset and distraught. She's obviously in pain and suffering."

Valva's attorney John LoTurco has also said he will appeal.

Thomas' mother Justyna Zubko-Valva pleaded for help on her Twitter page before her son died. In 2020, Zubko-Valva filed a $200 million wrongful death suit.

Zubko-Valva has not responded to requests for comment.

In June, a judge ruled that portions of the $200 million lawsuit filed by Zubko-Valva after Thomas died can move forward, a judge ruled.