Angela Pollina murder trial: Jurors say they were 11-1 for conviction when deliberations began
Angela Pollina weeps after a Suffolk jury finds her guilty of murdering 8-year-old Thomas Valva in Suffolk County Court in Riverhead on Friday. Credit: Howard Schnapp
Eleven of the 12 jurors in Angela Pollina's trial arrived at the same conclusion as soon as deliberations began last Thursday: She was guilty of all the charges, including the murder of 8-year-old Thomas Valva.
“I think she’s a horrible person; she told us what she did,” said Katrina Lee, juror No. 7, referring to Pollina’s testimony at trial. “She admitted everything. There was no other way to find her other than guilty. There just wasn’t. Her words, her tone, the text messages, the videos. There was no other way to find her.”
But the jury went on to deliberate for some four hours after one juror, a grandfather, told his fellow jurors that he wasn’t so sure about convicting the 45-year-old former medical biller from Center Moriches because he didn’t think Pollina had intentionally wanted to kill Thomas, according to six other jurors who spoke to Newsday in the days after they convicted Pollina.
The second-degree “depraved indifference” murder charge Pollina faced did not require intent, but instead for the defendant to have acted so recklessly as to show a disregard for human life with “a wicked, evil or inhuman state of mind, as manifested by brutal, heinous and despicable acts,” according to the charge.
Pollina herself declared from the witness stand under direct questioning from her attorney, Matthew Tuohy of Huntington, that she was “evil” for exiling Thomas and Anthony — the sons of her ex-fiance, Michael Valva, a former NYPD officer — to the garage of their Bittersweet Lane home, using language from the murder charge she was facing.
“We did have an individual who was very confused on the law,” said Jeanine Salvaggio, a 31-year-old nurse, the jury foreperson. “He said, 'I’m not sure.' In the end, it was really because he wasn’t understanding the charge.”
That juror did not respond to messages seeking comment.
Pollina now faces up to 25 years to life in prison for Thomas’ Jan. 17, 2020, murder when Supreme Court Justice Timothy Mazzei sentences her on April 11. Pollina was also convicted of four counts of endangering the welfare of a child for abusing Thomas and his older brother, Anthony, who was 10 when Thomas died.
Tuohy has said his client, who cried upon hearing the guilty verdict, is “devastated” and will appeal.
Michael Valva, 44, was convicted of the same charges last year and is serving 25 years to life in an upstate prison near the Canadian border.
Evidence — including video and audio from a video surveillance system Pollina installed inside the home and text messages between Pollina and Valva — and testimony at the trial showed that Pollina banished Thomas and Anthony, both on the autism spectrum, to the garage because of their incontinence problems, which were caused because Pollina also denied them access to the bathroom.
She and Valva also starved the boys and physically and emotionally abused them, evidence and testimony showed. Thomas died of hypothermia. His temperature just minutes before he was pronounced dead was 76.1 degrees.
Pollina, who took the stand in her own defense during the trial that ran just short of two weeks, didn’t do herself any favors, the jurors said.
Lead prosecutor Kerriann Kelly derided Pollina’s testimony as full of “mistruths,” and jurors agreed.
“There were some discrepancies in the story that made some in the jury a little wary,” said Nicholas Pisano, juror No. 12.
Much of Pollina’s testimony “didn’t add up,” said Salvaggio.
Alternate juror Patricia Maltempo said she, too, thought Pollina was guilty after hearing the charges.
“What really clinched it to me, was when he [the judge] read the charges,” said Maltempo, 69, a retired insurance adjuster. “They sounded like they were tailor-made for her. I said to myself, ‘There’s no way around it, that matched what we heard and saw.’”
Juror No. 2, a retired school guidance counselor who spoke to Newsday on the condition of anonymity, said he gave Pollina the “total presumption of innocence” but the evidence of her guilt was overwhelming.
“The text messages where the father asked if they can come out of the garage, and she was always saying, ‘No, they’re not going to come in the house.’ A lot of text messages where she’s trying to rile him up with the videos [of the boys]. There was just so much evidence.”
The juror questioned the wisdom of her testifying, saying, “It didn’t help her.” The juror said he was unmoved by the appeals from Pollina’s defense attorney, who notably called his client the expletive for a female dog several times during his closing and urged jurors to “stay in the play,” meaning to only consider Pollina’s actions on the day Thomas died.
“I just didn’t believe it was just ‘the play;’ it was the whole game,” said juror No. 2. “It [the abuse] went on for months, or a couple of years. I just didn’t believe you could separate it.”
Salvaggio, the jury foreperson, was struck by Pollina’s demeanor on the stand. Pollina cried briefly at a few points, but appeared agitated when the prosecutor grilled her on cross-examination.
“I think she had like very little remorse, very little emotion,” said Salvaggio. “I think if a child dies who you’re close to, you’d show how devastated you are.”
The jurors stressed they decided the case based on the evidence — not emotions.
Juror No. 3, Kenneth Moore, said being a juror on the case was “very emotional” but that went out the window in the jury room.
He said he feels “grateful” a juror held out, allowing them to deliberate before convicting Pollina of such serious charges.
“When they first put me in the jury pool and they announced the charges, I cried,” Moore said. “I did not expect the murder of an 8-year-old child to be the case before me.”
Hearing Pollina in her own words — through texts and video — including on the morning Thomas died when she proclaimed him “hypothermic” in response to a question from one of her daughters about why Thomas couldn’t walk, was illuminating for jurors.
“I thought the texts and videos were very clear and painted a picture of who she is,” said Salvaggio. Her attorney’s contention that Pollina was not acting with a depraved state of mind because she brought Thomas a heater and blankets was not convincing, she said.
“It was too late,” said Salvaggio. “He needed the attention and care prior, all along.”
The one dissenting juror also wanted to rehear the testimony related to hypothermia from Dr. Michael Caplan, the former chief medical examiner in Suffolk who performed Thomas’ autopsy. At 3:05 p.m., after it had voted for a second time, the jury sent a note saying it had reached a “unanimous” verdict.
Besides Pollina’s guilt, the jury was also united in its contention that Suffolk County’s Child Protectives Services failed miserably to protect Thomas and Anthony.
“This was just a gross negligence by CPS,” said juror No. 2.
Salvaggio said: “This case really brought to light how poorly CPS is functioning. Something needs to change in that aspect big time.”
Juror No. 9, Angela Ehlich, also spoke passionately about the need for change at CPS.
“Something good has to come out of the tragedies that these children endured,” she said, adding: “Going forward, how do we fix this system and prevent this from happening again?”
Pollina’s conviction brought a sense of relief for some of the jury in Michael Valva’s trial, four of whom spent most of the second week of the Pollina trial inside the courtroom.
“For me, saying guilty [at his trial], a lot of it was because of her actions and them acting in concert,” said Samantha Silvia of Middle Island, one of the 12 jurors to convict Michael Valva. “So the fact that her jury also saw it that way helps me feel a lot better about our decision, because I knew we made the right one.”
Alternate Valva juror Scott Krusen of Coram said they all “feel a connection to Thomas,” which prompted them to watch Pollina’s testimony — and wait at the courthouse for the verdict.
The jurors from the original trial said Pollina’s actions and demands empowered Michael Valva and they wanted to see her held accountable as well.
“He was just going along with her because he was weak,” said Valva juror Christina Anselmo of Setauket. “If she didn't come into his life, I believe Thomas is still here.”
Before leaving the courthouse Friday, the Valva jurors met some of the Pollina jurors.
“We’re all just so emotionally invested, and we will be for the rest of our lives,” Anselmo said.
Eleven of the 12 jurors in Angela Pollina's trial arrived at the same conclusion as soon as deliberations began last Thursday: She was guilty of all the charges, including the murder of 8-year-old Thomas Valva.
“I think she’s a horrible person; she told us what she did,” said Katrina Lee, juror No. 7, referring to Pollina’s testimony at trial. “She admitted everything. There was no other way to find her other than guilty. There just wasn’t. Her words, her tone, the text messages, the videos. There was no other way to find her.”
But the jury went on to deliberate for some four hours after one juror, a grandfather, told his fellow jurors that he wasn’t so sure about convicting the 45-year-old former medical biller from Center Moriches because he didn’t think Pollina had intentionally wanted to kill Thomas, according to six other jurors who spoke to Newsday in the days after they convicted Pollina.
The second-degree “depraved indifference” murder charge Pollina faced did not require intent, but instead for the defendant to have acted so recklessly as to show a disregard for human life with “a wicked, evil or inhuman state of mind, as manifested by brutal, heinous and despicable acts,” according to the charge.
WHAT TO KNOW
- Eleven jurors were ready to convict Angela Pollina, the Center Moriches woman accused of killing 8-year-old Thomas Valva, when the panel headed for deliberations last Thursday, several jurors told Newsday.
- Pollina was convicted of second-degree murder in Thomas' death after eight men and four women deliberated for about four hoursat the two-week-old trial in Suffolk County Court in Riverhead.
- A former medical biller, Pollina now faces up to 25 years to life in prison for Thomas' Jan. 17, 2020, murder when Supreme Court Justice Timothy Mazzei sentences her on April 11.
Angela Pollina took the witness stand during two-week trial
Pollina herself declared from the witness stand under direct questioning from her attorney, Matthew Tuohy of Huntington, that she was “evil” for exiling Thomas and Anthony — the sons of her ex-fiance, Michael Valva, a former NYPD officer — to the garage of their Bittersweet Lane home, using language from the murder charge she was facing.
“We did have an individual who was very confused on the law,” said Jeanine Salvaggio, a 31-year-old nurse, the jury foreperson. “He said, 'I’m not sure.' In the end, it was really because he wasn’t understanding the charge.”
That juror did not respond to messages seeking comment.
Pollina now faces up to 25 years to life in prison for Thomas’ Jan. 17, 2020, murder when Supreme Court Justice Timothy Mazzei sentences her on April 11. Pollina was also convicted of four counts of endangering the welfare of a child for abusing Thomas and his older brother, Anthony, who was 10 when Thomas died.
Tuohy has said his client, who cried upon hearing the guilty verdict, is “devastated” and will appeal.
Michael Valva, 44, was convicted of the same charges last year and is serving 25 years to life in an upstate prison near the Canadian border.
What the Pollina trial evidence showed
Evidence — including video and audio from a video surveillance system Pollina installed inside the home and text messages between Pollina and Valva — and testimony at the trial showed that Pollina banished Thomas and Anthony, both on the autism spectrum, to the garage because of their incontinence problems, which were caused because Pollina also denied them access to the bathroom.
She and Valva also starved the boys and physically and emotionally abused them, evidence and testimony showed. Thomas died of hypothermia. His temperature just minutes before he was pronounced dead was 76.1 degrees.
Pollina, who took the stand in her own defense during the trial that ran just short of two weeks, didn’t do herself any favors, the jurors said.
Lead prosecutor Kerriann Kelly derided Pollina’s testimony as full of “mistruths,” and jurors agreed.
Nicholas Pisano, one of the jurors in the Angela Polina murder trial, talks about the guilty verdict after leaving Suffolk County Court on Friday. Credit: Howard Schnapp
“There were some discrepancies in the story that made some in the jury a little wary,” said Nicholas Pisano, juror No. 12.
Much of Pollina’s testimony “didn’t add up,” said Salvaggio.
Alternate juror Patricia Maltempo said she, too, thought Pollina was guilty after hearing the charges.
“What really clinched it to me, was when he [the judge] read the charges,” said Maltempo, 69, a retired insurance adjuster. “They sounded like they were tailor-made for her. I said to myself, ‘There’s no way around it, that matched what we heard and saw.’”
Juror No. 2, a retired school guidance counselor who spoke to Newsday on the condition of anonymity, said he gave Pollina the “total presumption of innocence” but the evidence of her guilt was overwhelming.
“The text messages where the father asked if they can come out of the garage, and she was always saying, ‘No, they’re not going to come in the house.’ A lot of text messages where she’s trying to rile him up with the videos [of the boys]. There was just so much evidence.”
Jurors said they weren't persuaded by Pollina's testimony
The juror questioned the wisdom of her testifying, saying, “It didn’t help her.” The juror said he was unmoved by the appeals from Pollina’s defense attorney, who notably called his client the expletive for a female dog several times during his closing and urged jurors to “stay in the play,” meaning to only consider Pollina’s actions on the day Thomas died.
“I just didn’t believe it was just ‘the play;’ it was the whole game,” said juror No. 2. “It [the abuse] went on for months, or a couple of years. I just didn’t believe you could separate it.”
Salvaggio, the jury foreperson, was struck by Pollina’s demeanor on the stand. Pollina cried briefly at a few points, but appeared agitated when the prosecutor grilled her on cross-examination.
“I think she had like very little remorse, very little emotion,” said Salvaggio. “I think if a child dies who you’re close to, you’d show how devastated you are.”
The jurors stressed they decided the case based on the evidence — not emotions.
Juror No. 3, Kenneth Moore, said being a juror on the case was “very emotional” but that went out the window in the jury room.
He said he feels “grateful” a juror held out, allowing them to deliberate before convicting Pollina of such serious charges.
“When they first put me in the jury pool and they announced the charges, I cried,” Moore said. “I did not expect the murder of an 8-year-old child to be the case before me.”
Thomas Valva, in an undated photograph, died of hypothermia on Jan. 17, 2020. Credit: Courtesy Justyna Zubko-Valva
Hearing Pollina in her own words — through texts and video — including on the morning Thomas died when she proclaimed him “hypothermic” in response to a question from one of her daughters about why Thomas couldn’t walk, was illuminating for jurors.
“I thought the texts and videos were very clear and painted a picture of who she is,” said Salvaggio. Her attorney’s contention that Pollina was not acting with a depraved state of mind because she brought Thomas a heater and blankets was not convincing, she said.
“It was too late,” said Salvaggio. “He needed the attention and care prior, all along.”
Dissenting juror wanted to rehear testimony about Thomas Valva's autopsy
The one dissenting juror also wanted to rehear the testimony related to hypothermia from Dr. Michael Caplan, the former chief medical examiner in Suffolk who performed Thomas’ autopsy. At 3:05 p.m., after it had voted for a second time, the jury sent a note saying it had reached a “unanimous” verdict.
Besides Pollina’s guilt, the jury was also united in its contention that Suffolk County’s Child Protectives Services failed miserably to protect Thomas and Anthony.
“This was just a gross negligence by CPS,” said juror No. 2.
Salvaggio said: “This case really brought to light how poorly CPS is functioning. Something needs to change in that aspect big time.”
Juror No. 9, Angela Ehlich, also spoke passionately about the need for change at CPS.
“Something good has to come out of the tragedies that these children endured,” she said, adding: “Going forward, how do we fix this system and prevent this from happening again?”
Valva's trial jurors felt sense of relief at Pollina's conviction
Pollina’s conviction brought a sense of relief for some of the jury in Michael Valva’s trial, four of whom spent most of the second week of the Pollina trial inside the courtroom.
“For me, saying guilty [at his trial], a lot of it was because of her actions and them acting in concert,” said Samantha Silvia of Middle Island, one of the 12 jurors to convict Michael Valva. “So the fact that her jury also saw it that way helps me feel a lot better about our decision, because I knew we made the right one.”
Alternate Valva juror Scott Krusen of Coram said they all “feel a connection to Thomas,” which prompted them to watch Pollina’s testimony — and wait at the courthouse for the verdict.
Angela Pollina, right, listens to her attorney, Matthew Tuohy, before a Riverhead jury found her guilty Friday of second-degree murder in the death of 8-year-old Thomas Valva. Credit: Howard Schnapp
The jurors from the original trial said Pollina’s actions and demands empowered Michael Valva and they wanted to see her held accountable as well.
“He was just going along with her because he was weak,” said Valva juror Christina Anselmo of Setauket. “If she didn't come into his life, I believe Thomas is still here.”
Before leaving the courthouse Friday, the Valva jurors met some of the Pollina jurors.
“We’re all just so emotionally invested, and we will be for the rest of our lives,” Anselmo said.
