Woman accused in NY boy's freezing death grilled by prosecutors
RIVERHEAD, Long Island (PIX11) -- Facing accusations that she murdered the 8-year-old son of her fiancé by letting the boy freeze, Angela Pollina was back on the witness stand on Wednesday in her criminal trial.
Unlike Tuesday, when she first took the stand and answered questions from her own attorney, Pollina on Wednesday had to face prosecutors' questions.
Their two-and-a-half hour grilling, led by the chief of the district attorney's homicide bureau, relied on extensive home surveillance video and cellphone texts that investigators had been able to get from Pollina and her fiancé, Michael Valva.
Valva is an ex-NYPD cop who was convicted last year on second-degree murder and child endangerment charges. He's serving a 25 years-to-life sentence. Pollina faces the same charges and potentially the same fate.
Valva's son Thomas died after he and one of his brothers had to spend the night in the freezing cold garage at the home where the Valvas lived with Pollina and her daughters. That night in the garage, the outside temperature was 19 degrees; the garage was unheated. Thomas died from hypothermia, according to the medical examiner, who reported that at the time of the boy's death, his body temperature was 76.1 degrees.
In court on Wednesday, Pollina argued that while she'd participated in the boys' mistreatment, her fiancé was responsible for Thomas's death -- not her.
Her attorney, Matt Tuohy, said that the choice to testify was hers.
"She wanted that," he said in an interview outside of court. "She wanted to get up and [testify]. She's nervous about it, but she's gonna say what she has to say."
Chief Homicide Bureau Prosecutor Kerriann Kelly grilled Pollina in rapid-fire questioning that resulted in various admissions of wrongdoing from Pollina.
In one, the prosecutor referred to dozens of hours of Nest surveillance video seized from Pollina's home in Center Moriches. Most of the rooms had cameras, including the bedrooms, and the garage, where Thomas and his brother were forced to sleep.
Despite that, seven video files from the day and time that Thomas died, around 9 a.m. on Jan. 17, 2020, were deleted.
Prosecutor Kelly kept questioning Pollina about the missing Nest camera files.
"You deleted all of the videos that could've shown what happened to Thomas that morning?" Kelly asked.
"Yes," Pollina responded.
In testimony, the prosecutor also instructed Pollina to watch and talk about videos from the Nest camera in the garage. They showed Thomas and his brother lying on the cement floor, shivering, a few nights before the fateful one after which Thomas died the next morning.
Jurors watched as well, not revealing any emotions.
In addition to the Nest camera video, there were also dozens of transcripts of text messages between Pollina and Valva that were in evidence and that the prosecutor questioned Pollina about.
"Ms. Pollina," she said as she referred to a text that talked about Thomas and his two brothers who lived in her home, "it's fair to say, in your own words, the boys were 'dirty, filthy and stinky,' right?"
"They were," Pollina said on the stand.
Still, she and her attorney insist that while she admits to abusive behavior, she is not responsible for the boy's death.
"We're gonna lay it all on the line, and we're gonna be transparent," defense attorney Tuohy said. "We've got nothing to hide. She's gonna own up to what she did and what she didn't do."
Wednesday ended with Tuohy questioning Pollina on the stand again, as he'd done on Tuesday. That questioning, called re-direct, continues Thursday morning. Closing arguments come after that.
The jury may get the case by Friday, according to court sources.