I've never been affected as much as I have been from the details in this case. To say its heartbreaking is an absolute understatement.
Prosecutors share details of Long Island house of horrors where 8-year-old autistic boy was killed, and 10-year-old brother abused
The father of an autistic 8-year-old left to die inside a freezing Long Island garage callously dismissed the little boy’s lethal predicament.
“I have zero clothing for him,” read a twisted text message from dad Michael Valva to his fiancee just two days before the death of his helpless son Thomas. “F--k a piece of s--t Thomas. He’s not going anywhere.”
The caustic comments were made public Thursday at the Suffolk County court arraignment of Valva, a city transit cop, and his live-in girlfriend Angela Pollina. Both stand accused of murder in the Jan. 17 death of Thomas Valva, whose body temperature dipped to 76 degrees on the night of his horrific death.
Valva and Pollina treated Thomas and his 10-year-old autistic big brother Anthony "in a manner that was nothing short of cruel, callous, wanton and evil,” charged Suffolk County prosecutor Kerriann Kelly. “The boys were undernourished. They were literally begging for food at school, eating the crumbs off the table, eating out of the garbage cans.”
The allegations made by authorities echoed some of those leveled by the children’s mother Justyna Zubko-Valva, who sat sobbing during the arraignments of her estranged husband and Pollina. Both defendants were held without bail pending a Feb. 24 court date.
“What happened to my son is a clear instance of enormous corruption within the system,” a weeping Zubko-Valva said after the hearing. “The people involved have Thomas’ blood on their hands.”
Kelly repeatedly stared toward the defendants as she recited the heinous details of the case, including the vulgar language directed toward the doomed Thomas and his older brother. There was an audible gasp in the Long Island courtroom when the prosecutor recounted Valva’s heartless reaction to notification of his middle child’s death.
“When asked if he needed anything at the hospital after his son was ultimately pronounced (dead), the defendant replied, ‘I’ve been through more stressful things than this,’” the prosecutor declared.
On the same morning when Valva called EMTs to aid his already-dead son, Pollina went casually into the bathroom at their Center Moriches, L.I., home to fix her hair.
“It took her about 45 minutes before she arrived at the hospital,” recounted Kelly, who added that Anthony lost 20 pounds in a single year under the couple’s cruel care.
The prosecutor also detailed how Thomas came to school one day with his feet squishing inside urine-soaked sneakers, and alleged the defendants browbeat the two boys into lying about the horrific conditions of their home life.
The suspects also tried to delete home video camera footage as police came to the suburban home after Thomas’ death, and one of the video clips showed Valva “beating one of his children with a closed fist while screaming at him," said Kelly.
Pollina, 42, stood emotionless in handcuffs during the hearing where her attorney asked unsuccessfully for her release on $50,000 cash bail.
Little Thomas’ mother praised her son’s courage in the face of the horrors that defined his day-to-day life, although she realized the sad ending in this case was almost inevitable.
“I know Tommy was a fighter,” she said. “He always stood for the truth, and he died for the truth. He’s a hero. But how much could he handle? He was only 8 years old.”