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“We don’t convict folks as a result of they’re bitches.”
That’s the argument the protection lawyer for Angela Pollina – who forced her ex-fiancé’s 8-year-old son into a frigid garage the night time earlier than he died – made to jurors Thursday in a jaw-dropping conclusion to his shopper’s Suffolk County homicide trial.
But the authorized Hail Mary, hoisted aloft by lawyer Matthew Tuohy throughout his summation, was rapidly swatted down by Assistant District Attorney Kerriann Kelly, who stated Pollina’s wanton and merciless abuse of little Thomas Valva had immediately led to the boy’s hypothermia demise.
“She acknowledged it was evil – and it was,” Kelly stated. “She tortured them! Screamed at them! She pressured him out into the chilly! Thomas was tortured and died for the sin of being autistic.”
Jurors went into deliberations instantly after the climactic ending, which left a number of onlookers weeping within the gallery. Their work is about to proceed on Friday.
The emotional fireworks had been a becoming finish to Pollina’s two-week trial.
When proceedings started, prosecutors stated Pollina was each bit as responsible within the demise of Thomas as his personal father, disgraced ex-NYPD cop Michael Valva, who was convicted of the murder in November and sentenced to 25 years to life behind bars the following month.
The trial has not gone effectively for the protection, particularly as Pollina herself took the stand this week — and made jurors gasp when she stated it was “just a little chilly,” however that she was “snug,” on the morning Thomas froze to demise in 2020.
A witness testified earlier that Pollina would curse and scream on the boy, and the couple would mock him for his autism.
The prosecution additionally confirmed movies of Thomas and his older brother Anthony, then 10, shivering on the cement storage ground as a result of Pollina had demanded weeks earlier that her then-beau take away any creature comforts from the world.
Thomas died on Jan. 17, 2020, at Long Island Community Hospital.
But a paramedic stated throughout Valva’s trial that the abused baby was doubtless already dead after they arrived – he’d been locked in a storage for 16 hours in frigid temperatures, then hosed off within the 21 diploma chilly earlier than he fell and hit his head.
In his closing arguments Thursday, Tuohy stated Pollina’s demand that the boys stay within the storage was no huge deal.
“Who cares!” Tuohy advised jurors. “It was a number of months earlier than. Yeah, she was a foul individual earlier than … however not on that day. She wished the boys exiled to the storage. She acquired up and owned it, she stated … it was improper.”
“But she advised you, however I didn’t kill him,’” Tuohy continued, earlier than putting the blame on her ex-fiancé.
“It’s all Michael Valva!” he charged. “She might be imply, she wished the boys exiled to the storage however she didn’t kill him. She’s acquired no a part of that. That is all the daddy … There’s no crime for being a bitch!”
Kelly, the district lawyer, stated Pollina was clearly responsible.
“It was due to her!” Kelly stated. “Her merciless and strange punishment for the crime of being just a little boy with autism. That precipitated Thomas to die … You heard the tapes. Who do you suppose is absolutely operating that family? Who do you suppose is accountable for these youngsters?”
Thomas had no physique fats, a power kidney an infection from holding in his urine, sunken hips and alopecia, Kelly stated. His physique temperature had fallen to just about 76 levels. And texts and recordings illustrated that neither Valva nor Pollina cared.
“By her phrases, by her actions, she stayed on the play!” Kelly stated. “That was the one purpose these youngsters had been within the storage. He was not allowed in the home, not allowed to make use of a toilet. That was all due to this defendant.”
Pollina has been charged with second-degree homicide and baby endangerment. She faces 25 years to life in jail if convicted.
