A jury will now decide the fate of Angela Pollina, the woman charged of killing her fiancé’s 8-year-old son by torturing him.
After Pollina spent three days testifying in her own defence, the prosecution is considering second-degree murder and child endangerment charges. Both parties then presented their closing arguments on Thursday.
Throughout her testimony, Pollina, 45, admitted to physically and emotionally abusing Thomas Valva in a number of statements. She and her counsel have claimed in court, however, that she is not to blame for the boy’s passing.
After his closing argument, Matt Touhy, Pollina’s attorney, stated, “I just wanted to lay it all on the line and be truthful and say you may detest her, but she didn’t commit murder. It’s not even close, in my opinion.
Instead, he claimed in his in-court summary that Thomas’s murder in January 2020 was really committed by the child’s father, Michael Valva, who was at the time Pollina’s fiancé.
Former NYPD officer Michael Valva was found guilty of the identical charges that Pollina is currently facing last year. He is incarcerated and serving a sentence of 25 years to life. According to the medical examiner, the youngster died of hypothermia at the time of the criminal accusations.
The condition developed after Thomas and his brother were made to spend months sleeping on the garage floor of their house in below-freezing temperatures. They were only permitted to use the outside bathroom and shower.
That also held true on January 17, 2020, the day the youngster passed away. Thomas was discovered with a body temperature of 76.1 degrees, according to the first responders.
Pollina’s attorney wanted the jury to acquit her of the murder allegation but to find her guilty of the four misdemeanour counts of child endangerment against her.
According to defence lawyer Touhy, the 8-year-old was not with Pollina when he passed away; instead, he was with his father. During his final argument, he spoke hysterically while arguing the issue.
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Tuohy remarked, “For me, [it’s] emotional because obviously the boy, and the tragedy. Simply put, it becomes a little too much. I really poured my heart into this. God is in control of it.
Nonetheless, the prosecutor Kerriann Kelly handed the case over to the jury and in her summary cited or displayed a significant amount of the material that the jury had seen over the course of the previous two weeks of the trial.
Kelly displayed Valva’s autopsy image during her final remarks. Public release is not taking place. The boy’s thinness and the visible scrapes and cuts, according to Kelly, show that Pollina mistreated him at her house.
Additionally, the prosecution contended that Pollina had collaborated with Michael Valva for two years to deprive and harm the youngster. They claimed that these deeds finally brought about death.
Additionally, they said that Pollina’s version of the boy’s final day, which she had provided under oath, was mainly made up.
She allegedly collaborated with Michael Valva to develop a strategy to guarantee that they weren’t held accountable for the boy’s death, according to the prosecution. In reality, Kelly claimed, the pair didn’t call 911 until after they had come up with a plan.
According to individuals with knowledge of the case, the jury was given the case at the end of the day on Thursday and almost immediately submitted two notes to the judge asking for clarity on the accusations and the medical examiner’s report.
On Friday, the jury will begin deliberating after the judge responds to their request.
