Ex-NYPD Cop Gets 25 to Life in 8-Year-Old Son’s Freezing Death on Long Island

A former NYPD officer was sentenced Thursday to 25 years to life after being convicted of murder last month in the January 2020 death of his 8-year-old son, Thomas, who was forced to sleep in the family’s freezing Long Island garage.

The jury of eight women and four men found Michael Valva guilty of murder and four counts of endangering the welfare of a child in early November after seven hours of deliberations. The gut-wrenching trial lasted five weeks.

Suffolk County prosecutors argued Michael Valva exiled Thomas to the garage as temperatures plunged below 20 degrees during that winter night nearly three years ago.

As the verdict was read, Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney called the case “heartbreaking” and one of the toughest he’s experienced for all involved. Prosecutors hoped the decision would give little Thomas some justice.

“This guilty verdict will not bring back 8-year-old Thomas, who suffered immense cruelty at the hands of his father, the same person who was entrusted to protect, provide and unconditionally love Thomas and his older brother Anthony,” Tierney said. “No child should ever have to endure such evil acts. While there is nothing that we can do to bring Thomas back, we are satisfied with the jury’s decision.”

“Michael Valva subjected his sons to horrific abuse, neglect and cruelty,” he added. “He will now pay for cutting short the life of a young, innocent, defenseless boy who had a lifetime ahead of him.”

Thomas Valva and his older brother Anthony had spent 16 hours in that garage with no heat, on a night when the temperature outside plunged, according to prosecutors. Thomas’ body temperature was 76 degrees when he died.

The brothers, both with autism, were in that garage he said as punishment for constant urinating and defecating in the house. The idea to put the children out there came from Valva’s then-fiancée, Angela Polina, the defense alleged.

“Michael Valva did care about his kids and did not want them to die,” defense attorney Anthony Lapinta said previously. He had told the jury that Thomas’ death was an accident.

Michael Valva sobbed in court Thursday as he apologized.

Polina has also been charged with murder in the case and previously pleaded not guilty. Her trial date has not yet been set. Lapinta described her as a “demanding, controlling girlfriend who forced the boys to live outside the house.”

Prosecutors showed extensive surveillance video from inside the home, and argued that the two young boys had been beaten and starved for years.

Thomas Valva’s mother stood just a few feet away from the two people accused of killing the 8-year-old boy, his NYPD officer father and his fiancee. She was in court as she continues her fight for permanent custody of her children. NBC New York’s Greg Cergol reports.

In the days after Thomas died, investigators unraveled a disturbing series of allegations — repeat, extreme punishment, starvation, being locked in a frigid garage for hours — at the hands of his father and his then-fiancee.

Then came blistering condemnation from Thomas’ mother, as the boy’s death exposed alleged severe frailties within the family court system that enabled an alleged sustained pattern of abuse that took her son’s life.

She did not attend the trial.