Riverhead, N.Y.: Former NYPD officer Michael Valva is handcuffed after the guilty verdict was read during his trial at Suffolk Criminal Court in Riverhead, New York on November 4, 2022. Valva was convicted of second-degree murder and child endangerment in the death of his son, Thomas Valva, 8. Thomas died on Jan. 17, 2020, after he was forced to sleep in an unheated garage in 19 degree weather. (Photo by Alejandra Villa Loarca/Newsday RM via Getty Images)
Disgraced ex-NYPD officer Michael Valva was found guilty of murdering his autistic son by freezing him to death, and sentenced on Thursday to 25 years to life.
Valva was given the maximum sentence by a Suffolk County judge following his conviction of second-degree murder last month.
The 43-year-old was ultimately found guilty of the heartbreaking 2020 death of his 8-year-old son Thomas after he allegedly locked the boy in an unheated garage overnight at their Long Island home, the New York Post reports.
Thomas reportedly died from hypothermia after being left in the freezing temperatures for upwards of 16 hours, without any blankets. When he died, Thomas’ body temperature was 76.1 degrees, 20 degrees lower than it should have been, prosecutors noted.
The boy’s older brother Anthony, who was 10 at the time and also described as autistic, ultimately survived the same treatment.
An EMS worker who responded to the scene testified at Valva’s trial that the father had “no emotion, no sense of concern” for the boy – telling emergency personnel that he discovers his son unconscious after the boy his his dead on a door frame.
Teachers allegedly testified and described the boy as abused, underfed, and regularly cold and hungry, according to News 12.
One special education teacher said that Anthony, Thomas’ brother, would search for “any crumb of food” whenever possible.
“He was eating from the floor under the bleachers. He was looking for any crumb of food,” the teacher testified while crying on the stand, per Patch.com.
Valva, along with his then-fiancee Angela Pollina, who will have a separate trial, were arrested back in January 2020, and charged with second-degree murder and four counts of endangering the welfare of a child.
One teacher, who kept a “well-being log” of her special education students, noted “small injuries” on his face along with a limp walk.
Meanwhile, Valve’s defense maintained that the former cop was under extreme stress due to his financial situation, and over anger Pollina had shown after both boys urinated and defecated inside the home, according to Patch.com.
Thomas’ older brother, Edward, had said he was allowed to use the bathroom at school, but due to the fact that there were incontinence issues, both Thomas and his brother were forced to wear diapers in school, and even had clothes and shoes soaked in urine, prosecutors said.
Prior witnesses said that both of the younger boys were losing weight, with Anthony losing 20 pounds in a year.
