Video Of Night Boy Died 'Deleted'; Valva Can't Afford Attorney

CENTER MORICHES, NY — The mother of an 8-year old who froze to death after police said he was left overnight in an unheated garage is demanding to know why video of the night disappeared — and his father, charged with the boy's murder, maintained for the second time Monday that he can't afford an attorney.

At court Monday, Thomas' mother Justyna Zubko-Valva demanded to know why the videos from the night her son died were missing, despite the fact that the Center Moriches home, where the child was living with his father Michael Valva and his fiance Angela Pollina — both were arrested and charged with second degree murder— had extensive surveillance.

"I was told two weeks ago by the district attorney's office that they cannot get the images from the day that Tommy died, because, allegedly, they were deleted,” Zubko-Valva said, according to wcbs880radio.com. “But, as you know, we live in the technological age of everything being stored somewhere and can be, you know, brought back.”

While video was retrieved days earlier from a night when Thomas and his brother Anthony, 10, were in the garage, and Pollina had given authorities the password to the system, videos were "being deleted" while the investigation was taking place, something that has been stated in court by Assistant District Attorney Keriann Kelly.

Videos taken in the house a day and a half before he died, showed both boys in the garage, Thomas shaking from the cold and saying he needed to use the bathroom, looking at the camera "with pleading eyes for someone to help him,"Kelly said.

On the night Thomas died, Kelly said, it was 19 degrees outside, and he was left in the freezing garage with no blankets.

Although his father initially said Thomas died after a fall in the driveway, new details emerged at a press conference with Suffolk County Police Commissioner Geraldine Hart.

Thomas officially died of hypothermia, according to the Suffolk County Medical Examiner, Hart said.

"We believe that he was kept in the garage overnight preceding his death," Hart said.

When the boy was found, his body temperature was 76 degrees. He also had head and facial injuries that didn't align with Valva's story.

Valva appeared in court Monday and said he could not afford legal representation. A new review has begun regarding his financial status, including with the New York Police Department, which suspended him without pay, the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office said.

At his indictment, Valva, who had an attorney who is no longer on the case, asked for Legal Aid representation. Attorney Dan Russo conducted an investigation and said Valva had the means and was able to retain private counsel, something Suffolk County Supreme Court Justice William Condon urged him to secure. Until then, the issue of bail was deferred.

“Any idea that you would represent yourself would be a fool’s errand,” Condon said Monday, according to CBSLocal.

“I just don’t have the funds, and I have no idea how to represent myself,” Valva replied, according to the post.

On Monday, Bay Shore based-attorney Robert Del Col, who had been appointed to represent Valva just for the arraignment proceedings, asked to be released from the case, the district attorney's office said. Del Col said he had a conflict of interest because he had spoken to Justyna Zubko-Valva, Thomas' mother — she and Valva are involved in a bitter divorce — in matrimonial court last year when she was representing herself, prosecutors said. He was asked to be released and the judge granted that request.

Last month, Suffolk County District Attorney Tim Sini unsealed five-count indictments against Valva, 40, and Pollina, 42. Valva and Pollina, of Bittersweet Lane, were arrested Jan. 24 in the Jan. 17 death of Thomas Valva. The couple were charged with second-degree murder and four counts of endangering the welfare of a child. They pleaded not guilty.

If convicted of the charges, the couple face 25 years to life in prison.

Thomas and Anthony were undernourished, begging for food, and foraging through the garbage at school and for crumbs because they were "so hungry," Kelly said, as she painted a verbal image of the "house of horrors" where Thomas died. The boys, she said, were physically abused; during one incident, Pollina "dragged Thomas and threw him down the stairs," Kelly said. They were sent to school in urine-soaked soiled diapers, she said.

Valva is due back in court March 5, when the judge will decide if he can afford to hire an attorney or hire court-appointed representation.

Condon remanded Pollina to jail without bail. Her Huntington-based attorney Matthew Tuohy had asked for $50,000 cash/$100,ooo bond, stating that his client maintained her innocence. Born in Nassau County and a Suffolk County resident, her attorney said Pollina had never been in trouble before her arrest, had custody of her three girls, and had medical issues that needed attention. She is due back in court March 26.