CENTER MORICHES, NY — Heated opening arguments were delivered on both sides Wednesday in the trial of ex-NYPD officer Michael Valva — charged in the death of his son Thomas Valva, 8, who froze to death in his Center Moriches garage in 202o.

With Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney looking on in the courtroom, Judge William Condon began proceedings. Assistant District Attorney Laura Newcomb reminded the jury that Valva — along with his then-fiance Angela Pollina, who will have a separate trial — were each arrested on Jan. 17, 2020 and charged with second-degree murder and four counts of endangering the welfare of a child.

If convicted, each faces 25 years to life in prison. Both have pleaded not guilty and remain jailed without bail.

"19 degrees," she said. "That's how cold it was the night before Thomas Valva was murdered on the morning of January 17, 2020."

Just 19 degrees, she said, and Thomas and his brother, both autistic, were forced to sleep on a cold floor with no mattress, no pillow, no blankets, where they had lived for months. "Just his body on the cold concrete all night long," she said.

Thomas, who was autistic and had incontinence issues, had an accident and soiled himself, she said. Valva, she said, "began screaming, 'Stop pooping. I should make you eat this ---t.'"

Then Valva took Thomas outside into the cold and hosed him down with icy water from the spigot, she said. Thomas began falling head-first onto the concrete. "What did this father do?" she asked, pointing at Valva. "Did he try to help him? No. He began yelling, 'F--- you, moron, walk!'"

And later, he said of Thomas, "He's cold. Boo f------ hoo," Newcomb said.

Thomas died a few hours later of hypothermia, according to the Suffolk County Medical Office' determination. His body temperature was 76.1 degrees, 22 degrees lower than it should have been, Newcomb said.

Looking back to September, 2017, when Valva and Pollina moved in to 11 Bittersweet Lane in Center Moriches, with both Thomas and his brother autistic and finding it difficult to communicate, the boys were "punished if they didn't use their words," given no food, she said.

The boys were starving at school, eating crumbs from the floor and half-eaten food from the trash, Newcomb said. In a year, his brother had lost 20 pounds and Thomas gained only 1 pound, she said.

Also, although both boys had been toilet trained when they began living with Valva and Pollina in 2017, by 2018, they were back in Pull-Ups. Due to their accidents, they were forced to sleep on the floor, on wee wee pads meant for training dogs, Newcomb said.

"When that didn't work, they were forced into the backyard, alone in a tent, while the rest of the family slept upstairs in their warm beds," she said.

The boys were next "exiled to the two-car garage with the unwanted items. A life-size Halloween werewolf. A Christmas tree. No heat. No insulation. By the time of Thomas' death, the boys were living out of the garage."

There was also physical abuse, Newcomb said. The boys were slapped and punched; teachers reported red marks, scrapes and bruises, and their soiled clothes reeked of urine, she said.

The jury will see proof, Newcomb said, because 11 Bittersweet Lane had a Nest video recording system that saved information to the Cloud.

"You can see the abuse they endured" at the hands of their father, Newcomb said.

And, she added, there are the texts. Newcomb read one that said the boys, if they refused to listen, would be put out in the snow.

Or another: "I will beat them until they bleed," Newcomb read.

And, texted Valva: "When I get home I'm going to f------ handcuff him," Newcomb said.

Photo of Assistant District Attorney Laura Newcomb courtesy POOL/John Paraskevas Via Newsday.

On the day he died, EMTs found Thomas barely dressed, his pants pulled down below his knees, with no underwear and no shirt. His body was cold, his lips, gray, his pupils fixed and dilated, with no pulse, Newcomb said.

"They thought he was dead," she said.

When the EMTs asked Valva what had happened to his son, Valva said Thomas had been running for the school bus and fallen, Newcomb said.

Thomas was taken to Long Island Community Hospital, where Valva never mentioned that his son had special needs, that he had defecated and that he'd washed him with icy water from a spigot, she said.

At the hospital, it was determined that Thomas' body temperature was 76.1 and that he had died from hypothermia, she said.

Newcomb said Wednesday that Suffolk County Police Detective Norberto Flores was able to get the user name and password to the Nest video and another detective also saw videos of Thomas and his brother in the garage, shivering. That's when the case took a turn, she said, adding that the videos were "being erased" and the password changed.

However, she said, one video wasn't erased. Bella, the dog, had a warm room in the pantry, and it was through that camera that the detectives were able to hear the audio of Valva saying, "F------ idiot, stand up. F------ idiot. Boo f------ hoo," she said.

Newcomb asked the jury to remember four numbers: "Eight, Thomas' age. 16, the number of hours he was in the garage. 19, how cold it was. And 76.1, his body temperature at the time of his death."

Next, defense attorney Anthony La Pinta began his opening remarks. He said 11 Bittersweet Lane was supposed to symbolize a new life together for Valva and Pollina, "a blending of two families."

But then, the children were proven to be "very different," with Thomas and his brother in special education classes, something that presented "significant challenges," he said.

The boys struggled with incontinence, something that "caused a major conflict at 11 Bittersweet Lane . . . with Angela, who grew resentful over the urination and defecation," he said.

Photo of defense attorney Anthony La Pinta courtesy POOL/John Paraskevas Via Newsday.

Pollina also grew increasingly impatient with and resentful of Michael, he said, because she did not feel he could discipline his boys.

"At one point, Angela threatened to kick Michael and the boys out of the house, unless Michael changed his ways and became more strict with them," La Pinta said. "This unnerved Michael because he had no savings, he was in debt with credit cards and was living paycheck to paycheck."

Valva, he said, worked the night tour from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. in New York City and commuted to Center Moriches daily.

Pollina was the one who ordered the boys into the garage "until they learn how to control themselves," La Pinta said. Valva taped the door so it wouldn't lock and the boys had access to the kitchen, he said.

"Bittersweet Lane was becoming more bitter by the day," he said.

When Pollina demanded the boys sleep in the garage, Valva refused at first, La Pinta said. "But he relented when he was faced with being kicked out and in the street with his three boys."

La Pinta acknowledged the jury would see the texts of the pair arguing and video of the boys sleeping in the garage from the Nest video. "You're not going to like what Michael said or the manner in which the boys were disciplined," he said. "The many pressures going on in Michael Valva's life seemingly compromised his judgment and obligations as a father."

La Pinta added: "Michael never thought that his boys could die, sleeping in the garage," La Pinta said. "He thought they might get sick but die? Never."

He said that the Center Moriches School District was aware that the boys were hungry and cold and that Suffolk County CPS had investigated allegations of mistreatment and were "well aware" of the situation.

La Pinta also claimed that Thomas died from a biological reaction to Valva putting Thomas, who was cold, into a warm bath. He claimed that Thomas died from "vasoconstriction," causing blood flow away from his organs and to his skin and causing cardiac arrest, not hypothermia. "An awful tragedy. Thomas died by accident — not by murder at the hands of his father."

He added: "This was not a senseless act of evil. Michael did not want his son to die. You need to think with your head and not your heart," La Pinta told the jury. "Michael Valva did not murder his young son."

Thomas' mother Justyna Zubko-Valva pleaded for help on her Twitter page before her son died. In 2020, Zubko-Valva filed a $200 million wrongful death suit.

Zubko-Valva has not responded to requests for comment.

In June, a judge ruled that portions of the $200 million lawsuit filed by Zubko-Valva after Thomas died can move forward, a judge ruled.

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