Closing arguments delivered in Thomas Valva murder trial, jury deliberations set to begin Friday

Jury deliberations are expected to begin Friday.

News 12 Staff

Nov 3, 2022, 9:16 AM

Updated 703 days ago

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The prosecution and defense delivered their closing arguments in the Thomas Valva murder trial on Thursday.
Prosecutors opened with a photo of the 8-year-old taken the day before he died. He was at school with red cheeks and red hands giving a thumbs up.
They then showed a photo from Thomas Valva's autopsy and described him as "the same broken little boy" shown in the photo when he was alive.
KerriAnn Kelly, the lead prosecutor, said Michael Valva had complete disregard for Thomas Valva's life. She said the child was banished to the garage and there was physical abuse in the home, saying "that child was being tortured in that house of horrors."
Prosecutors say the father had no emotion as he walked past his son's backpack that was left in the cold garage where the child slept before dying of hypothermia. They say Michael Valva walked past the backpack many times before his arrest, and never even looked inside the last thing his son left behind.
Defense attorney John LoTurco said, "Michael never wanted Thomas to die" and described the case as a tsunami of emotions.
The defense said that the district attorney wants to demonize the father and portray him as a cold-blooded monster, but LoTurco told the jury that second-degree murder is an overzealous charge.
He said that Michael Valva is guilty of child neglect, maltreatment, atrocious parenting at times, lying to police by not giving them a full narrative of what happened and saying horrible things to his son.
However, when it comes to murder in the second degree, LoTurco said, "We claim there are a plethora of reasonable doubts."
"We strategically told the jury that Michael was guilty of criminally negligent homicide, he failed to perceive the risk of that day and he was a negligent part of Thomas' death. We hope that the jury would be less inclined to find him guilty of the depraved indifference murder charge."
Jury deliberations are expected to begin Friday.
If convicted on the top charge of second-degree murder, Michael Valva faces life in prison.

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