NYC mom admits she beat 7-year-old daughter Julissia Batties to death — but son charged with molesting girl to go free
The mother of 7-year-old Julissia Batties admitted Wednesday that she fatally beat her tiny daughter to death in their Bronx apartment in 2021, but her son — charged with molesting his kid sister — will be allowed to walk free.
Navasia Jones, 35, pleaded guilty to one count of manslaughter as part of a deal struck with the Bronx District Attorney’s Office to take full responsibility for Julissia’s death — and to get her son, Paul Fine Jr., off the hook for the girl’s death and alleged sexual assault.
“It’s anticipated that a motion to dismiss will be filed on Friday,” Fine’s lawyer, Deveraux Cannick, said in a phone interview. “Once the motion is filed then the matter of bail will be academic because the charges will be dismissed, and the records will be sealed and Paul Fine, Jr will be free of all charges.
“It’s a done deal, but it’s a matter of formality that the motion must be officially filed and received by the court,” Cannick added.
Meanwhile Jones pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter in exchange for a 15-year sentence.
Jones’ lawyer Edward Sapone hinted outside of court that “a certain nature and quality” of the evidence in the case “could have presented a problem” for prosecutors had the case gone to trial — without getting into details.
“So we thought about it, we negotiated, and we thought that ultimately, the certainty of a 15-year sentence would be the way to go for her,” he told reporters.
A spokesperson for Bronx DA Darcel Clark declined to comment on the case against?Fine, which is scheduled for a hearing on Friday.?
Julissia’s father, Julius Batties, told The Post in a phone interview that he thought the 15-year prison term was too light – and wanted Jones sent away for life.
“It does make me angry because she’s getting away with murder and she’s getting her son back. I don’t get my daughter back,” said the grieving father, who earlier sat in court wearing a pendant with her daughter’s picture on it.
“I barely looked at her – after what she did? I don’t want to remember her,” he said of Jones. “I’m very much destroyed because I’ll never get to see my daughter again.”
But he made it a point to thank the district attorney and the detectives on the case, stating, “They tried their best.”
Police discovered Julissia’s battered body in Jones’ apartment at the New York City Housing Authority’s Mitchel Houses on Aug. 10, 2021, sparking an investigation into Jones.
Jones told cops her young daughter fell and hit her head on a desk.
In June 2022 Fine was arrested in the girl’s death — and allegedly admitted he sexually abused the girl.
Charged with murder, assault and sexual abuse, Fine allegedly admitted during questioning that he had punched his sister eight times in the face when their mother went to the store around 5 a.m.
Hours later, he allegedly said Julissia threw up and passed out, so his 35-year-old mom called 911.
Then, last year — almost three years to the day after Julissia’s death, Jones was also arrested.
The case was ruled a homicide after the coroner said she died of “blunt force abdominal trauma.”
“Mom and brother are both culpable,” a high-ranking police source said. “They both had a role in it, but who delivered the fatal blow is not clear.”
The case shocked the Big Apple and sparked allegations that the city’s Administration of Children’s Services had failed the girl by returning her to her mom’s home, where there had been a known history of violence and abuse — and where she was eventually brutally killed.
Cops have been called to the apartment in the city public housing complex on Alexander Avenue six times over the past three years, according to sources, who said that on at least one of those occasions, the mother covered for the teen boy.
The last call came in March 2020, sources said.
In a heartbreaking audio recording obtained by The Post, young Julissia cried hysterically and begged her grandmother not to send her for a court-ordered weekend visit with her mom.
Despite her pleas, Julissia was sent to visit her mother, who lost custody of the girl at birth, along with four sons, due to alleged negligence and physical abuse.
Against objections by her grandmother and court-appointed lawyer, the city Administration for Children’s Services last June 21 finally returned Julissia to live with her mother.
In court Wednesday, Julissia’s grandmother, Yolanda Davis, burst into tears as Jones admitted to killing the girl.
