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Bronx prosecutors want little Julissia Batties’ half-brother to be tried as an adult in the 7-year-old’s murder — as graphic evidence during a hearing into the case Friday horrified the girl’s grieving dad and grandmother.

Paul Fine Jr., now 18, is charged in the beating death of 7-year-old Julissia last year — but his lawyer is looking to move the case to family court because Fine was 17 at the time of the alleged crime.

“I’m with the [district attorney], because what they’re saying is the truth,” grandmother Yolanda Davis told reporters outside the courthouse, which she left after seeing graphic photos that included images of Julissia with a black eye.

“There was no one else there but them, and they have evidence to show so he should be tried as an adult. He admitted to what he did. He should have been under arrest that day. He was never supposed to be walking. He was supposed to be in jail that day.”


  Julissia Batties was beaten to death last year. Gregory P. Mango Julissia Batties was beaten to death last year. Gregory P. Mango

  Paul Fine Jr. was 17 at the time of the crime and is now 18 years old. Robert Miller Paul Fine Jr. was 17 at the time of the crime and is now 18 years old. Robert Miller

Davis bashed the Administration for Children’s Services over their handling of the case, saying photos showed case workers had seen the child with a black eye days before she died and failed to remove her from her mother.

“ACS has failed us and we want justice, and I mean that,” said Davis, who raised the girl for most of her short life and fought Julissia’s mother for custody. “I tried too much to tell them what was going on and they weren’t listening. This is a hurting situation. This is very sad, that the system failed like this.”

Julissia was killed in August 2021, less than two months after she was returned to unsupervised custody of her mother Navasia Jones, who is also charged in the killing.

Jones had originally told investigators Julissia had fallen that morning at an apartment in the NYCHA Mitchel Houses at 5 a.m. and hit her head on a desk. Three hours later, the girl started vomiting and lost consciousness.

An autopsy revealed that the girl died from “blunt force abdominal trauma” and the half-brother allegedly admitting to punching Julissia in the head eight times. But the mother and half-brother weren’t charged in the crime until last month.

“So when the only people in her house was [Jones], her son, her little son, her 10-year-old and her oldest son, you’re gonna tell me that they’re lying? Ain’t no way,” Davis said.


  Prosecutors want to have Julissia’s half-brother tried as an adult for her death. Gregory P. Mango Prosecutors want to have Julissia’s half-brother tried as an adult for her death. Gregory P. Mango

“When you say you punched her in her face, you didn’t just punch her in her face, you beat her up, you and your mother, and then your mother left, and went to the store, like she didn’t do nothing, and then you covered it, that’s what’s happening here,” the grandmother added.

“It’s terrible, it’s really sad. My granddaughter was a very good kid,” Davis said. “You didn’t have to do anything to her. She was starving her and everything. The case worker did not even listen.

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