Two years after little Julissia Batties was found beaten to death inside a disheveled Bronx apartment, the 7-year-old girl’s heartbroken dad is still waiting for her accused killers — her own mother and half-brother — to be brought to justice.
“Words cannot express how I feel about the situation,” a frustrated Julius Batties told The Post Thursday, on the two-year anniversary of his daughter’s tragic death.
“My daughter’s been deceased for two years. [Her mother] has been sitting in jail for a year. There is no justice,” Batties said.
Julissia’s tiny, battered body was found in her mother Navasia Jones’ apartment at NYCHA’s Mitchell Houses complex on Aug. 10, 2021 — amid a lengthy custody battle that had seen the girl returned to her mom’s care by city child services worker just a month before she was killed.
It would then take nearly a year, until June 2022, for cops to arrest Jones and her son Paul Fine Jr., then 18, on murder and manslaughter charges — and their cases have been dragging on ever since.
“I feel like it’s going to turn into years and years of excuses. It definitely makes me angry,” Julius Batties fumed Thursday.
The horrific slaying shocked the city and raised allegations that the city’s Administration of Children’s Services had failed Julissia by returning her to her mom’s home, where there had been a known history of violence.
The girl could be heard on a heart-wrenching audio recording obtained by The Post begging her grandmother, Yolanda Davis, with whom she had been living, not to send her for a court-ordered weekend visit with her mom.
“I don’t want to go with mommy!” Julissia was heard pleading with her grandmother. “Help me out!”
Her heartbreaking death even moved first-responders, with cops leaving a teddy bear and balloons at a makeshift memorial for Julissia outside the housing complex where she died.
An autopsy revealed that Julissia, while in her mom’s custody, had been repeatedly beaten and molested, allegedly by Fine, who was also charged with sexual abuse.
The girl’s dad and grandmother had rejoiced when Jones and Fine were finally arrested.
“Oh my God, I’ve never been so happy,” Davis said at the time. “I’m just happy I’m getting justice for my granddaughter!”
But more than one year after the arrests, the cases continue to linger in court, as Jones remains behind bars on Rikers Island and Fine is being held at the Crossroads Juvenile Center in the Bronx.
“I feel like it’s a procrastinating situation,” Julius Batties said Thursday. “They should’ve been further along. I definitely want to see this end. It shouldn’t be this long for no child’s murder.”
Compounding his grief is his own battle for custody of Julissia’s little brother, who is now four but was just a toddler when he was plucked from the home where his big sister died.
“I work very hard to get my son out of the system and they are treating us like we did it,” Batties said.
“I have my son for a year and they still have me under supervision,” he said. “I’m doing what I gotta do as a parent.”
Batties said his young son, whose name is being withheld at his request, still asks for his sister.
“He’s been saying, ‘I want to kiss my sister, I want to hug my sister,'” he said. “‘I miss her.’ Could me an him take care of my sister and bring her back.”
He said he’s also trying to block Jones from seeing her son in jail, claiming she still has parental rights.
“She ain’t getting nothing,” Batties said. “I’m not allowing that. My lawyer is fighting that.”
The little boy “doesn’t even mention her at all, so how do you all want to force him onto something he wants to forget?” Batties continued.
“I’m not big on forcing him to do what he doesn’t want to do,” he added. “It’s putting a bigger task on me as a dad.”
Both Jones and Fine are being held without bail. The next hearing in their cases is set for Aug. 29.
The Bronx District Attorney’s Office would not comment as the cases are still pending.
Bronx Defenders, the public-defender law firm that represents both suspects, did not respond to requests for comment Thursday.