The Bronx mom charged with murdering her 7-year-old daughter in an August 2021 tragedy that shocked the city could be ordered to come to court, a fed-up judge said Wednesday — after the accused killer blew off her second hearing in a week.
Navasia Jones — who refused to leave a Corrections Department bus on Monday — made it up six floors this time to a holding room just outside the courtroom, but would not budge further.
“She is refusing to come out,” a state court officer explained after Justice Joseph McCormick called out Jones’ case in Bronx Supreme Court Wednesday morning.
“What’s her statement?” the judge then asked.
“She don’t want to come out — ‘I don’t want to go out there,’” the officer replied.
The judge then inched the case closer to trial by setting a Sept. 9 date for a pre-trial hearing — and said he’d sign an order allowing officers to physically drag Jones into court if she again refuses to face justice.
“Enough is enough,” one Bronx detective fumed to The Post after learning of the accused killer’s courthouse antics.
“This woman needs to be held accountable for this terrible crime today,” the detective added.
The murder case against Jones and her son, 20-year-old Paul Fine, has been bogged down in the Bronx’s notoriously slow-paced court system since their June 2022 arrest in the slaying of little Julissia Batties a year prior.
The case had been ready for trial in May, but justice was delayed after Fine, who is charged with fatally beating and sexually abusing his half-sister, was assigned a new lawyer this month, court records show.
The new attorney, Deveraux Cannick, said Wednesday that he’d yet to receive evidence he’s entitled to get from the Bronx District Attorney’s Office.
“Certainly, I have read news articles, but nothing further,” Cannick said in court.
The delays have infuriated Julissia’s father Julius Batties — who has blasted authorities for giving him empty excuses for why the case has languished.
“Three years and nothing?” the heartbroken dad told The Post this week. “She’s sitting in jail but that’s nothing, that’s not justice. It’s like she never murdered my daughter.”
Jones’ court-appointed lawyer, Edward Sapone, said he was “confident” Jones would show up to the September hearing, where he said he’ll try to block prosecutors from showing jurors Jones’ “incriminating” statements made to police.
“I believe she will be here on September 9th because that’s something that she wants,” Sapone said outside court.
A rep for the DA’s Office said prosecutors are planning to see Jones then as well.
“We expect the defendant to be in court at the next hearing, and we are ready to go forward with the trial,” said Eric Steltzer, a DA’s office spokesperson.
— Additional reporting by Larry Celona
