Little Julisia had already spent years at her grandmother Yolanda’s side, and the memory of their walks to school still brought a smile to the older woman’s face. Julisia would take off running, laughing, calling out, “I’m going to beat you, Grandma! Don’t cheat! ” before bursting into giggles.
She loved her Frozen dolls, tried to copy TikTok dances, and was shy at first, but with her grandmother she was never anything but happy. Her mother, Nvesia, had not been that kind of presence. When Julisia was around her, she would go quiet, withdrawn, almost like a stranger. A social worker noticed the girl grew nervous and angry whenever visits with her mother came up.
At just five years old, Julisia told her grandmother, “Mom hit me with a hammer. ”
Child welfare officials took the baby from her mother at five days old and placed her with Yolanda. In 2015, an appeals court sided with child services, since Nvesia had not dealt with the problems that had caused her other four children to be removed. At first she had visitation, but it was revoked after she refused to give her daughter back.
Out of nowhere in March 2020, child services decided Julisia should live with her mother, unsupervised. Yolanda called the agency. A caseworker told her that she had reported concerns, that Nvesia had called her own child a name, but that they probably wanted to close the case. Yolanda begged: “You can’t close the case.
The child is scared to death of her. ”
What was supposed to be a weekend visit turned into ninety days, then into something permanent. Julisia was officially returned to her mother’s custody in June 2021. At her mother’s apartment in the Bronx, Julisia was often seen riding the elevator alone and running errands by herself.
Neighbors heard Nvesia shouting constantly. One neighbor described her as always angry, cursing at the kids. On July 31, 2021, Yolanda got a text from Julisia’s phone: “Grandma, it’s me, Julia. I’m leaving today.
My mom is letting me live with her brother. ” When asked where, the reply came: “Texas. I’m not coming back. ”
A week later, a neighbor saw Julisia with a swollen black eye.
She said her mother had caused it. Two days after that, the girl was seen in the elevator wearing sunglasses, escorted by her mother. On the morning of August 10, neighbors woke to Nvesia screaming, not in anger, but in panic. “Help!
Help! My daughter stopped breathing! ” Inside, Julisia was found on the floor, held by her older half-brother, unclothed and limp. Nvesia gave scattered explanations: the girl had wet her clothes, had woken up crying with stomach pain, had fallen and hit her head on a table.
By the time Julisia reached the hospital, she was gone. The medical examiner ruled it blunt force abdominal trauma, a homicide. For a year, no one was charged. Julisia’s father, Julius, waited.
On June 29, 2022, Nvesia and her eighteen-year-old son, Paul Fine Jr. , were arrested and charged with murder, manslaughter, and endangering the welfare of a child. Paul was also charged with sexual assault. He had previously confessed to striking his half-sister in the face eight times.
Paul’s defense attorney later apologized to Julisia’s family after hearing the descriptions of the bruising on the child’s body. On March 14, 2025, the legal proceedings came to an end. All charges against Paul were dropped after Nvesia took full responsibility for the assault, saying she alone killed her daughter. Paul retracted his earlier statements, claiming he had made them to protect his mother.
Nvesia accepted a plea deal and received fifteen years in prison. The judge increased it to seventeen years after she refused to attend court hearings and minimized her guilt. Yolanda said she was numb and expected a life sentence. Julius was angry, saying: “She’s getting away with murder and she’s getting her son back.
I don’t get my daughter back. ”
At Julisia’s memorial, Yolanda said, “She died at a young age. She loved all deeply. God took her back home because I did all I could.
”
The girl was buried in a white casket, in a white dress she had picked out for a wedding she had attended. Her father said he would never forget her. Her name and her face would be the light of his life.
