A guilty plea and a 20-year sentence in a 21-year-old, cold case murder has brought closure to the close-knit family of Elsa Grullon who was killed in the Highbridge section of the Bronx on May, 27, 1999. On Aug. 11, 2020 at Bronx Criminal Court, during the age of social-distancing amid a global pandemic, family members of Grullon finally witnessed justice being served for a crime committed at the end of the last century.

Grullon, 56, was discovered over two decades ago by a family member inside her home at 825 Gerard Avenue in the South Bronx. An autopsy revealed that she had been raped, and stabbed more than twenty times in the face, neck and chest.

Curtis Batchelor, now 44, lived one floor below Grullon in the same Gerard Avenue building. He was not considered a suspect at the time of the slaying. According to the Bronx District Attorney and published reports at the time of the arrest in 2017, Batchelor had at least 16 prior arrests including a felony drug arrest in 2013. The latter required him to provide a DNA sample but he was released before that sample could be taken.

In January 2016, Batchelor was arrested for illegal use of a student MetroCard, and was forced to give the DNA sample before his release. In March of the same year, it was found that his DNA sample matched DNA found on Grullon’s body at the time of her death. Batchelor was apprehended and arrested on February 27, 2017. Exactly three years later, he pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Grullon.

Since March 2020, most Bronx Criminal Court proceedings at the Bronx Hall of Justice have been carried out remotely because of the coronavirus pandemic. However, on Tuesday, Aug. 11, Batchelor and his attorney Troy Smith stood in the courtroom at the defense table behind several 3-foot sheets of plexiglass, as they faced Judge James McCarty. It was the only scheduled case on the court’s calendar for the entire week.

Smith quickly attempted to bar the two members of the media in attendance from covering the proceedings, citing “safety concerns” for Batchelor due to the nature of the crime. He also asked McCarty to place Batchelor in protective custody once the proceedings were over.

McCarty denied the request to block the media, and granted protective custody to Batchelor before asking, “As I indicated, this matter is on for sentencing. Is there any legal reason, before we go any further, that sentencing cannot be pronounced?” Smith responded, “No, your Honor,” before a court clerk read the terms of the arraignment saying, “Curtis Batchelor, you are now being arraigned for sentence on your plea of manslaughter in the first degree.”

Smith acknowledged having received a pre-sentencing report that indicated that the victim’s granddaughter, Natalia Iona, would read the family’s impact statement before Batchelor’s sentencing.

Reading from a handwritten letter, Iona, 23, said, “In 1999, the Iona family lost the matriarch of their family. A sister, a mother, a grandmother can never be replaced and nothing can fully heal the trauma a family experiences losing a family member in such a tragic way.” Iona mentioned how Grullon’s two daughters and three sons went on to have 18 grandchildren, and two great grandsons, many of whom never got to meet her.

She said that in 1999, the family had been looking forward to living their lives together at the dawn of a new century. That vision for the future had been cut short by the death of her grandmother. “Our family is still dealing with the aftermath of the trauma. Some members of our family have fallen victim to depression, others alcoholism, and grandchildren [have been] left robbed without the memories of a grandmother,” she said.

Three women had joined Iona on the wooden benches in the back of the courtroom, each wearing masks, and all four women sat in separate rows in the near-empty courtroom. Speaking directly to Batchelor, Iona concluded, “Only you know why you committed such a horrific act. We can forgive your actions, but we can’t forgive your soul. This is between you and God.”

Even as Smith turned to Iona to listen to the young woman read her family’s statement, Batchelor remained silent, his mask covering the bottom portion of his face. He appeared to remain expressionless, and kept his eyes forward on McCarty, never acknowledging Iona or her words.

Assistant District Attorney Morgan Dolan told McCarty that Batchelor’s initial charge of murder in the first degree had been reduced to manslaughter in the first degree, with the family’s consent. The rape charge against Batchelor was dropped as part of the plea deal.

The judge then asked for final statements. Smith showed more empathy than his client, saying, “I wish to express my sincere condolences to the deceased’s family, and I hope this matter gives them some closure at this point of their lives.”

Outside the courthouse, Iona said, “We didn’t know it was going to get solved because sometimes you feel like they don’t care enough about a murder in the Bronx. Murders probably happen there all the time. They got the DNA test, and they brought this man to justice, finally.”

She added, “I wish he had said something, but there’s no explanation he could give. They said he did it because he was on drugs, but there’s no drug that can cause someone to rape and murder somebody.” Iona said her family has since moved from the Bronx, and they now reside in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan.

Also outside the courthouse, Smith said of Batchelor, “He was charged with murder in the first degree. He was facing a mandatory life sentence. This was a brutal cold-case murder, and they didn’t apprehend him until many years later because they didn’t have his DNA in the system.”

Smith continued, “This was a negotiated plea to manslaughter in the first degree, for 20 years. Yes, the family had a large part to do with it.” Smith added, “It’s a good result for the defendant, a horrific crime and it gives the family closure.”

Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark issued a statement following the sentencing that read in part, “More than two decades have passed since the defendant killed his neighbor, a 56-year-old woman who lived on the floor above him. DNA taken from another crime he committed in 2017 connected him to the 1999 crime scene. The defendant believed he had gotten away with her killing, but in the end justice prevailed.”