Yolanda Saldivar, the murderer of Selena Quintanilla, has announced her intention to clarify the truth through a new documentary that explores the events leading to the tragic loss of the beloved Tejano music icon.
From her confinement in prison, Saldivar, who is currently serving a life sentence, is sharing her perspective in Oxygen’s documentary series Selena & Yolanda: The Secrets Between Them.
Who is Yolanda Saldivar?
Yolanda Saldívar, who was born in San Antonio, Texas on September 19, 1960, worked as a registered nurse before she became acquainted with Selena. According to reports, after attending one of Selena’s concerts, she reached out to the singer’s father, Abraham Quintanilla, with the idea of creating a fan club.
By joining the fan club as its president, Saldívar managed to integrate herself into Selena’s inner circle and establish a close friendship with the singer. This also led to her taking on the role of manager for Selena’s clothing stores, Selena Etc., which granted her access to Selena’s business checking accounts.
Those who knew Selena well say that Saldívar’s behavior became increasingly obsessive. Selena’s fashion designer, Martin Gomez, shared with The Washington Post that working with Saldívar was often challenging.
He told the publication,
“She’d get, like, very angry if you crossed her. She would play so many mind games, say people had said things they hadn’t said.”
He further explained,
“So many things would happen to the clothing I was working on. I knew that I had finished a certain piece, but I would come back from a trip to New York and the hems would be ripped out. It was very strange.”
What did Yolanda Saldivar do?
At the beginning of 1995, Selena’s father began to have doubts about Saldívar’s honesty. This was due to multiple employees reporting that they had not been paid on time, leading him to suspect that she was stealing money.
Abraham, along with Selena and her sister Suzette, confronted Saldívar on March 9, 1995, and accused her of embezzling money from their boutiques and fan club. This led to Abraham ultimately dismissing Saldívar from her position.
According to witnesses who testified during her trial, Saldívar obtained a gun permit from a San Antonio gun store two days after being confronted by Selena.
The Associated Press reports that Saldívar explained to the store employees that she had been threatened by family members of mentally ill individuals she worked with. She purchased the gun that was used to kill the singer on March 26, five days before the murder.
According to USA Today, on March 31, Selena and Saldívar arranged to meet at a Days Inn motel in Corpus Christi to collect financial documents that Saldívar was still holding.
However, Saldívar claimed she had been sexually assaulted the previous night and delayed giving Selena the papers. Selena then accompanied Saldívar to the hospital for a medical evaluation, but no evidence of rape was found.
Upon arriving back at the motel, Selena once again requested the documents. Yolanda Saldívar proceeded to draw her weapon and fire at the singer’s back, causing severe damage to an artery. Selena was rushed to Corpus Christi Memorial Hospital, where she ultimately succumbed to the combination of blood loss and cardiac arrest.
Yolanda Saldivar’s Prison Sentence
Afterward, she gave up and was taken into custody, eventually facing charges of first-degree murder. The trial took place at the Harris County Criminal Courthouse in Houston, Texas, beginning on October 9, 1995.
According to CNN, before the April 1995 trial, Yolanda Saldívar was formally charged and entered a plea of not guilty. Her legal team claimed that the fatal shooting was unintentional and that Saldívar intended to harm herself rather than Selena.
On October 23rd, a decision was made and Yolanda Saldívar was convicted of murder. Subsequently, she received a life sentence in prison but may be eligible for parole after 30 years.
In the years following Selena’s death, Saldívar has only granted a small number of interviews. During her appearance on ABC’s “20/20” in 1995, she continued to claim that she did not intentionally take Selena’s life, stating that her only intention was to confront her.
“They made me out to be a monster, and I just want to say, I did not kill Selena. It was an accident, and my conscience is clear.”
In the docuseries, Yolanda Saldivar claims that she had the gun for self-defense and not to hurt Selena.
“I didn’t feel safe. It was my own self-defense that if anything came my way, I was going to protect myself. I was fearful.”
“At no point did I mean to hurt anyone. I did not know when my gun went off. I did not know that it hit her because I thought that she just ran.”
The new Oxygen True Crime docuseries, Selena & Yolanda: The Secrets Between Them, features Saldívar speaking from prison about her connection with Selena, both professionally and personally. The docuseries starts streaming on February 17, 2024.
