Selena’s Killer Files For Parole 30 Years After Tejano Singer’s Death

The notorious fan who worked her way into pop star Selena’s inner circle and then gunned down the Tejano singer in 1995 just as her fame was rising and she was poised to become a global star, has now filed a petition for parole in Texas, according to filings in the Texas penal system.

Yolanda Saldívar, 64, was president of Selena‘s fan club and the manager of her line of boutiques, Selena, Inc., when she shot her to death on March 31, 1995, The murder took place in a Corpus Christi, Texas, Days Inn hotel room in a confrontation following the discovery by Selena Quintanilla-Perez’s family that Saldívar was embezzling funds. Selena, who was seeking financial records that Saldívar was refusing to produce, fled the room when Saldívar trained a .38 Taurus Model 85 revolver on her and then shot her in the back. 

Saldívar has insisted the shooting was an accident, and she intended to turn the gun on herself that day. Instead, after collapsing in the hotel lobby, Selena later died at a local hospital after losing too much blood. She was 23 at the time of her death. Since then, Selena’s fame grew, as did her legacy as the young “Queen of Tejano Music.”

A jury did not buy Saldívar’s defense and convicted her of murder on Oct. 23, 1995, Days after the verdict was determined, she was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole in 30 years. That date comes in under three months on March 25, and, according to Texas Department of Criminal Justice online records, Saldívar is “currently in the Parole Review Process.”

In Texas, the six-month parole process involves an interview with the inmate and submitting letters of support and protest. An Institutional Parole Officer compiles this and submits a case summary for the Board voting panel, who in the case of Saldívar, will decide on parole at the end of March, according to Texas DCJ. She is currently being held at the Patrick L. O’Daniel Unit in Gatesville, Texas.

Citing conversations with inmates at the O’Daniel prison, the New York Post reports that Saldívar is a constant target among those detained there and that she receives death threats over her crime. Saldívar’s sister told the tabloid that, after decades behind bars, it feels as if she is a “political prisoner.”

In a prison interview for the Peacock documentary, Selena and Yolanda: The Secrets Between Them, Saldívar claimed, she “was convicted by public opinion even before my trial started.”