Yolanda Saldivar
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Yolanda Saldívar (born September 19, 1960) was convicted in 1995 for the murder of famed Tejano singer Selena Quintanilla, which occurred on March 31, 1995. She is currently serving a life sentence in a Texas prison for Selena's murder.
Saldívar was a Registered Nurse from San Antonio, Texas who met with Selena after a concert in 1993. They quickly became friends and Selena offered her a job as her fan club's president and working at Selena's boutique. As time went by, Selena and Saldívar began to grow apart, and the Quintanilla family uncovered evidence of embezzlement and fraud being perpetrated by Saldivar.
On March 31 ,1995, Saldívar and Quintanilla met at a Days Inn in Corpus Christi. The accepted course of events is that Selena told Saldívar that she was being fired and Saldívar responded by grabbing a gun and shooting Selena as she was exiting the room. Fatally wounded, the singer managed to run in to the motel lobby before collapsing in front of staff members and stating that Yolanda Saldavar shot her. She was taken to a local hospital and died one hour later.
Saldívar barricaded herself in her pickup truck in the motel's parking lot. She held police at bay for several hours before surrendering. The dramatic image of Saldivar in the truck with her gun pointed to her head was broadcast live on television all throughout the United States.
Saldívar's trial for the murder of Selena Quintanilla-Perez was followed closely by the Latino community in the United States. The trial venue was moved to Houston after Saldívar's lawyers successfully argued that she could not receive a fair trial in Corpus Christi, Selena's hometown. She was convicted and sentenced to life in prison in October of 1995, with parole eligibility set for thirty years. When she began her jail term, she alleged she would soon say something about 'the truth' that she knew about Selena. The television network VH1 interviewed Saldivar in 1998. She told the network that a deposit box in Mexico contained some sort of information about Selena, but no such box could be located.
Saldívar had to be isolated for safety reasons, because prisoners had taken a liking to Selena and her music, they sent death threats to Saldívar when Selena died. Yolanda spends 23 of her 24 hours in her 9x6 prison cell alone, without contact from other visitors. She can purchase a radio from the commissionary, and she can have a two hour visit with family or friends each week.