OAN Staff Abril Elfi
6:23 PM – Monday, December 30, 2024
The now-64-year-old Texas woman who fatally shot superstar Selena in 1995 is seeking parole after 30 years behind bars.
Inmates who spoke with a New York Post reporter said that Yolanda Saldívar, 64, has submitted paperwork in an attempt to be released next year, and that there is “a bounty on her head.”
Prior to the shooting death of the singer, Saldívar has no other criminal history that would prevent the parole board from hearing her case in March, deciding whether to release her or not, according to a representative at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ).
Saldívar shot and killed Selena Quintanilla-Perez, the 23-year-old Latina starlet known as the “Queen of Tejano,” during a fight in a hotel room in Corpus Christi, Texas, on March 31st, 1995. Selena believed that Saldívar, the founder of her fan club, had embezzled more than $60,000, and the singer was planning to fire her.
TDCJ reported that Selena’s family will likely get official notice in January of Saldívar’s parole hearing.
Meanwhile, Saldívar has since claimed that she did not purposely kill the singer, calling the death “accidental.”
“I was convicted by public opinion even before my trial started,” Saldívar said in a prison interview for last year’s Peacock documentary: “Selena and Yolanda: The Secrets Between Them.”
Saldívar also insisted that at the time, she had actually intended to commit suicide, not fatally shoot the singer. However, a jury found her guilty and sentenced her to life in prison with the chance of release after 30 years, as they didn’t believe her story.
According to Saldívar’s relative, who spoke to the Post, Saldívar feels as if she has paid her obligation to society, and is now a “political prisoner.”
“Keeping her in prison isn’t going to do any good,” said her cousin. “It’s time for her to get out.”
Meanwhile, inmates at the prison where Saldívar is being held told The Post that she is constantly a target, which forces her to be housed in protective custody. Typically, prisoners who are consistently attacked and threatened by other inmates are moved to more secure areas in the prison in order to avoid violence and possible death.
“Everyone knows who Yolanda Saldívar is,” says Marisol Lopez, who served time alongside her from 2017 to 2022. “There’s a bounty on her head, like everyone wants a piece of her. The guards keep her away from everyone else, because she’s hated so much. If she were out [in general population], someone would try to take her down.”
Saldívar has claimed that she will live with relatives and find a job if she were to be set free.
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