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Yolanda Saldivar, the woman convicted of fatally shooting the Tejano superstar singer Selena Quintanilla-Pérez, recently filed for parole. According to the New York Post, which post reported the news on Sunday, December 29, 2024, Salvador requested a release in 2025.
On March 31, 1995, Saldivar shot the singer in a motel room in Corpus Christi, Texas, just weeks before her 24th birthday. According to an April 1995 article by Orlando Sentinel, Quintanilla-Pérez's parents hired Yolanda to manage the singer's boutique clothing store in Corpus Christi. She also was the president of the latter's fan club.
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On the day of the murder, Selena Quintanilla-Pérez planned on firing Saldivar, who embezzled $30,000 from the boutique. However, the confrontation led to her shooting.
"She would play so many mind games"- Selena's fashion designer about Yolanda Saldivar
According to a February 2024 article by People Magazine, Yolanda Saldivar was born on September 19, 1960, in San Antonio, Texas. She was a registered nurse before she came to know Selena.
Per the publication, after attending one of Selena's concerts, Yolanda approached her father, Abraham Quintanilla Jr. (singer), about starting a fan club. Through the club (she was the president), she became close to the singer, becoming her friend and later business associate (manager at the boutique). The latter job gave her access to Selena's accounts.
In a biographical book about the singer's life, author Joe Nick Patoski explained that several boutique staff members working under Saldivar, customers, and designers complained about her to Selena. However, the singer dismissed their concerns, believing the manager.
In an October 1995 interview with the Washington Post, Selena’s fashion designer, Martin Gomez, noted that Yolanda Saldivar was very difficult to work with. He explained:
"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 continued:
"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."
Gomez recalled his final conversation with Selena, warning her of Yolanda.
Selena's father investigated Yolanda Saldivar and discovered she had embezzled $30,000. The singer planned on asking her manager for financial documents but was fatally shot.
According to the Associated Press, Selena initially confronted Yolanda Saldivar on March 9, following which the latter applied for a gun permit. She purchased the gun on March 26, five days before the fateful shooting.
During her trial, Saldivar claimed that she meant to kill herself and that shooting Selena was accidental. However, a jury convicted her in October 1995, sentencing her to life in prison with a possibility of parole after thirty years. She is imprisoned at the Patrick L. O'Daniel Unit in Texas.
Citing several former inmates at the Patrick L. O'Daniel Unit, the New York Post reported that Yolanda was infamous at the facility. One (Marisol Lopez) even claimed that she was "hated" and that there was "a bounty on her head."
In a 2018 discussion with Univision’s Primer Impacto (an American Spanish-language tabloid), Quintanilla Jr. explained that the family still received letters from prison threatening Saldívar’s life (as justice for Selena's murder).
Discussing the trial for the Peacock documentary Selena and Yolanda: The Secrets Between Them (February 2024), Yolanda Saldivar reiterated:
"I was convicted by public opinion even before my trial started."
According to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ)'s website, Yolanda Saldivar's parole eligibility date is March 30, 2025. Saldívar told the New York Post that if released, she would live with her relatives and find a job.
