By Juan A. Lozano, The Related Press
HOUSTON (AP) — The lady convicted of killing Tejano music legend Selena Quintanilla-Perez has been denied parole after spending many years behind bars for fatally capturing the younger singer at a Texas motel in 1995, the state’s parole board introduced March 27.
Yolanda Saldívar will proceed serving a life sentence at a jail in Gatesville, Texas, after a three-member panel of the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles voted to not launch her. In an announcement explaining the denial, the board stated the panel discovered that Saldívar continues to pose a menace to public security and that the character of the crime indicated “a acutely aware disregard for the lives, security, or property of others.”
Her case might be eligible to be reviewed once more for parole in 2030.
The singer recognized to her followers as merely Selena was one of many first Mexican-Individuals to make it into the mainstream music scene and was on the verge of crossing over into the English-language pop market when she was killed.
Saldívar based Selena’s fan membership and had been the supervisor of the singer’s clothes boutiques, Selena And so on., till she was fired in early March 1995 after cash was found lacking.
Selena, a Corpus Christi native, was 23 years outdated when she was shot within the again with a .38-caliber revolver at a Days Inn motel in Corpus Christi on March 31, 1995. She was capable of run to the motel foyer the place she collapsed, and he or she was pronounced useless at a hospital an hour later.
Motel staff testified that Selena named “Yolanda” in “room 158” as her attacker.
“I didn’t imply to do it. I didn’t imply to kill anyone,” a sobbing Saldívar stated throughout a nine-hour standoff with police. She instructed police she had purchased the .38-caliber revolver to kill herself.
Greater than 50,000 folks lined as much as view Selena’s physique the day earlier than she was laid to relaxation in Seaside Memorial Park on April 3, 1995, simply 13 days earlier than her twenty fourth birthday.
Saldívar’s trial was moved to Houston due to the publicity surrounding the case. Saldívar testified that she had meant to kill herself throughout the confrontation with Selena, however that the gun misfired.
On October 23, 1995, a jury in Houston convicted Saldívar of first-degree homicide. She was sentenced to life in jail with the potential of parole after 30 years.
Whereas in jail, Saldívar — a former nurse — obtained her paralegal and affiliate diploma in felony justice and has filed a number of civil rights complaints alleging mistreatment by the state’s jail system, based on court docket data. She additionally helped different inmates to file petitions.
In court docket paperwork filed in 2016, Saldívar stated she was being held in protecting custody — that means she was segregated from different inmates — as a result of jail officers have been involved for her security because of the “excessive profile” nature of her case. She filed a number of appeals of her conviction however all have been rejected.
Selena — “the Queen of Tejano” — rose to stardom and gained a Grammy throughout a Tejano music growth within the early Nineties. Her hits embody “Bidi Bidi Bom Bom,” “Como la Flor,” “Amor Prohibido,” “No Me Queda Mas” and “Tu Solo Tu.”
“Dreaming of You,” her English-language crossover album launched just a few months after her loss of life, topped the Billboard 200, and featured hits “I Might Fall in Love” and “Dreaming of You.” Jennifer Lopez performed the singer in “Selena,” a 1997 biopic.
The Grammys awarded Selena a posthumous lifetime achievement award in 2021.
___
Observe Juan A. Lozano on X at juanlozano70
