Yolanda Saldívar

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Yolanda Saldívar (born September 19, 1960) was convicted in 1995 for the murder of famed Tejano singer Selena, which occurred on March 31, 1995. She is currently serving a life sentence in a Texas prison and will not be eligible for parole before the year 2025.

Contents 1 Background 2 The story unravels 3 March 31 1995 4 The trial and imprisonment 5 Epilogue 6 Notes

[edit] Background

Saldívar was a registered nurse from San Antonio, Texas who met with Selena after a concert in 1993. They quickly became friends and the singer offered her a job as her fan club's president and also at her clothing boutique, Selena Etc. In the following months, Selena and her husband gave Saldívar the key to their house and also expanded her managerial duties at the boutique and fan club to include authority over payroll distribution and access to the singer's personal credit accounts, among others.

Some time following, payroll checks made out to boutique employees began bouncing. Saldivar had been depositing the receivables into her own private bank account. Fans also began writing to complain that after paying membership dues to the fan club, they had not received the items promised to new members. Saldívar's presentation to Selena of a gold ring with fifty-two diamonds in the style of a Faberge egg with an S in the center also aroused suspicion. Saldívar failed to mention the ring had been a gift from all the employees at Selena Etc., though none of the employees themselves were aware the ring had been bought with the money they had pooled together.

At the time Saldívar was hired, the Quintanillas were unaware of a 1984 out-of-court settlement on charges that Saldívar had stolen more than $9000 from a San Antonio doctor while working as his bookkeeper.^[1]

[edit] The story unravels

The bounced payroll checks, letters and phone calls to her father, Abraham Quintanilla, from disappointed fans were the wake-up call. Together with Selena and her sister (and band member) Suzette, Abraham met with Saldivar on March 9, 1995, to request that she surrender all records from Selena Etc. According to him, Saldivar did not hand over all of the financial statements and other paperwork at the meeting. After that, the entire Quintanilla family had grave doubts about Yolanda Saldivar and decided it was time to fire her. Unknown to the family, it was within a few days after this meeting that Saldívar purchased a .38-caliber pistol in San Antonio. (Mitchell 1995)

In late March, Selena sent Saldivar to Monterrey, Mexico, where the singer was planning to open a third boutique with the financial assistance of Mexican cosmetic surgeon Ricardo Martínez. She had been advised that upon return she would be expected to produce the missing records. (Mitchell 1995) On the way back from Monterrey, Saldívar called Selena to say that her car had been stolen and she'd been abducted and raped. The singer urged her to go to the hospital once she reached Corpus Christi.

Selena considered it her responsibility to handle the matter and decided to confront Saldivar herself. The two arranged a meeting, with Perez, at the Days Inn in Corpus Christi, Texas, on March 30, 1995, to discuss the situation. On that morning, Pérez and Selena showed up at room 158. Saldívar assured them that the accounting records were in order and that all the fans had been sent their packets; she also turned over additional papers. The couple left, only to discover some documents were still missing. Selena called Saldívar and informed her about the missing papers. Selena's trust in Yolanda Saldívar had eroded, and both she and Perez were finally convinced that Saldívar had embezzled thousands of dollars from their firm and from their faithful fans. Near midnight, Saldívar called the Perez home to complain of internal bleeding from the alleged rape and to ask that Selena return to the motel. Perez convinced his wife that the matter could wait until the morning. (Mitchell 1995)

[edit] March 31 1995

The next day, March 31, 1995, Selena apparently made up her mind to confront Saldívar in person and to fire her as her friends, family, and employees advised. Most of the singer's friends assert the performer had grounds to sue Saldivar for embezzlement, but evidently Selena intended merely to fire her and cut all ties Saldivar had with the Quintanilla family. That morning Selena was still under the impression that the gold egg ring she was carrying was a gift solely from Saldívar, and went prepared to return it. Evidently, once Selena made up her mind to fire Saldívar, she felt it her duty to give the ring back. (This may explain why Selena was clutching the ring at the time of the shooting and why she still was holding the ring in the ambulance.^[2])

After being checked by doctors there was no evidence that Yolanda had been raped as she alleged. The nurses informed Selena that there was no sign of a rape. Selena told the nurses to keep quiet because she didn't want Saldívar to hear. (Ricardo Martínez has said that he believes it was at this time that Selena began to question Saldivar's sanity.^[3])

On the way back to the motel Selena had received a call that she was late to the recording studio to continue recording her cross-over album. Selena said that she was finishing up some business and would get there whenever she was done. Once arriving to the motel both women went inside room 158; it is thought that at this point they began to argue and Saldívar pulled a .38 caliber pistol from her purse and pointed it at Selena. As Selena turned to run towards the door Yolanda shot a single hollow point bullet in the singer's back.

Drenched in blood and wearing a dark green velvet sweatshirt, she ran along the side of the motel pool, her long black hair electrified by fear and a storm brewing like a dark cloud over the port city. Behind her scurried a short, stocky woman in her mid-thirties, clad in what appeared to be a two-piece scrub suit. The woman in the scrub suit had a crazed look on her face and waved her .38 caliber in the air. Suddenly she halted, took aim and fired, missing her fleeing target; this outdoor shot was witnessed by one of the motel's housekeeping employees. (Mitchell 1995) Saldívar reportedly shouted an epithet before calmly re-entering her room.^{[citation needed]}

The young woman, bleeding profusely from a bullet wound in her back, ran with all her might, then crawled until she made it inside the motel lobby. In a state of complete shock, she blurted out "They shot me...She's in room 158. Lock the door. They're going to come in and shoot me again!" before collapsing near the registration desk.^{[citation needed]} The singer, still with the ring clenched in her tight fist, managed with her dying breath to name her assailant. It is beleived that these were Selena's final words. The woman clenched a gold ring in the shape of a Faberge egg in her tight fist. An ambulance had arrived and had carried Selena to Memorial Medical Center. Selena who lay dying on an emergency room table at Memorial Medical Center. Her assailant's bullet had severed a main artery in the singer's right shoulder blade and she had suffered a critical loss of blood. She was pronounced dead at 1:05 pm, at the age of 23 — sixteen days shy of her 24th birthday. She had been administered five pints of blood in a last brave attempt to save her life. Nothing could bring her back. She had been shot in cold blood in the back by a coward, and the impact had been so great the head of the bullet had been seen sticking out the front of Selena's shoulder blade.

Saldívar barricaded herself in her pickup truck in the motel's parking lot, threatening to then kill herself. She held police at bay for several hours before surrendering. The dramatic image of Saldívar in the truck with her gun pointed to her head was broadcast live on television all throughout the United States.

[edit] The trial and imprisonment

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. Before the start of the trial, CNN reported that prosecutors were expected to introduce a controversial police confession signed by Saldivar in which she claimed she shot Selena "during an argument over accusations from the singer's father that Saldivar is a lesbian and stole money from Selena's accounts." The defense was expected to introduce testimony from a state trooper that "he overheard Saldivar claim the shooting was accidental, and that she objected when police failed to include it in her statement." ^[4]

Although the defense attorney argued for Saldívar's claims that the shooting was accidental, the prosecution raised the issue that Saldivar, a trained nurse, neither called 911 nor tried to help the victim after she was shot.^[5] The judge in the case chose not to give jurors the option of the lesser charges of manslaughter or negligent homicide, instructing jurors that they must either convict or acquit Saldívar on the sole charge of first-degree murder.

The jury deliberated for only nine hours. She was convicted and sentenced to life in prison on October 23, 1995, with parole eligibility set for thirty years; cable news channel CNN reported that this was the maximum prison term for the state of Texas.^[6] When she began her jail term, she alleged she would soon say something about 'the truth' that she knew about Selena.

Saldívar had to be isolated for safety reasons, because prisoners had taken a liking to Selena and her music, and 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 visitors. She can purchase a radio from the commissary, and she can have a two hour visit with family or friends each week.

[edit] Epilogue

Saldívar has never offered a motive for the murder, claiming instead that it was an accident. Saldívar in later years began to try to convince the public that she instead had been the protector of the singer's reputation. When interviewed by journalist María Celeste Arrarás, Saldívar claimed to have in her possession a diary, a letter, and a video as evidence of Selena's infidelity to her spouse. She also claimed to possess a suitcase with clothes Selena had asked her to keep only days before her death, supposedly with plans to run away with her supposed lover, Mexican plastic surgeon Ricardo Martínez. Martínez was a chief financier of Selena's clothing business and has expressed outrage at Saldívar's claims, saying, "This woman [Saldívar] continues doing harm. I don't know how they can continue to believe a murderer."^[7]

These claims by Saldívar were referred to as well in the 1998 documentary program Behind the Music, although the program does not describe the nature of the claims. In the interviews, Saldívar answered most questions with the words, "I will not discuss that," but also insisted to the interviewer that she could direct him to a bank where a safe-deposit box held items that could have harmed Selena's reputation. Interviewer Jim Forbes, after an exhaustive investigation that included a trip to Mexico, finally stated, "There was no safe-deposit box, nor tapes, nor diary, nor evidence."

Similar claims of a safe-deposit box, this time with financial documents, were allegedly used by Saldívar in January, 1997, to gain an evidentiary hearing in Houston with a view toward obtaining a new trial. Later that month, State District Judge Mike Westergen decided a new trial was not in order because the records Saldívar claimed were missing never were admitted into evidence. ^[8]

The gun used to kill Selena was later destroyed and its remains thrown into Corpus Christi Bay. It had been lost for a time after the trial, but was discovered in a court reporter's home.^[9]

Saldívar was portrayed in the movie Selena by Lupe Ontiveros.

Yolanda Saldívar is not related to the serial killer Efren Saldivar.

[edit] Notes