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alt=”This combination of photos shows Yolanda Saldívar (from left), who is serving a life sentence at the Patrick L. O’Daniel Unit prison in Gatesville, Texas, and Tejano music star Selena posing in Corpus Christi, Texas, on March 7, 1995.” fetchpriority=”high” />
This combination of photos shows Yolanda Saldívar (from left), who is serving a life sentence at the Patrick L. O’Daniel Unit prison in Gatesville, Texas, and Tejano music star Selena posing in Corpus Christi, Texas, on March 7, 1995.
Texas Department of Criminal Justice; Paul Howell/Houston Chronicle/AP
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Texas Department of Criminal Justice; Paul Howell/Houston Chronicle/AP
HOUSTON — The woman convicted of killing Tejano music legend Selena Quintanilla-Perez has been denied parole after spending decades behind bars for fatally shooting the young singer at a Texas motel in 1995, the state’s parole board announced Thursday.
Yolanda Saldívar will continue serving a life sentence at a prison in Gatesville, Texas, after a three-member panel of the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles voted to not release her. In a statement explaining the denial, the board said the panel found that Saldívar continues to pose a threat to public safety and that the nature of the crime indicated “a conscious disregard for the lives, safety, or property of others.”
Her case will be eligible to be reviewed again for parole in 2030.
The singer known to her fans as simply Selena was one of the first Mexican-Americans 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 founded Selena’s fan club and had been the manager of the singer’s clothing boutiques, Selena Etc., until she was fired in early March 1995 after money was discovered missing.
Selena, a Corpus Christi native, was 23 years old when she was shot in the back with a .38-caliber revolver at a Days Inn motel in Corpus Christi on March 31, 1995. She was able to run to the motel lobby where she collapsed, and she was pronounced dead at a hospital an hour later.
