The shooting happened at the Days Inn on Navigation Boulevard on March 31, 1995, after Selena confronted her Selena boutique manager of embezzlement.
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Monday marks 30 years since Tejano-music icon Selena was shot and killed by her business partner Yolanda Saldívar.
She was 23 years old.
The shooting happened at the Days Inn on Navigation Boulevard on March 31, 1995, after Selena confronted her fan-club president and Selena boutique manager of embezzlement, said former Nueces County District Attorney Carlos Valdez, who personally prosecuted the case in Houston.
“She was embezzling money from her and they had found out about it and they were going to prosecute her, and she was going to have to leave Selena’s employ, so her whole life was going down the tubes,” he said. “Her whole life, which was very good for her, was going down the tubes. So when that happened, and when Selena takes off the ring, (Saldívar) just said ‘No more, this is not gonna happen,’ so she shot her. And underneath all that is the greed. The money.”
Saldívar held Corpus Christi Police Department officers at bay for about 9 hours in a red pickup truck in the motel’s parking lot, refusing to come out.
Valdez answered questions from multiple news outlets after saying he had received more than 70 requests for comment with the anniversary and parole board decision coming up.
When a reporter alluded to Saldívar’s family painting the motive for the former being in question, Valdez pushed back.
“No,” he said. “I’ve written the book. In the book I lay out exactly why, I think, based on the evidence — I don’t write based on what I think, I write based on the evidence — she had reason to kill her. Yolanda Saldívar gave us a statement saying that she shot her, so.”
On Thursday, the Texas Board of Pardons and Parole denied Saldívar’s parole.
It was the first time her release was being considered after spending almost 30 years in prison for the murder.
The board decided the 64-year-old will have to spend at least five more years behind bars before she is up for consideration again.
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