Prosecutors said Saldívar shot pop star after being accused of embezzling thousands of dollars. Yolanda Saldívar, who is serving a life sentence in Texas for the 1995 murder of pop star Selena, is seeking parole after three decades in prison, as fellow inmates claim the woman has a “bounty” on her head for slaying the “Queen of Tejano Music.”.
![[1995 murder shocked fans and came as Selena was beginning to find crossover success]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/05/22/GettyImages-1309300538.jpg)
Saldívar was hit with a life sentence on charges of first-degree murder in October 1995 for fatally shooting Selena Quintanilla-Pérez with a revolver in a Corpus Christi motel earlier that year. “I was convicted by public opinion even before my trial started,” Saldívar told a Peacock documentary last year.
Fellow inmates who served with Saldívar said that her crimes have put a target on her back inside of prison. “Everyone was always like, ‘Let me have five minutes with that b****,’” another former inmate told the paper. “Everyone wanted to get justice for Selena. There’s a target on her back.”.
Members of Selena’s family have also decscribed Saldívar facing threats in prison. The killing took place just as Quintanilla-Pérez was gaining popularity in the English-speaking mainstream market for her Tejano music, mixing American pop and Mexican folk styles.
In the documentary, Saldívar claimed Selena persuaded her against killing herself, only for the gun to go off anyway while she was “hysterical.”. “Selena, when she came into the [hotel] room, she kept trying to put guilt in me for not continuing with her, and how everything was going to crumble,” Saldívar said in the series. “My emotions were running so high, and I was hurting.”.
