Selena’s Murderer Yolanda Saldivar Seeks Parole After 30 Years

Yolanda Saldivar, the late Selena Quintanilla-Perez’s convicted killer, has filed paperwork in an attempt to be released next year on parole.

The 64-year-old convict is currently serving a life sentence for the 1995 fatal shooting of the 23-year-old Tejano singer. According to the New York Post, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice says Saldivar has maintained a clean prison record which allows her to be considered for release after serving 30 years behind bars.

Selena’s family is expected to receive a formal notice of the hearing in January.

In 1995, Saldivar was fired as Selena’s fan club president after the singer’s father, Abraham, discovered that she had embezzled $30,000 in fan club fees, per the Washington Post. Selena agreed to meet with Saldivar alone at a Texas motel to retrieve vital tax documents on March 31, the day she was killed. After the shooting, Saldivar retreated to her pickup truck and held police at a standoff for nine and a half hours.

During the murder trial, Saldivar’s attorneys made the argument that shooting Selena was an accident and that she meant to kill herself instead, according to E News. However, the prosecution revealed that Saldivar, a former nurse, did not call 911 or make any attempts to save her life. The revolver used to kill Selena required 11 pounds of pressure to fire.

Saldivar was found guilty of first-degree murder by a jury in Oct. 1995 and was sentenced to life in prison with option for parole in March 2025.

Yolanda is currently in protective custody at the Patrick L. O’Daniel Unit in Gatesville, Texas where she remains a polarizing figure.

“Everyone knows who Yolanda Saldívar is,” said former inmate Marisol Lopez to the Post who served alongside her from 2017 to 2022. “There’s a bounty on her head, like everyone wants a piece of her. The guards keep her away from everyone else, because she’s hated so much. If she were out [in general population], someone would try to take her down.”

“Everyone was always like, ‘Let me have five minutes with that bitch,'” said Yesenia Dominguez, another former inmate. “Everyone wanted to get justice for Selena. There’s a target on her back.”

Carlos Valdez, who is known for prosecuting Saldivar, told ABC News earlier this month, “I can tell you that based on what I've seen seen so far based on the evidence, based on the interviews that Ms. Saldivar has given up to now—I have not seen any indication that she has changed in any way whatsoever.”

He continued, “It's still up to the parole board. It's not really a hearing here in Texas, it's a process that starts several months before the eligible date. They collect evidence, they collect statements, they collect any other information that they think is appropriate, put it all together and then decide whether or not to grant parole, and that's what's happening right now.”

“There's a lot of interest in this case. I still am amazed by how much interest [there is] 30 years later, and I think it has a lot to do with what Selena meant to our community,” he added.