Selena Quintanilla-Pérez’s killer, Yolanda Saldivar, is set to talk in a new docuseries on Oxygen True Crime.
The late Grammy-Award winning Tejano singer was gunned down by Saldivar, her former fan club president, at a motel in Corpus Christi, Texas in 1995. She was 23 years old.
Nearly thirty years after Selena’s untimely death, the new docuseries will feature Saldivar’s first interview from prison in nearly two decades and, for the first time, perspectives from the convicted killer’s family members. The doc will also spotlight “never-before revealed documents and recordings” to reportedly show that there was “more to the tragedy than the public knows.”
“My family gathered the evidence, showed different versions of what was going on,” says Salvidar in the trailer. “I knew her secrets, and I think people deserve to know the truth.”
Saldivar was ousted as the singer’s fan club president upon the discovery that she had embezzled $30,000 from Selena’s fan club fees, according to the Washington Post.
Quintanilla had agreed to meet with Saldivar to retrieve missing tax documents on the day she was killed, per Texas Monthly. After the shooting, Saldivar held police at a standoff for nine and a half hours while inside her pickup truck in the parking lot of the Days Inn Motel.
During the 1995 murder trial, Saldivar’s legal counsel argued that the former nurse shot Quintanilla accidentally, according to E News.
However, the prosecutor pointed out that Saldivar never called 911 nor tried to help the singer after she was shot. The prosecutor added that the revolver Saldivar used to kill Selena required 11 pounds of pressure on the trigger to fire.
Jurors found Saldivar guilty of first-degree murder and was subsequently sentenced to life in prison. She is up for parole on March 30, 2025.
“They made me out to be a monster. I just want to say, I did not kill Selena. It was an accident and my conscience is clear,” said Saldivar during a 20/20 interview in 1998.
At the time of her death, Selena had been working on her highly-anticipated and oft-delayed English crossover album. Dreaming of You was released posthumously on July 18, 1995. The album debuted at number 1 on the Billboard chart, making Selena the first Latin artist ever to do so.
Selena and Yolanda: The Secrets Between Them will air in two parts on Feb. 17 and Feb. 18 at 8 p.m on Oxygen True Crime.
