ENTERTAINMENT NEWS – Selena’s murderer is up for parole 30 years after her conviction

Laila Kirkpatrick, Staff Writer

Singer Selena Quintanilla-Pèrez was killed by the president of her fan club nearly 30 years ago. Her killer Yolanda Saldívar has been imprisoned for the last three decades, serving her life sentence in Texas. Now at 64, Saldívar has petitioned for parole and is now under review. According to a spokesperson for the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, her case will then be voted on but no exact date has been given.

Known as “Selena”, Pèrez was known for her musical talent from a young age and was quickly catapulted to stardom and became a symbol of the Latin community in American popular culture. In 2017, she received a posthumous star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, which drew the largest crowd for a Walk of Fame ceremony. In 2021, she was awarded a posthumous Lifetime Achievement Award from the Grammys.

She was murdered when she went to Saldívar’s room at the Days Inn motel in Corpus Christi Texas. The two then got into an argument when Selena was shot in the back with a .38 caliber revolver in the hotel room. She was rushed to a nearby hospital but was pronounced dead nearly an hour later.