Selena Quintanilla: A Star’s Life Cut Short by Crazed Fan 43:03

Hey guys, welcome back to my channel and welcome to another true crime video. So today is another celebrity case actually, and this is a very famous person. Today I'm going to be telling you about the death of Selena Quintanilla. Now a lot of you probably know who Selena is, but some of you probably don't because she was gone before you even had a chance to listen to her because you may not have been born yet. She was famous in the very late eighties.

And the 90s Selena is often referred to as the Mexican Madonna. She was extremely extremely talented and her death is one of the most tragic things because she was really on track to becoming like a Top-chart artist not that she wasn't you know, she did become more, you know legendary and well-known after she passed actually But she likely would have been a household name just in general So if you haven't heard this story buckle up because it's crazy

crazy. Let's go ahead and get started talking about Selena. So she was born on April 16th of 1971 in Lake Jackson, Texas. And she was the youngest child of Marcella and Abraham and Abraham. It was actually a Mexican American musician. He wasn't super well known or anything, but she definitely got her love for music from him.

She's described as someone who was very, very like fun, charismatic, you know, just really bubbly. She was an Aries, so she had a lot of upbeat, high energy personality to her. And she was very loving and warm and people really were drawn to her energy. She was very, very down to earth. She was carefree. She was very, very humble. So her family started noticing her musical abilities when she was like six and a half-ish. And she released her first real soundtrack when she was only eight years old.

So the Quintanilla family was extremely tight knit, very, very close. A lot of people compared them to the Jackson five in 1980 in Lake Jackson, Selena's father ended up opening a Tex-Mex restaurant and it was called Papa Gaios. And that is where they would actually perform most of the time. So her family was very close knit. Obviously they worked together, lived together. They did everything together.

the restaurant wasn't open very long and the following year it was actually closed because they went through a recession so unfortunately their family had to file for bankruptcy and that just ruins things and they were eventually evicted from their home which was very traumatic for selena um i think in a way her going through that experience gave her a lot of her drive she was a very very passionate driven person very serious about things

Part of that is being in areas, but I think also she, you know, had been at the lowest of the low as she had seen her family struggle. And so she wanted to eventually provide for them, but eventually her family did end up settling in the Corpus Christi area in Texas and their family ended up forming a band.

And their family band was actually called Selena y los Dinos. And her father became kind of like their manager and would take them around, try to get them gigs at like birthday parties, events, fairs, carnivals, things like that. And it actually wasn't long before she started getting some eyes on her, started gaining popularity, and they realized just how talented she was. Selena had a gorgeous singing voice. Her pitch is nearly perfect. She loved to perform. ♪ I don't want no, no, no ♪

It was kind of hard at first because of the fact I knew that it was a means of putting food on the table for the whole family. You know, we did it to make a living. At the beginning, when they were very young, I guess in a sense you could say that, yeah, I forced them.

because kids at that age can't make up their mind what they want, you know. - The whole family loved performing and especially Selena, like she was just loving it. And as her popularity was growing, her dad decided to go ahead and pull her out of school. And this happened when she was in only eighth grade, which is kind of crazy, but she did it

she did end up getting an education. In fact, at 17, Selena earned her high school diploma from the American School of Correspondence in Chicago. And eventually she even enrolled in Pacific Western University studying business administration. - No matter what happens in the future, no one can take away my education. It gives me the power and the confidence to know that I can always contribute to my family and my community.

Use your head. Stay in school. Then in 1984, Selena ended up recording her first record called Selena y los Dinos. And she actually really wanted to do English speaking songs. In fact, she spoke more English. But Selena's father and people around her thought that she was best suited for Tejano music. Tejano music is a combination, or should I say a fusion of different types of music all rolled into one package.

It's country music, it's jazz, it has roots of German polka, it also has Mexican music in it.

So while she was recording her album, she actually did have to learn Spanish. Like she knew a lot of Spanish, obviously, but she had to learn it completely to record the album. In 1985, to promote her album, she ended up going on the Johnny Canales show. We're already negotiating right now. And there are many things, many things. What happened? Two women and a Canales. I mean, two women and a road. Well, we had to record that. Mr. Emilio de la Rosa called my dad.

There was this music producer and his name was Jose Behar and he worked for a record label called EMI Latin Records and he actually saw Selena perform at the 1989 Tejano Music Awards and he instantly wanted to sign her. Selena performing, I saw somebody who

was vibrant, who was energetic, who was full of life. I remember I went back and Celina was over there, "What do you want? What do you want?" You know? We had just opened up EMI Latin. We were looking for the quote-unquote Gloria Estefan for EMI Latin, and I just said, "This is too good to be true. It's that needle in the haystack."

And I told them and everybody started high-fying. How's that word? High-five? She had the ability to interpret songs at such a young age with such feeling

with such emotion with that teardrop in that vocal cord after signing with EMI Selena took a conservative traditional regional sound and spiced it with her own flair and she agreed so she signed on with them and ended up releasing her first debut album called Selena on October 17th 1989 and in September of 1990 Selena released her second studio album called Ven Conmigo and then

It was really like the early 90s where things really started to take off for Selena and she had some really popular hits So her career was just booming. She was doing really really well and she ended up getting a lot of fans Selena Quintanilla

And she ended up meeting one of these fans and her name was Yolanda Salvador. And this woman was a huge fan of Selena, like super fan. She was like a Stan of the 90s. So tell me about your first meeting. I was...

I'm meeting Whitney Houston. Yolanda was actually a nurse and she was living in San Antonio, Texas. The way that Selena met Yolanda is she ended up going to one of Selena's concerts and just loved it. Like fell in love with the girl. And she liked the concert so much that she ended up contacting Selena's father and told them that she wanted to be somehow involved with Selena. She wanted to actually start a fan club.

Do you guys remember like fan clubs? I don't know if people still join fan clubs anymore, but when I was younger, it was like a thing like the Mary-Kate and Ashley fan club. You joined that? I never got to be part of it. My mom said no. So anyway, she wanted to run this fan club. And here's the thing you have to understand about this story. Selena was an extremely humble person. - If you're gonna be somebody, you need to be a leader and not a follower. Gangs are only for followers and you have to be strong minded. - Music.

is not a very stable business. You know, it comes and it goes and so does money, but your education stays with you for the rest of your life. She wanted to be very accessible to the people. She wanted to feel like at autograph signings that people were just hanging out with someone that they knew like a friend. And she really was serious about this. She really wanted to like hire her own fans and wanted to have relationships with people who supported her.

And so she ended up really liking Yolanda. They met sometime in 1990 or 1991. I'm not exactly sure that was a bit confusing, but she had already been running the fan club for a little bit when Selena met her and the fan club was going really well. There's already a few thousand people from the time that Yolanda launched it and over time,

Yolanda worked her way in closer to the family She really befriended all of them, especially Selena and she ended up doing other jobs for Selena She kind of was like her assistant and advisor in a way and it wasn't long before she was always there Like there are so many pictures we can see this like little woman in the background and

And it's very, very strange. But Selena really ended up having a relationship with Yolanda. They definitely were like friends. And over time, Yolanda started showing more signs of being possessive over Selena, controlling. People said that it almost became to the point where it was impossible to even talk to Selena without going through Yolanda first. She was controlling of her and people around her said that she was just acting very like protective of her.

So backtrack a tiny bit here. In 1989, Selena first met this man named Chris Perez and he ended up becoming the new guitarist for their band and Selena and him really, really hit it off. And they started having a relationship, which they tried to hide from her family for a while because her dad just wasn't a fan of him. So much so that in 1992, he ended up firing him from the band. But on April 2nd of that year, Selena decided...

No, that's not gonna work and she and Chris Perez went and eloped they got married without telling anybody so they didn't kind of figured that if she just went ahead and did it her father would really have no choice but to support her I mean, that's a lot of people's logic when they elope but obviously as a celebrity It's really hard to keep anything secret and it wasn't long before the media started reporting that they had eloped and her dad found out and he was pissed and I like to thank my husband

He was upset for a really long period of time, but eventually got over it. And he and Selena lived in an apartment in Corpus Christi and her father apologized and everything went on as normal. He was even accepted back into the band.

Only a month after her marriage, Selena wasn't slowing down at all. And she released her third studio album called "Entre de Mi Mundo" in May of 1992. And I apologize in advance if my pronunciations for these names are horrible. I was literally awful at Spanish, so.

So this album was considered to be her breakthrough album. It's definitely what really launched her career into being a number one selling artist. In fact, she was number one on the US Billboard Regional Mexican Albums chart for eight consecutive months, and it was actually certified 10 times platinum. She became the first female artist to sell over 300,000 copies. At this point, her fame literally started to skyrocket and her fan base grew extremely quickly.

In 1993, she recorded a live album called Live, and she had two different songs in the top five US Billboard top Latin songs chart. And Live even ended up winning a Grammy award for best Mexican American album in 1994. It was also named album of the year by Billboard Latin Music Awards. In addition to music, Selena also had a huge passion for fashion.

She loved to pick out her clothes. She designed a lot of her clothes. She literally made some of her own clothes that she wore while she was performing. And in 1994, she began designing and manufacturing a line of clothing. She opened two different boutiques called Selena, etc. And one was in Corpus Christi and the other one was in San Antonio. And these were pretty unique places because they both had in-house beauty salons. And Selena's clothing line was super unique and were definitely inspired by the outfits that she herself was known for wearing. Hey, Erica.

And it's really cool because a lot of places where they cut the hair, they have to take the customer, go get their hair shampooed, and then bring them back and there's like dripping water everywhere. So this way they just turn around the chair.

Turn around, they lift this up right here and they put the chair back and wash the hair. And it's really cool because they never have to get up. Turn around, they start chopping away. Cool, huh? Cool. Over here we have the manicure station. They're really cool because they're like real modern. Right behind you some of all the brassieres and different types. I'm going to get one of those for Sean, our producer. That's great. He probably looks nice in the green one. No, but we have hats and everything. Hola, que tal amigos?

Three, two, one, cue. That's-- I said rock. Right?

And the Quintanilla family was very happy with Yolanda, you know, managing the fan club. They thought she was doing a great job, so they ended up hiring her to manage both of the boutiques. And I'm the one that suggested, "Well, what about that girl that runs a fan club in San Antonio? She looks pretty, you know, like a nice person."

And that's how Yolanda came into the picture. It was then that she hired me in '94. Even though you had no business experience? Even though I had no business experience, no. And it is reported that Selena made over $5 million from these boutiques. In March of 1994, Selena released her fourth studio album called Amor Prohibido, and it ended up debuting at number three on the US Billboard Top Latin Albums chart and number one on the US Regional Mexican Albums chart. One reason I'm really appreciative of everything that's going on around me

because of the fact I never expected it. And I want to keep that attitude. This album was again, a huge success and was in the top five Latin albums until 1995. So needless to say, she was a huge success and she was really destined for stardom. She could have been as big as someone like Lady Gaga, you know, Madonna, something like that. In March of 1995, Selena started working on her English album and it was going to be titled dreaming of you.

And at this point, she's definitely on her way to being like a big star in the United States. Some people described her as being the new Gloria Estefan. And Selena was also looking to expand her boutiques to Mexico. And it was around this point in time that Yolanda decided she wanted to live closer to Selena. So she moved from San Antonio to Corpus Christi. So eventually Selena's boutique started to actually lose money and they really weren't doing well. And in addition to that, her

father said that he was getting complaints from customers that were in the fan club saying that they never got like merch or anything from the fan club. And then employees at her actual boutique location started telling him that Yolanda was actually really treating them badly.

And apparently she had a history of like firing people just because she personally didn't like them. So he decided that he was going to look into, you know, her financial records with the boutiques and fan club. And once he started doing this, he realized there was a lot of money missing. There was over $30,000 missing. And her dad thinks that Yolanda stole it all via forged checks.

At this point, a lot of people started warning Selena about Yolanda. A lot of people were worried about her and wanted to protect Selena from her. They were just getting bad vibes. For example, one of the employees that worked at the boutiques was sent to Yolanda's house to pick up some zippers that were delivered to her house. And when she got there, the place was filled with photos of Selena.

Selena's company had, you know, health insurance for her employees. And one of her employees named Martin went to the dentist one time. And when he tried to like check out, his insurance was denied and they said that it hadn't been paid yet. And when he asked Yolanda about it, she said that she would fix it, but not to tell Selena. So obviously he was concerned as well. So a lot of people were coming to her in her life and expressing concern to her. But Selena's dad was really, really worried. And he ended up having a meeting with Selena and Suzette

who is her sister on the night of March 9th at Q productions records to confront Yolanda all about all the shady shit that she had been doing during this meeting. He really pressed her about the inconsistencies with her spending and just the financials overall.

And she was extremely defensive about it. What you'll learn about this woman is she was like a liar to the point where she just doesn't know what the fuck she's even saying anymore. Like she, she will just lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie. She's so full of shit and so confident in telling her lies. Like you almost wonder if she believes them herself.

And he ended up really telling her that, you know what, at the end of the day, if you can't provide evidence that you didn't steal this money, then I'm going to contact the police. And Yolanda really tried to blame this on the fan club members. She said that they were somehow wanting free merchandise and that's where the 30,000 went. And it was this point that her dad realized that she had actually opened the bank account for all the businesses under her sister's name, which was Maria Alida.

And when he asked her about this, she said that she did that because the bank wasn't allowing her to open a bank account, but she didn't know why. So Selena's dad ended up trying to ban Selena from seeing Yolanda anymore, but Selena actually wanted to continue their friendship. She thought at this point, you know, Yolanda is extremely involved, really knows the business and she wanted to open this, you know, other location in Mexico. And she felt like she may not be able to do it without Yolanda. So,

this woman was so manipulative. Like she had Selena just so manipulated, so wrapped around her finger, but her father wanted to fire her. He definitely didn't want her in the business anymore. And over time after convincing her and more strange behavior from Yolanda, Selena agreed that this was probably the best thing to do.

So he ended up taking her name off of everything as far as like bank access, like she couldn't get into anything anymore. Now this really pissed Yolanda off. She snapped at this point. She ended up going to San Antonio and buying a gun. And when she bought this gun, she told the salesperson that she was getting it because she was a home nurse and one of the families that she worked for were threatening her. So

So like I said, Selena was pretty much ready to fire Yolanda and after the meeting her dad even discovered that fan club checks were signed with Maria Alita's signature, which is her sister's name and handwriting that is identical to Yolanda's so she was literally writing forged checks under her sister's name, cashing them and then keeping the funds. And at one point she had actually organized like a group gift for

from all of Selena's employees. Like everyone pitched in and then she took the money and went and bought a ring. And it turns out that she bought this ring on the company credit card. And this ring was like a little egg. And it turns out Selena really, really, really loved this ring. Like it became like part of her image. She wore it all the time. She's pictured in a lot of things with it. And they found out that she actually bought this ring on the company credit card.

And when she gave it to Selena, she told her that it was a gift from just her. So she basically ripped everyone off, stole their money and then ended up using company funds to buy the ring anyway and taking full credit for it. So there ended up being several times where we don't know for sure, but Selena's dad thinks that Yolanda tried to kill her multiple times. And the first time that he thinks she tried to do that was on March 13th when she drove to Corpus Christi and checked into a motel.

The next day, she contacted Selena and tried to arrange a time for them to meet up. And she told her that there was too much traffic, so they had to meet up 25 miles out of Corpus Christi in a random parking lot. So when they met up, Selena ended up telling her that she could continue to run the boutiques in Mexico. Her father said that she wanted to keep her around a little bit just until she found someone else. But what's strange is during this exchange, Yolanda ended up showing Selena the gun she bought.

Selena was not happy that she bought this gun and she told her to get rid of it immediately and she kind of softened the blow with her, like made things right by telling her that she would protect her from her father because Yolanda was very afraid of her father.

So because of this, her father thinks that she decided not to kill her that day. And in fact, she ended up returning the gun. Another time Yolanda actually went with Selena on a trip to Tennessee and she was going to be recording another one of her songs there. And while they were there, Selena ended up telling her that there were bank statements missing and that she needed to bring them back to her and started kind of putting the pressure on her again. And when they got back on March 27th, she went and bought a gun again.

Then she asked Selena to meet her at a motel sketch in a motel room and she did. However, this particular time there were a lot of fans around because somehow word got out that she was going to be there. So they got mobbed and,

And again, her father thinks that she was planning to kill her then, but didn't because there were fans around. And then the last week of March, they had a trip to Mexico. And during the trip, Yolanda ended up claiming that she was attacked and assaulted, sexually assaulted and beaten with a bat. And during this trip, she ended up stealing some of Selena's perfume and some of her bank statements. On March 30th, Yolanda arrived back to Corpus Christi and checked in at the Days Inn Hotel.

And Yolanda ended up again asking Selena to meet her there so that she could give her the bank statements. And her father thinks again, this was another attempt to kill her, but couldn't because she showed up with her husband. And as they drove home, she noticed that Yolanda gave them the wrong bank statements. Shocker. So another time Yolanda asked her to come back to the motel room because she was bleeding from the assault in Mexico.

And she wanted Selena to take her to the hospital. And Selena was such a nice person, like seriously. But her husband said that it was too late that night and they met up the next day instead. But by this point, Selena, you know, she really didn't believe her story about Mexico. She was really just angry. I mean, she gave her the wrong bank statements after all of that.

She was really, really done with her. She decided that it was best if she cut ties with her for good. And she decided she needed to do this in person. So she went back to her motel. It was March 31st in the morning. They met up there. And when she got there, Yolanda pulled the sympathy card saying, you know, telling her about her attack. And she said she wanted to go to the hospital to get checked out.

So Selena agreed to go with her. And when she was at the hospital, she was given a brief physical examination, but it's not the type that they do for sexual assault. So that was strange. The doctors there decided that the bruises did not look like bruises from a bat.

and they started to question her story as well. And the staff said that she was showing signs of severe depression. After the exam was finished, they drove back to the Days Inn Motel and it was at this time that Selena and Yolanda started getting in a very intense argument. Selena started telling her, you know, I don't want to work with you anymore. I don't want really anything to do with you low key and I want my financial statements back. It literally got to the point where people were calling and complaining to the front desk because they heard two women arguing over a business matter.

So it was 11.45 a.m. They're in Yolanda's room by themselves, and all of a sudden, the motel door opens, and Selena was walking out, and all of a sudden, a gunshot rang out. Now, people that were witnesses, and multiple witnesses have corroborated this, they heard her say, bitch, when she was shooting her. Selena was shot in the back. The bullet was shot in the back,

The bullet entered in through the back around her shoulder blade and went out through the front, like right here. And this is when she ran across the entire courtyard, which was pretty far. And she's running, literally bleeding out because this bullet had hit one of her arteries. So this is not a good situation. There's blood, you know, trailing behind her. People saw her running. This motel maid says she saw what happened after that. I turn around, I saw Yolanda and Salema coming out from 158.

And so Lemma was coming out of the room yelling, help, help. And that's when Yolanda, you know, shot her in the back. Yolanda announced, you bitch. And then she turned around. She went flying into the, you know, front lobby area where she was with one of the managers who said that she just came in so flustered, so frightened, just screaming. And I think...

Selena may have known that she wasn't going to make it because she just kept repeating that it was Yolanda. She said her room number, it was this room number. So it's a really, really terribly sad story because she was very, very young at this time. She was only 23. The people in the hotel tried their best. They called 911 obviously. 911, where was your location? Uh, David Motel. It's 901 Navigation Boulevard. What's on the end? We have a woman ran in the lobby.

Okay.

And then they also tried to help her

her help, you know, keep pressure on it and do anything they could until the ambulance got there. But she was slowly fading. Manager said as he was talking to her, he kept telling her, you know, hang on, hang on. But eventually her eyes just kind of rolled back in her head.

- The doctor came in.

and told me that she was dead on arrival. - And while they were rushing Selena to the hospital, Yolanda was trying to get the hell out of there. She ran all the way back to her room after chasing Selena. She wrapped the gun in a towel and hopped in her car and tried to leave. However, as she was trying to pull out, she was blocked by police cars. And once she realized that she was not gonna get

out of there. There was really no getting away from this. She was caught. She put the gun to her own head. So they had to bring in like hostage negotiators and try to convince her to come out of the car. They were able to get her phone so that she could talk to them. - I just went off because the barrel was back.

I didn't mean to do it. And she was hysterical, asking about Selena, wondering what she was doing, how she was doing. And they told her that she was at the hospital. And this is when she starts coming up with her story. She decides to tell them that she was never going to kill Selena. And this is such bullshit. Her story is basically that

She was like, Selena started opening the door and Yolanda told her to shut the door and she kind of went like this, like a hand motion, but was holding the gun at the same time and just happened to fire the trigger as she was doing this, which we all know is bullshit. What happened that morning when Selena arrived? Did she say she wanted to fire you? Never, never. She never told me that. I was telling her to leave. And I said, I...

It's over, Selena. It's over. I can't work for you no more. I can't work for you no more. She went down. She grabbed my feet and told me not to leave her. And I picked her up and I told her, just leave. And I said, if you don't leave, I'm going to do it, Selena. And she got up and she says, Mom, we need to talk about this. We need to talk about this. I'm going to close the door. And when she was walking to the door, she was going at an angle.

And I told her, "Don't close the door." And in that instant, the gun went off. But why didn't it hit you? Because I was pointing to the door, and it just went.

And it's crazy, but the standoff between her and the police lasted about 10 hours. And by this time, literally hundreds of fans started gathering around the area watching this go down. Word got out that Selena had been shot. Hundreds of fans gathered near the motel parking lot, witnessing a bizarre standoff between police SWAT teams and Yolanda sitting in a truck.

for nearly 10 hours she held a gun to her head you're looking at a live picture right now coming to you from navigation where the standoff continues police say cpr began immediately but selena was in critical condition when she left the scene in an ambulance finally after 10 hours they were able to convince yolanda to come out of the car and they placed her under arrest rushed her and grabbed her they rushed in the front of the white pickup grabbed her she's on the ground standoff ended

After 10 hours of very intense negotiations, the suspect, Yolanda Salivar, came out of the truck. The police officers used the door to bump her. They pushed her down to the ground. They jumped on top of her and restrained her. She did not have a weapon at that time, which is how they were able to do that.

We were watching it from across the street. We also had a lot of information from one of the guests that was inside the hotel who described everything play by play. He said that she was extremely emotionally fatigued. And when I asked the assistant police chief why, what it was that actually helped get her out in the end, he said she just plain got tired.

She will be placed for the time being in administrative segregation. And as a matter of fact, here she comes now. There she is already in her prison whites, again surrounded by corrections officers and West Miss County

Sheriff JP Luby with her. She is shackled, her hands and her feet are shackled. She is still wearing the Nueces County uniform. She will be showered inside and given the Texas Department of Corrections uniform to wear. She has since pleaded not guilty to murder. Her lawyer declined comment on both the murder charges and the allegations of financial misconduct. When you heard Selena had been shot,

What occurred to you? I knew it was Yolanda. Instantly. She wanted to get back at Selena and she figured, "Hey, I did all this for you. If I can't have you, no one else can." And she killed her.

Now, Selena, sadly, was actually dead on arrival at the hospital. However, doctors really wanted to do everything they could to save her, so they attempted to revive her and perform surgery on her, but she had lost too much blood. It was just too late. After Yolanda came out of the car, she was notified that Selena had passed away. The media jumped on this, of course, and it really wasn't long until it was everywhere.

Grammy award-winning music star Selena has been shot and killed in Texas. Corpus Christi's Selena. Tejano music star Selena. Dead at the age of 23. The suspect in the shooting has been holding police at bay for hours. One of the biggest stars in Tejano music. She was shot twice in the back. The accused murderer is Yolanda Saldivar, a friend and founder of Selena's fan club. Saldivar had been accused of embezzling funds.

Selena apparently went to the hotel to fire her. Never in the history of Corpus Christi has someone's death had this much impact. Friday, March 31st, 1995. On April 1st, there was a vigil held for her at the Bayfront Plaza in Corpus Christi, and 3,000 fans showed up to grieve the loss. And during the event, they announced that there would be a public viewing of the casket. It would be held at the Bayfront Auditorium the following day, and fans lined up for almost a mile.

About 30,000 to 40,000 fans passed by Selena's casket. And on April 3rd, 1995, her funeral was held. And there were 600 guests there who were mostly family members. Her burial was held at the Seaside Memorial Park in Corpus Christi, Texas. I didn't think I was going to make it through that, you know. I just wanted to wake her up. I could see her like when she'd be asleep, you know, and she'd be like that. And she looked beautiful even like that. She was always beautiful.

Goodbye, baby.

An issue of People magazine was released several days after she was killed, and within a week they released a commemorative issue, and it sold nearly a million copies. So, obviously, people and Selena's fans were pissed at this Yolanda woman. Like, people were outraged, absolutely heartbroken that this young talent was taken from them so young. And so her trial became a big public spectacle, especially for the Latino community.

The trial itself was not televised, but they did have cameras like on the court premises. On April 3rd, she was arraigned and pleaded not guilty to Selena's murder. Yup. You heard that right folks, not guilty. Her bail was set at a hundred thousand dollars and eventually it was changed to $500,000. During the pretrial, her lawyers decided that she, and this is fair enough, she wouldn't have a fair trial in Selena's hometown because it's too sensitive and everyone knew about it.

it. And after several months of deliberating on this, they ended up agreeing to move the trial to Houston, Texas. The trial began on October 11th. And of course the defense went with the whole story that this was an accident, accidentally fired it at Selena, which just made no sense. So obviously that wasn't being bought. One big thing that the prosecution pointed out is that her behavior after shooting someone is weird. Like think about it. If you accidentally shot someone

You wouldn't chase after them calling them a bitch. You would be yourself dialing 911. You would be trying to help if you accidentally shot someone.

So that was a big reason for her guilt. Not to mention that she was a registered nurse, so she should have been doing everything that she could to help until the police arrived. Her going back to her apartment, getting her car and trying to leave with the gun really didn't look good. And like I said earlier, the chances of that gun going off on accident are very, very slim. In fact, you'd have to put 11 pounds of pressure on this trigger to pull it. And this led the prosecutors to conclude that the gun really couldn't have gone off unless someone purposely pulled

the trigger. So Yolanda was held at the county jail and the judge ended up making it so that the jury only had the option of convicting her on first degree murder. They couldn't do a lesser charge such as manslaughter or negligent homicide. And on October 23rd, 1995, the jury only deliberated for about two hours before they came back with their verdict.

and culminate the trial. Yolanda Saldívar was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Selena Quintanilla.

The jury found her guilty of first degree murder and she was sentenced to life in prison, but with the possibility of parole after 30 years. I doubt it though. She is currently serving her life sentence at the Mountain View unit in Gatesville and she will become eligible for parole on March 30th of 2025.

now the majority of the public was very very happy that she was you know found guilty and was getting the life sentence literally people had like celebrations and festivals in texas and california even mexico when this happened fans literally cheered outside had music playing were blasting selena's music people were literally cheering in her face as they drove yolanda off to prison

George W. Bush, who was the governor of Texas at the time, declared her birthday, April 16th, Selena Day in the state. It was so big the impact of Selena that even the president George W. Bush, then governor of Texas, highlighted her importance during the delivery of the Tejano Music Awards in 1996. Selena was one of the best artists in Texas.

When he died, we felt it very deeply in our hearts. We continue to miss her.

but they honored music will carry on in Selena's legacy. Weeks after her death, you could tell the impact people were painting her face on cars, hanging posters outside of their houses. People left balloons, flowers and pictures and poems at all of her boutiques. There were street murals of her found across Texas. And in the months following her death, an average of 12,000 people visited her grave site and the days in motel where the shooting occurred. And

the motel manager ended up rearranging the room numbers so guests would not know which room that she had been shot in specifically. Although people have definitely tried to stay in that room. In 1997, she was commemorated with a museum and life-size bronze statue in Corpus Christi. And after she passed her record label, you know, they had like some of her English album, Dreaming of You, done. They had like four songs, so they didn't know what to do with them. So they went ahead and just released those four songs on an album called Dreaming of You.

And this record was an immediate success. It was released in July of 1995 and on the day of its release, 175,000 copies were sold in the US. And this was actually a record for a female vocalist. Selena made a huge impact on the music industry and she really paved the way for a lot of our stars today to get to where they are.

She was extremely talented and had a truly, truly special voice. We lost her way too young. And not only that, it just sucks because she was such a good person. Like how far things got with Yolanda just shows what a trusting and kind, nice person Selena really was, that she was nice to everyone. She didn't judge. I mean, who's this little woman? Selena treated her with so much respect and treated her as a friend and sadly got taken advantage of because of

She is definitely going to be remembered as a kind and compassionate person who was incredibly talented. And she's remembered as someone who was also very caring. Listen to all of the work that she was involved in when it came to charity. During her childhood, she worked with organizations such as Toys for Tots. She often visited local schools to talk to students about the importance of education. She encouraged children to stay in school and that alcohol and drugs

would leave them nowhere in life, she spent her free time helping the community and after Hurricane Andrew in 1992, she helped victims in Florida by performing at a Houston benefit concert. In 1994, she hosted a charity baseball game to raise money for various charities and she even donated time to organizations such as DARE and planned a fundraising concert to help AIDS patients. And there was a ton of other things that she did, so needless to say, she really, really gave back.

and was the real deal. In 2017, she received her star in the Hollywood Walk of Fame. And two years after her death, there was a movie that some of you may have seen called Selena. And it was supposed to be the true story of Selena's life and legacy. And it was starring Jennifer Lopez. And it was produced by her family and Warner Brothers.

It was a huge success and it's often considered to be what got Jennifer Lopez started in her career. Then you may remember in October of 2016, Mac cosmetics released a limited edition Selena makeup line, and it actually became their best selling celebrity line in cosmetic history.

And in the future, you may even see a new television series that is based on Selena's life called Selena. And it's scheduled to air on Netflix in 2020. So as you can see, her impact is still here today, but it's just the most frustrating story because it was so unnecessary. Like obviously something is not right with Yolanda. She's messed up. And the fact that she had to get involved with her and just ruin her career and her life is just so awful.

The more I learned about Selena, the more I really like her music and I really just like her as a person. Like she just seemed like such a fantastic human. So this was definitely a hard one to do. But I hope you found this interesting. If you want more celebrity cases, definitely let me know by hitting the thumbs up on this video. And don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss any other of my videos. And that's it for me today, guys. I will talk to you next time. Bye. There was a period of time, you know, right after everything that I had to...

Learn to live again. Have a dream, don't let anybody take it away. And you always believe that the impossible is always possible. When you're gone, how do you want to be remembered? As, not only as an entertainer, but as a person who cared a lot. And I gave the best that I could.

And I tried to be the best role model that I possibly could and the best person that I could. I tried to help. That is going to be it for me today, guys. Thank you for joining me for another episode. And make sure you follow the show on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. It really does help me out. If you want to watch the video version of this show, you can find it on my YouTube channel, which will be linked, or you can just search Kendall Rae. I will be back with another episode soon, but until then, stay safe out there. Bye.