The woman sentenced to life in prison for killing Tejano music icon Selena in 1995 has been denied parole, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles said Thursday,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yolanda Sald\u00edvar<\/a> was convicted of fatally shooting\u2002<\/a>Selena, the Mexican-American singer known as the \u201cQueen of Tejano\u201d music whose full name was Selena Quintanilla P\u00e9rez, at a Days Inn motel in Corpus Christi on March 31, 1995.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sald\u00edvar was eligible for parole after 30 years, with possible release no sooner than March 30.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “After a thorough consideration of all available information, which included any confidential interviews conducted, it was the parole panel’s determination to deny parole to Yolanda Saldivar and set her next parole review for March 2030,” the Board of Pardons and Paroles said in a statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sald\u00edvar was president of Selena’s fan club and manager of two of her clothing boutiques before she killed the 23-year-old singer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Selena’s family fired Sald\u00edvar in early 1995, accusing her of embezzling money from the fan club and boutiques.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Selena was shot in the back, Sald\u00edvar then followed her until the singer collapsed in the lobby, and Sald\u00edvar locked herself in a truck outside and threatened to kill herself, according to appellate court documents. Before Selena lost consciousness, she told motel employees who shot her, they said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A jury found Sald\u00edvar guilty of first-degree murder in October 1995, and she was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sald\u00edvar claimed that she didn’t mean to kill Selena and that she bought the .38-caliber revolver to kill herself. Her defense at trial argued that the gun went off accidentally and struck Selena.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Selena’s hits included “Dreaming Of You,” which rose to 22 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1995, the year she was killed. She had five No. 1 hits on Billboard\u2019s Hot Latin Tracks including “No Me Queda Mas,” and she won the Grammy Award for Best Mexican-American Album in 1994 for “Live.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Her life was memorialized in the 1997 film “Selena,” starring Jennifer Lopez.<\/p>\n\n\n\n