By Maverick
Welcome to Part 10 and the final blog of this series about the latest docuseries. We’re now getting into Yolanda’s state of mind and odd occurrences during the month leading up to the shooting, according to Yolanda, of course. She claimed that an incident happened to her car in February of 1995, where her tires were slashed and the windshield was shattered. The repairman said that the car windows had been shot at. Did she have a receipt or police report confirming that the work was done, and something official to document the incident? Both were never shown, hence why it’s an arduous task to believe her. Yolanda felt in her mind that Abraham was the boogeyman out to get her. Weren’t things still calm in February? The March 9th meeting is when everything took a turn for the worse, so what made her think that Abraham was behind the February incident to damage her car, or did she just feel the need to blame him for everything going wrong in her life?
Tina said that Selena’s alleged affair with Dr. Martinez was the reason for Yolanda writing these checks out to herself when she was working at Selena Etc., which was instructed by Selena to do so, all so that she could cash them and use that money to purchase plane tickets so that she could go see Dr. Martinez. It’s very difficult to believe that, but anything is possible in this crazy world. As for the gun, Selena wanted Yolanda to return it, saying that she didn’t need it and that she could protect herself, according to Yolanda. She returned the gun and reportedly returned to the store to repurchase it a second time.
There are many different sides to this story. We’ve heard rumors over the years that Yolanda stole perfume samples for Selena’s upcoming fragrance line, but there was no mention of that in this docuseries. Selena supposedly had a fashion show coming up and was very dependent on Yolanda to help make it happen. Once again, this is how Yolanda tells the story. Others have claimed that Selena was about to officially fire Yolanda once she got all of the records that she needed.
Yolanda and her niece, Maria Saldivar, were traveling together to Monterrey, Mexico, to do some business for Selena on March 20th, 1995. Yolanda needed Maria to accompany her to Mexico and said that this blue car, a Chrysler 5th Avenue, had been following Yolanda for months. Of course, there was no police report to corroborate any of this, but Maria said that she, too, spotted the car when she was traveling with Yolanda. Yolanda suspected it was some guys that Abraham hired to scare and tail her. She said it was someone sent by Abraham. Tina claimed that she got to see how vile Abraham could be and that it’s possible he sent those guys, but we later learn it was allegedly someone else that was behind this.
Yolanda reportedly bought the same .38 caliber Taurus Revolver back on March 26th, 1995. There are several anomalies surrounding this incident that stood out here. For instance, there was no receipt given to Yolanda to confirm that she actually bought the gun, nor was there any evidence that she purchased bullets from the same gun store, which is beyond peculiar. The only evidence used as trial exhibits were an application or intent to purchase form, the receipt showing that she purchased the gun on March 11th, 1995, putting down a $100 deposit, then once she passed a routine background check, she picked up the gun on the 13th, paid the remaining balance for the gun, and returned it on the 15th, where she received a refund receipt. This is according to the trial evidence and testimony of the two men who interacted with Yolanda at the gun store “A Place To Shoot” in San Antonio, Texas: Mike McDonald, a clerk, and Kyle Voss, son of Ralph Voss, one of the owners of the family-owned store.
Selena met with Yolanda on March 26th, 1995, at the Bayfront Inn motel in Corpus Christi, Texas, the same day she went to buy back the gun. This, according to Abraham Quintanilla, was what he called a missed opportunity, as he thinks Yolanda planned to kill Selena that day, but was interrupted because there were too many witnesses around. To be honest, if she wanted to do it, she would’ve done it, so we can strongly disregard Abraham’s theories. Selena wanted Yolanda want to go to Monterrey by herself as per her orders to handle business down there. Yolanda claimed she told Selena about her tires being slashed, and Selena assured her that her father wouldn’t hurt her. That’s when Yolanda said she told Selena that she bought the gun back. So she’s saying from March 26th to the 31st, Selena knew that she had the gun in her possession, yet Selena still went to see her anyway to supposedly get her records, but none of us were present to really confirm what the hell was actually going on. It does raise a lot of questions and anomalies, though.
Carlos Valdez asked why Yolanda didn’t just walk away if she really wanted to quit working for Selena? Instead, she kept going back and forth to Monterrey. During her final trip down there, Yolanda had her sister, Virginia Mendoza, accompany her. Once again, Yolanda noticed that same car following them to and from Monterrey. On March 30th, 1995, Yolanda claimed that she and her sister stopped at a burger joint in Mexico to get some grub. She went to use the restroom when those same two men following her came in the bathroom and pushed her around a little bit to scare her. It’s a far cry and a contradiction from what she had initially alleged years ago, that she was assaulted and raped on the side of the road. This is the first time she actually talked on camera about what transpired during that incident, so perhaps there is some truth to this.
Following this alleged assault, the men ran out because she yelled, which scared them away. That part of the story is very convoluted because Yolanda had ripped her clothes at some point, and many suspect she used a pair of scissors to cut them herself to make it appear like she was attacked. Her police photos showed her to have some marks on her body, but none consistent with an aggressive assault or even rape. It should be highlighted that when Selena brought Yolanda to Doctors Regional Medical Center to have Yolanda examined the day she died, the nurse and Doctor there reported that she didn’t seem like someone who had been attacked, as her marks were inconsistent with an assault or rape victim. She had some bruises present, and she complained about pain in her neck. During Yolanda’s trial, Registered Nurse Patricia Biggs testified, saying that Yolanda didn’t really speak much, that Selena did most of the talking, that she wasn’t legally permitted to conduct a thorough rape exam as the incident didn’t happen in Corpus Christi. More will be covered about this in future blogs, as there is a lot more to dive into.
While serving her 30 year life sentence at the Patrick O’Daniel Unit in Gatesville, Texas, Yolanda received a letter in prison from someone by the name of Lorenzo Salinas. Not much is known about him other than what Yolanda claims. Back in the late 90s, Yolanda did an interview for a documentary about Selena called “Behind The Music,” produced by VH1. Yolanda mentioned this Lorenzo Salinas, that he had written to her while she was in prison and apologized for Selena’s death, and had Yolanda attacked, saying that he was working on the orders of Dr. Ricardo Martinez, who paid him to hire a couple of goons to follow and assault Yolanda. The authenticity of the letter was put into question and was verified to have been sent from outside of the prison and outside of the United States.
Back in the 1990s, no one could really ever track down this mysterious Lorenzo Salinas. Others have argued that Yolanda somehow made the whole thing up, but then who could have sent the letter? Someone in her family? It served them and Yolanda no purpose other than potential amusement. Salinas was reportedly Dr. Martinez’s personal chauffeur. Martinez allegedly viewed Yolanda as a threat, someone who would come between this so-called “relationship” that he had with Selena. Yolanda claimed to have found things out about Martinez, and he didn’t want Selena to know. The postmark of that letter was from Monterrey, Mexico, so it’s quite possible the letter has some validity to it.
The episode wraps up with the March 30th, 1995 meeting between Selena and Yolanda at the Days Inn motel. Carlos Valdez talks about Yolanda luring Selena to the motel by saying that she had her records ready for pickup. Yolanda still insists that she told Selena that she wanted to quit, and Selena allegedly told her to head to the Days Inn at 901 Navigation Blvd, Corpus Christi, Texas. Chris Perez, Selena’s husband, drove her there for the meeting that night but waited in his truck as Selena went in to retrieve the documents from Yolanda. There is a lot more to discuss about this in future blogs, but essentially, Selena didn’t retrieve all of her records as Yolanda was supposedly still withholding some of them just so Selena could return to the motel alone, setting up the perfect trap. That’s the official narrative that’s been shoved down our throats. We really have no idea what happened or what was discussed in that room.
There was reportedly all of this back and forth when Selena returned home with Chris from the motel that night. Yolanda reportedly called Selena at home to say that she wanted her to take her to the hospital in the morning to be examined. Fast forward to their final meeting in room 158 at the Days Inn on March 31st, 1995, Yolanda claimed to have said that Selena got mad at her for wanting to quit, that she didn’t want Yolanda to quit. The prosecution said it was the other way around, where Selena was going to fire Yolanda, and Yolanda wasn’t going to let that happen, hence why she got angry and shot her. A lot of the information in this case is a copious amount of he said/she said. None of us were really there to conclusively determine what happened, but there are several anomalies that will be addressed in future blogs.
In room 158, Yolanda claimed that she wanted to blow her brains out and pointed the gun at her head, then pointed it at Selena as Selena went to close the door to try and talk her down. That’s when Yolanda said don’t close the door, claiming to point the gun around and it just “went off,” according to Yolanda, hitting Selena in the back one time. She claimed it was an accident but let’s review once more that it takes meticulous aim and precision to land a kill shot like Yolanda achieved, not to mention Yolanda was a novice when it came to firearms, and that it takes about 11 lbs. of finger pressure to pull the trigger, so the accident argument was unequivocally debunked, which led to Yolanda being found guilty of murder in the first degree on October 23rd, 1995.
In conclusion, there are many irregularities regarding the circumstances leading up to Selena’s death, but nothing to affirm or prove that it was a tragic accident. However, it appears since that the official motive has been put into question, it’s safe to argue that there is more to Selena’s death than just Yolanda Saldivar presumably pulling the trigger, that involved a bias police investigation, a bias criminal trial, missing witnesses, missing evidence, witness contradictions, all of which will be covered in these upcoming blogs and Selena film.
Yolanda is up for parole in March of 2025. Tina wants Yolanda to come home and reconnect with her family. Yolanda finally said towards the end that she’s 100% responsible for Selena’s death and blames herself for the Saldivar family’s suffering. What about Selena’s family? Yolanda closed by saying she would see Selena again in heaven, that she didn’t deserve to die, and that her decisions are her decisions as are her consequences, that if she could turn back time, things would be different. I hope you all enjoyed this series and look forward to you reading and leaving comments on my future blogs.
