By Maverick
Welcome to Part 5 of this series about the latest docuseries. Let’s get into the heart of the matter regarding the days and weeks leading up to Selena’s shooting. On March 11th, 1995, Yolanda buys a Taurus 85 revolver at a gun store in San Antonio, Texas, called A Place To Shoot. Yolanda filled out the proper paperwork, including the intent to purchase form. There will be more intricate information shared about the anomalies pertaining to Yolanda purchasing the gun in future blogs.
Yolanda claimed that she bought the Taurus 85 revolver for protection after the March 9th meeting, out of fear for Abraham Quintanilla potentially doing something to her. Carlos Valdez convinced the jury that Selena needed her tax documents from Yolanda, and Yolanda was afraid of being cut out of Selena’s life, as she supposedly felt like she was somebody of real status while working directly under Selena. The Assistant District Attorney Mark Skurka claimed that Yolanda held onto Selena’s records as leverage to hold onto Selena, and that she would go back to being an ordinary registered nurse if she forked over all of the records. We can’t conclusively say what the truth is because none of us were there, and we never got Selena’s version of what happened. Yolanda checked into the Days Inn motel in Corpus Christi on March 30th, 1995, after Selena allegedly told Yolanda to go there. The next morning was when the shooting occurred at that very motel.
Immediately following the shooting, several witnesses saw Yolanda exiting room 158 with a gun in her hand, chasing Selena for a few seconds before she stopped herself and walked back to the room unfazed. One witness, a maid by the name of Norma Martinez, claims Yolanda yelled the word “bitch” at Selena as she was running to get herself help once she was shot. There is some controversy surrounding Norma’s version of events, starting with the fact that she never reported it in her official witness statement to the police that Yolanda had said the word “bitch.”
However, the police report mentioned the word “bitch” and this prime time special coverage about Selena, filmed days and weeks after the shooting, featured Norma Martinez, who said that Yolanda had yelled that word. Doing some digging into Norma revealed that she had a criminal background of her own; she also committed some form of embezzlement over the years. Plus, she had also been working at the Days Inn for a couple of months. Throughout these blogs, you will see why some of these eyewitnesses can’t be considered trustworthy or reliable, especially since their stories don’t match, and a few of them were caught contradicting themselves if you pay close attention to what was said, all of which I will be breaking down.
Selena was shot once in the back, presumably as she was about to leave Yolanda’s room at the Days Inn. The bullet severed her subclavian artery and left a trail of blood about 400 feet from the entrance of the room to the registration office lobby area. According to witnesses, her last words were “Yolanda, room 158.” I will get into why that quote may have been unlikely to be uttered, based on the evidence available to the public.
Yolanda said she’s so sorry that Selena is gone, and how much pain it’s caused many others. Immediately following the shooting, Yolanda got in her nephew’s red pickup truck and attempted to leave, but was stopped by police, and that’s what precipitated the almost 9-hour-long standoff with police, where she held a gun to her head all that time. Once Yolanda surrendered later that evening, police arrested her and brought her to the police station to be booked and interrogated. Yolanda’s “confession” statement was actually typed up by the lead detective on the case, Paul Rivera. The sergeant assisting Paul, Ray Rivera, no relation to Paul, mentioned that Yolanda admitted there was an argument that took place about money, and she tried to keep Selena from leaving the room. Ray said that he’ll always remember that Yolanda said she shot Selena in anger and rage.
Yolanda claimed that she was coerced into signing the typed confession as Detective Rivera kept trying to tell Yolanda that she went there to kill Selena, and it was no accident, that the police have evidence that the shooting was all intentional. Yolanda tried to plead that this was a terrible accident and that she didn’t mean to hurt or kill Selena. No one was buying it, though. In fact, the word accident became Yolanda’s defense as soon as she heard it uttered from hostage negotiator Larry Young, as he was trying to convince her to lower her weapon and surrender. It was a hostage negotiation 101 tactic to lower the temperature as Yolanda was frantic in that moment. Ever since Larry said to Yolanda that the shooting was a terrible accident, she started to repeat it and made it her story. Yolanda claimed that she wanted to commit suicide in that room, and when she pointed the gun at Selena, it just “went off” inadvertently. Yolanda said that she didn’t know Selena was shot, that she signed the typed confession just to get it over with since the police didn’t give her much of a choice, in addition to being tired and depleted of food and water. How could you let someone sign a police document without legal representation? I will cover the anomalies behind the police investigation and the lead detective in future upcoming blogs, as there is so much to unpack here. I hope I haven’t lost any of you yet, as we’re not even halfway through the full coverage of this docuseries.
To be continued in “Selena and Yolanda: The Secrets Between Them” – Episode 1 Part 6…
