(HorizonPost.com) – The woman convicted of first-degree murder in the 1995 death of Mexican-American singer Selena continues to claim that the killing was an accident, NBC News reported.
Yolanda Saldívar, who was president of the Selena fan club and manager of Selena’s clothing boutiques, is featured in a new docuseries about the singer’s death that premiered on Oxygen last month.
The two-part “Selena & Yolanda: The Secrets Between Them” docuseries features prison interviews with Saldívar, who in 1995 confessed to shooting the singer at a motel in Corpus Cristi, Texas. She was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. In 1998, Saldívar lost an appeal of her sentence.
In the Oxygen documentary, Saldívar again insisted that she had not intended to kill Selena and denied the long-held theory that she had been embezzling money from the singer. Saldívar claimed that Selena had been engaged in an extramarital affair and had enlisted Saldívar to make payments on her behalf to cover it up. Saldívar said the money wasn’t embezzled; instead, she was simply reimbursing herself for the purchases and insisted that Selena was aware of it.
Saldívar said in the docuseries that she thought it was time to “set the story straight.” She alleged that she knew Selena’s secrets and the public deserved to “know the truth.”
This wasn’t the first time Saldívar had recounted this version of events.
In a 1995 interview with “20/20,” Saldívar decried the public outrage over Selena’s death, claiming that she had been portrayed as a “monster.” She insisted that Selena’s death was an accident and her conscience was clear.
Saldívar told “20/20” that she and Selena were arguing at the Corpus Cristi Days Inn and in the heat of the moment, she pulled a gun and threatened to take her own life. She said as she was waving the gun around, it accidentally fired and Selena was shot.
Yolanda Saldívar will be eligible for parole next year.
In an interview with the New York Post, one of Saldívar’s relatives described her as a “political prisoner” who has “more than served her time.”
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