Quintanilla, who is not an active member of any religious congregation, said Saldivar is in the hands of God. 
Sunday, March 31, 1996
Convicted killer Yolanda Saldivar, also known as No. 733126, spends one hour a day outside of her dorm-size prison cell in Gatesville.
She is prohibited from working or having physical contact with other prisoners, and no more than two people can visit her each weekend.
"Her daily routine is rather limited," said Larry Todd, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice in Austin.
Saldivar, 35, was found guilty last fall of firing one shot from a .38-caliber revolver on March 31, 1995, and murdering Tejano singer Selena Quintanilla-Perez.
The same Harris County jury that convicted the former nurse from San Antonio also sentenced her to life in prison. She won't be eligible for parole until 2030.
Saldivar's defense team maintained during the three-week trial in downtown Houston that the shooting was an accident.
Prosecutors said the case was cold-blooded murder.
Although the murder case has long since ended, Saldivar's legal hurdles may not be over.
Nueces County District Attorney Carlos Valdez said last week he is still interested in pursuing an embezzlement charge against Saldivar, who has been accused of stealing more than $30,000 from Selena.
Also, Saldivar's attorneys are appealing the murder conviction.
Defense attorney Pat McGuire said he is waiting to see the trial transcripts, which are still being prepared by a Harris County court reporter, before he knows how he will handle an appeal.
Selena's father, meanwhile, said he does not hate his daughter's former employee and killer; indeed, he has come to pity her.
"I've felt sorry for her," said Abraham Quintanilla Jr. "Imagine, sitting there with nothing to do but think about what she's done. I feel pity for her -- but I hate what she's done."
Quintanilla, who is not an active member of any religious congregation, said Saldivar is in the hands of God.
"I never have condemned her," he said. "That is for Jehovah God to decide, not me. I'm not the one to judge her. I think Yolanda is a victim of her own personality."
Quintanilla has said he has nothing against Saldivar's family; however, Saldivar's family, he said, blames Quintanilla for destroying Yolanda Saldivar's friendship with Selena, which in turn resulted in Selena's death.
"They planted that seed at the trial," Quintanilla said of Saldivar's defense attorney Doug Tinker. "For some reason, in their minds, they say I'm the guilty one."
Quintanilla said it doesn't matter to him that Saldivar's family have been paid for interviews in which they lambaste Quintanilla.
Less than one month after her conviction, Saldivar arrived at the 2,013-bed women's prison in Gatesville and was immediately placed in administrative segregation.
Her cell is 9-feet by 6-feet and is located at the back of a cell block.
"Administrative segregation inmates are confined to their cell 23 hours a day, and they have one hour recreation inside or outside depending on the weather," said prison Maj. Elton Brock.
Todd said Saldivar, who received death threats after her arrest, will remain isolated from other inmates indefinitely.
"That has nothing to do with Saldivar's attitude nor actions," Todd said, "but rather for security reasons caused by the high-profile nature of this case."
Brock said Saldivar eats breakfast at 6 a.m., lunch at 11 a.m. and dinner at about 5 p.m. She eats alone and in her cell.
Once a day, Brock said, Saldivar is handcuffed and escorted by two prison guards to either an outdoor yard or an indoor recreation room that is furnished with a television, chin-up bar, table, exercise mat and dominoes.
Saldivar's cell is equipped with a table, toilet and steel cot lined with a thin mattress. "It has all the amenities of home, except it has bars on the door," Brock said.
Saldivar also is able to send and receive mail, use the prison's law library and access the commissary to buy such items as candy bars and deodorant.
Prison officials are quick to point out that Saldivar has not caused any problems, nor have other prisoners made threats. They also said the star inmate has refused repeated requests for interviews from numerous media organizations.
Saldivar did, however, break her silence several times in the weeks after her conviction -- twice to different television networks and once to a newspaper.
During an interview on Spanish-language network Univision's "Primer Impacto," which aired Nov. 14, Saldivar said she and Selena shared a mother-daughter relationship.
In a nearly hourlong televised interview from the Nueces County Jail, Saldivar reiterated her claim that the shooting at the Day Inn, 901 Navigation Blvd., was an accident.
She also said she had a secret about Selena, but refused to discuss it.
"The day that I am ready to tell the whole truth," Saldivar said, "I will do it with facts, with documents, with proof in my hands and show the public that this is what happened."
Saldivar said she met Selena at the motel, but she said she couldn't reveal the reason for the meeting. As the two argued, Saldivar said, she pointed a gun at her own head. She said she was motioning toward Selena and telling her not to close the door when the gun went off.
Later in the interview, Saldivar disputed allegations that she had been embezzling money from Selena or her father.
"I never stole one cent," she said. "I never took a cent from my daughter, and she knows it."
Prosecutors accused Saldivar during the trial of embezzling more than $5,000 from the singer. The defense argued that the allegations are unproven and irrelevant to the murder case.
Selena's family also has accused Saldivar of stealing more than $30,000 from the singer's business accounts during a five-month period from September 1994 through January 1995, according to a May 10 police report.
Saldivar, president and founder of Selena's fan club, managed the singer's clothing boutique in San Antonio and was involved in Selena Etc., 4926 Everhart Road, the boutique in Corpus Christi.
Valdez vowed last fall to present the embezzlement allegations to a grand jury as soon as possible. A grand jury, however, has yet to hear the case.
Asked about the delay, Valdez said: "In terms of importance, there are more important cases than this one that we have had to deal with."
Corpus Christi police Sgt. Joel Castaneda, who is heading the theft investigation, said he plans to hand the case to the District Attorney's Office in the next three weeks.
Valdez said that when he receives the case he will decide whether to present it to a grand jury.
"If we can make a serious enough case against her, we'll pursue it," Valdez said. "If we can only make it just a state jail felony, it's not worthwhile."
Valdez said a state jail felony -- the punishment for stealing anything less than $20,000 -- carries a mandatory sentence of two years probation.
If prosecutors can prove that Saldivar stole more than $20,000, then Saldivar could receive more jail time.
As prosecutors work to lengthen Saldivar's stay in prison, her attorneys still plan to ask an appellate court to overturn the conviction.
Less than one month after the trial, defense attorneys took the first step in the appeals process by filing a motion for a new trial.
In the motion, attorneys requested a new trial on the grounds that 214th District Judge Mike Westergren and prosecutors committed at least a dozen errors before Saldivar was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison.
Defense attorneys also accused one of the 12 jurors who convicted Saldivar of being biased because he reportedly knew Selena's uncle before the trial.
Furthermore, defense attorneys claimed that the verdict would have been different had they been able to question a prosecution witness during the trial about her criminal record.
A hearing on the motion was held Dec. 21 in a Houston courtroom. One week later, Westergren denied Saldivar's request for a new trial.
The case was later assigned to the 14th Court of Appeals in Houston.
McGuire, who was appointed by Westergren to handle Saldivar's appeal, said he expects to argue some of the same issues before the appellate court as he did during the motion for new trial.
"Some of the items we brought up are likely to be fruitful," McGuire said.
Attorneys from both sides have said it could be more than six months before the appellate court rules. If the Court of Appeals rejects the case, Saldivar's last chance for a new trial would rest with the Court of Criminal Appeals in Austin.