All language subtitles for How.It.Really.Happened.S03E08_English

♪♪

Do I say that funny?
Guitar

Man: Guitar?
Guitar?

No, you're from Texas.
They're expecting a drawl.

Guitar, yeah.
[ Laughs ]

Where's your Texas drawl?

I think I've kind of lost it
through the years.

I used to be really bad, but I
think traveling and everything,

I've kind of picked up
everybody's accents

and kind of made it
into one.

♪♪

♪♪

Welcome to
"How It Really Happened."

I'm Hill Harper.

She is a Latina icon,
cut down at 23

on the cusp
of superstardom,

an all-American kid
raised in Texas

whose charm, talent,
and legend loom so large,

she is known only by
one name -- Selena.

It was the introduction
of an obsessive fan

into Selena's world
that would change everything.

It would alter the path
of Selena's life

and ultimately lead
to her shocking murder.

The events of that day --
bizarre, confusing,

and for many, inconceivable.

Here's "How It Really Happened."

Selena:
I was wearing this long dress,
and what was going through

my mind was like,
"Please, Selena, don't fall.

I'll be so embarrassed."
[ Laughs ]

Anyway, it was really great.
I'll never forget it.

It's something to remember
always, always.

Today we're looking into
the death of Selena...

There you go.
[ Laughs ]

Cossack:
...and the woman who's accused
of murdering her.

Initially, what we heard was
that Selena had been shot.

Woman: Police officers
and SWAT Team members

are still trying to negotiate
the alleged killer.

Yolanda: [ Sobbing ] I was
trying to show her the gun!
Man: What?

You could hear her crying
and a lot of whimpering.

Saying that she had done

something real bad
to her friend.

Young: She made it clear that
whatever happened to her,

she didn't mean it.

Yolanda:
I didn't mean to do it!

Man: What do you mean?
It was an accident!

You know, I don't believe it.

Cortina-Weiss:
How could this have happened?

We have lost a superstar.

It's heartbreaking.

Why would somebody kill this
23-year-old singer?

Why would she kill her?
It made no sense at all.

♪♪

[ Cheers and applause ]

At the time Selena died, she was
the biggest act in Tejano music.

Selena: Tejano music is
a mixture of music.

You have the German polka.

You have a little bit
of country.

You have Mexican music, and it's
all fused into one melting pot.

She was working on her
first English-language album,

and it included the track
"Dreaming of You."

Selena:
♪ 'Cause I'm dreaming ♪

♪ Of you tonight ♪

♪ Till tomorrow ♪

♪ I'll be holding you tight ♪

The excitement was insane,
you know?

This was one of
the biggest dreams.

We've waited for this
for very long time,

and we're really
looking forward to it.

There was no question in my mind
that she was at least the equal

or was going to blow past both
Gloria Estefan and Madonna.

People predicted she was going
to be a huge, huge star.

Man: When did you know you
wanted to be a performer?

Very young. I started singing
when I was 6 1/2

and recorded my first record
when I was 8 years old.

Abraham, Selena's father,
created this band with his kids,

named it Selena y Los Dinos.

Selena:
My father had this really
good job, and it was about '81.

The economy went down.
We went under.

We had to file for bankruptcy.
We lost everything.

So that's how we got into
the music as a profession.

That was our way of putting
bread and butter on the table.

The band starts touring,
and every weekend,

Los Dinos are out there
playing on the Tejano circuit.

Her father was her manager.

Sterling: Her brother, A.B.,
played a bass,

and her sister,
Suzette, played the drums.

Cortina-Weiss:
And later she fell in love with

and wound up marrying
her guitar player, Chris Pérez.

It's great to have somebody I
can share this good stuff with.

Selena and I recorded
for Capitol EMI Latin

during the same time,

and we performed
at events together.

It is a real danceable music.

Casarez: She was a lovely,
lovely person.

She was incredibly charismatic.

Like, the whole thing
wasn't taping? [ Laughs ]

She was very down-to-earth.

I don't think I ever
saw her upset.

She was bubbly and fun.

Gomez: I don't think I've ever
come across a human

that was that kind.

Astudillo: Just her spirit,
just her energy,

her laughter
was contagious.

[ Laughter ]

I'm just joking.

No, more like Menudo.
That's what Robert said.

In the early '90s, things
started to change with Selena.

She's got a string of hits
that were huge.

She's got "Bidi Bidi Bom Bom."

♪ Bidi bidi bom bom ♪

♪ Bidi bidi bom bom ♪

♪ Bidi bidi bom bom ♪

♪ Bidi bidi bom bom ♪

♪ Bidi bidi bidi
bidi bidi bom bom ♪

She's got "Como La Flor."

♪ Como la flor,
como La flor ♪

♪ Con tanto amor,
con tanto amor ♪

♪ Me diste tú ♪

And she's got "Amor Prohibido."

♪ Amor prohibido
murmuran por las calles ♪

It's talking about
a forbidden love.

Selena was becoming a bigger
and bigger star

through those years.

She won a Grammy in 1994
for best Mexican-American album.

Selena:
I didn't think I had a chance

because of the top names
that were in the category.

So just the venues
just start getting bigger.

The crowds just started
getting bigger.

Selena: We've broken the record
twice in a row

at the Houston Astrodome
for attendance record there.

Casarez: Her star kept going up
and up and up.

She was crossing boundaries

that had not been
crossed before.

That's really neat.
You know, whereas before

I was like, "Oh, they don't even
know I exist,"

now they do,
so it's really neat.

In the middle of all these
things blowing up for Selena

comes another big change,

and that's a woman
named Yolanda Saldivar.

I don't think anybody, anybody

would have imagined
what unfolded.

♪♪

I really don't believe
in competing with anybody.

I'm sure about what I'm doing,

and I don't feel like
I have to be looking back

or seeing what the person
next to me is doing.

There's room enough
for everybody.

♪♪

Young: We don't know why exactly
she shot Selena.

She just said that
she did something

that she didn't want to do,
and, "my friend" --

and she kept saying
that over and over again,

"my friend" -- you know,
that she shot her,

and -- but she didn't intend
to do that.

♪♪

At the beginning of the 1990s,
Tejano music

was growing immensely,
and so was Selena.

And that was right
when she met Yolanda.

Yolanda Saldivar comes into
the picture because she's a fan.

She was a registered nurse
who was living in San Antonio.

Cortina-Weiss:
Goes to a Selena concert,
sees Selena, loves her,

and begins to reach out
to Abraham.

We met Yolanda back in 1991.

That first initial encounter
with her

was just a voice
on the telephone.

She contacted Selena's father
multiple times.

She asked if she could start
a fan club,

and people would send
in their money,

and they'd get sent
a T-shirt or pictures

or other things like that.

She's quite persistent in asking
that she be the founder

and that she run it.

Eventually, Abraham said,
"why not?"

And Yolanda did a pretty job
of getting people to join.

The numbers grew.

I mean, it grew into the
thousands pretty quickly.

So there was some money
on the table.

♪♪

Yolanda started out
as kind of an outsider,

but worked her way
into the inner circle.

Yolanda then started doing
other things for Selena.

Selena, by all accounts,
really liked Yolanda.

Patoski: Yolanda builds up
a role as gatekeeper.

"If you want to get to her,
you got to go through me."

And it gave Yolanda
a purpose in life.

Patoski:
She's somebody all of a sudden.

Reynoso: She was always around
Selena and her family.

If you see pictures,
if you see footage,

you'll always see she that
she was right next to her.

Gomez: She was such a nurturer,
especially with Selena.

She was over-nurturing,
to the point now

that it was almost obsession.

♪♪

I have three businesses --
actually, two businesses.

The third one is going to be
opening up October 1st

in San Antonio.

While her music is booming,
she's also becoming

really famous for her fashion,
for her style.

She designed much
of what she wore herself.

Singing was her job,
but fashion was her passion.

♪♪

-There you go.
-Just like that?

She's beautiful.
Look at that. [ Laughs ]

Cortina-Weiss:
And so she opened her boutiques

in San Antonio and Corpus,
where she could sell outfits

that were very much inspired
by her stage outfits,

and people ate it up.

This is unique clothing.

You're not going to find it
at any department store.

We have a little bit
of everything.

We carry clothing,
and we carry salon services,

which is like perms,
hair weaves.

[ Laughs ]

♪♪

When she goes off to realize
her personal dream

of designing fashion
and opening boutiques,

Yolanda is right in there
with her and by her side.

It was believed that Yolanda
had done such a great job

with the fan club,

why not make her manager
of the boutiques?

Now remember, she's a nurse
by trade,

really no business
experience at all,

but suddenly she had a pivotal
role in the family organization.

It got to a point
where Yolanda Saldivar

had access to Selena's
whole business empire.

This gave Yolanda Saldivar
the opening

she needed to do
whatever it is she wanted to do.

We accepted her as a friend.

Never in my wildest dreams
did I ever foresee

or even -- the thought
ever entered my mind

that this woman
would do something like this.

Valdez: Yolanda was Selena's
right-hand person.

She was extremely manipulative.

She has a way of finding out
what moves people

and how to get people
to do what she wants.

I don't think they had any idea
that they were dealing with

the kind of person
that wasn't at all deserving

of their trust.

Casarez:
So at the end of 1994,

I guess Yolanda got
an idea that,

wouldn't it be nice for all
the employees of the boutiques

to pool their money
and buy Selena a ring

to show Selena how much
she was cared for.

Yolanda had taken up some funds
from the employees

to give Selena a present.
Larry King: Mm-hmm.

And Selena has a collection
of Fabergé eggs at her home,

so they made her a ring
with a little egg on top of it.

Valdez:
Yolanda told her, "Selena,
I bought this for you.

This is a present for you,"

so when Selena opened it,
she loved it.

She took it, and she
put it on and said,

"This is our friendship ring.

This is signifying
our friendship forever.

I will never take this off
because, Yolanda,

we'll be friends forever."

Patoski: Selena was thrilled
at the gift.

I mean, how nice to go to
all this effort

and such a beautiful,
elaborate ring,

and she put it on
and wore it all the time.

I mean, you can see it
in the promo pictures.

You can see it everywhere.
That became part of her.

She did wear the ring a lot,

and she was wearing the ring
the day she died.

♪♪

Valdez: There were some people
that were concerned

about Yolanda
being around Selena.

Gomez:
When she came back, she goes,
"Martin, it's very scary."

I said, "I'm really nervous
she's going to hurt you."

♪♪

[ Cheers and applause ]

Selena: It's a great feeling,
and it's flattering to know

that there's a lot of people
who buy our music,

and there's little kids
who learn our songs

and try to dance like me.
I think it's great.

It's very flattering.
[ Camera shutter clicking ]

Woman:
We have a woman who in the
lobby, said she's been shot.

-Woman 2: Okay, who shot her?
-The lady in 158.

It was this woman
that was obsessed with her.

It was just utter disbelief.

The day that I received the call
to go to the emergency room,

that Selena had had an accident,
is what they told me.

But when I got
to the emergency room

and I saw all the people
standing out in the streets,

I knew that something other
than that had happened.

♪♪

[ Camera shutters clicking ]

Cortina-Weiss:
So March 1995 comes around.

Selena is juggling a lot.

She's working on her
English-language album.

And one of the songs that
came out of that album was

"I Could Fall in Love."

Selena: ♪ I could fall
in love ♪

♪ With you ♪

She's got these two
really successful boutiques.

She's looking at expansion
into Mexico.

Things are going really,
really well.

Sterling: And Yolanda was
in charge of everything,

but people were complaining

about things
that were happening.

Mr. Quintanilla,
Selena's father,

started getting phone calls.
[ Phone rings ]

The phone calls
were all the same.

"Mr. Quintanilla,

I've sent in my money
to the fan club,

and I haven't
gotten anything."

Abraham went back and began
to look at the books

and see what's going on here,
and as he reviewed the books

of not only the boutiques,
but the books of the fan club,

he began to see that
there were discrepancies,

and he began to suspect that
there was embezzlement going on.

Abraham Quintanilla
came to the conclusion

that Yolanda Saldivar
had embezzled about $30,000

from Selena Quintanilla's
businesses.

She was never charged with this.
She was never convicted of this,

but Abraham believed
he had his evidence.

Reynoso: Then a lot of employees
at Selena's boutiques

started to complain
to Selena

about Yolanda Saldivar's
behavior towards them.

Sterling: She tried to be
very controlling.

She wanted to be in charge

completely of
who had access to Selena.

There were some people
that were concerned

about Yolanda
being around Selena.

One of those people
was Martin Gomez.

Gomez:
We had ordered zippers,

and the zippers were
delivered to Yolanda's home.

And I had my assistant
go pick them up,

and when she came back she goes,
"Martin, it's very scary.

It's wall-to-wall pictures
of Selena."

♪♪

And I remember thinking,
"This is kind of weird.

You know, it's kind of
a little bit obsessive."

He thought, "This isn't good."

Gomez: And then one time
I went to the dentist,

and my insurance
hadn't been paid out,

and so I came back
and I said,

"Yolanda, my insurance
hasn't been paid out,

and they're saying it hasn't
been paid out for 6 months."

And she says, "Oh, I'll fix it,
but don't tell Selena."

Well, of course,
I'm going to tell Selena.

♪♪

And Selena says, "Martin,
she's got it under control.

Don't worry about it."

And that kind of
started us in turmoil.

Valdez: He could see Yolanda
manipulating Selena.

He knew there was something
wrong there,

so he separated
from the business.

I basically went to her,
and said,

"I don't think
this is going to work."

"Girl," I said,
"I'm really nervous

she's going to hurt you,"
and I meant hurt her physically.

I think Selena heard
"hurt her reputation."

♪♪

I think weeks had passed by.

She calls me on the phone,
and I remember I said,

"Selena, I'm really
scared for you."

One thing that Selena
would always say in Spanish

"Cuidate,"
"Take care of yourself,"

and I remember telling her,
"Girl,cuidate."

She giggled. She goes,
"You worry too much."

And that was
the last conversation

that I had with her.

We're just really excited,
and we just hope that, you know,

we can do the best that we can
and people accept our music.

♪♪

All these things kind of kept
coming up, coming up,

and they all led back
to Yolanda Saldivar.

The problem was Selena
didn't believe her dad,

already didn't believe
Martin Gomez.

"She can't be doing this."

Cortina-Weiss: She doesn't
really want to believe

that somebody who's become
a trusted friend

and is in her inner circle
is doing this damage.

So the family decided, "Okay,
you don't believe us, Selena?

Let's bring her in here
and ask her those questions."

♪♪

Valdez: So Mr. Quintanilla
called a meeting

at the studio on Thursday,
March the 9th,

and there was this confrontation
at the meeting between

Mr. Quintanilla and Selena
on the one side

and Yolanda on the other.

Abraham: By this time, you know,
things were going downhill.

We had showed her
the evidence that we had.

Casarez: She needed to prove
that she was not taking money,

and if she couldn't prove that,

she would no longer
be associated with Selena.

Cossack:
Yolanda denies everything,

says she can come up with
the records that are missing

and says that she can prove
that she's innocent.

King: You weren't going to
prosecute her or anything?

No, sir, we were
going to fire her.

Mm-hmm.

But I wasn't going
to prosecute her.

I was, you know, angered
at the moment

because she --
everything that I showed her

and asked her about it,
she had no answer for it,

and I was frustrated because
we knew that she was lying.

♪♪

Cortina-Weiss: So Abraham,
who's now heard enough,

relieves her of her managerial
duties and tells her to go.

Casarez:
He took her off bank accounts.

He took her name off anything

where she could continue
to steal money -- allegedly.

Never in my wildest dreams
did I think

that this woman was going
to react this way.

♪♪

Valdez:
So Yolanda takes off.

She goes to a gun store
in San Antonio,

A Place to Shoot,
and buys the gun.

♪♪

The proprietor said
she told him

she was a home
health care nurse

and was working
for a patient

whose family was
threatening her,

and she needed a gun
for protection.

Cossack: What happens is,
Yolanda then asks

for another meeting
with only Selena.

Selena, wanting to be nice,
said to her,

"Look, you can still be
in charge

of the business in Mexico,"

in essence giving her
another chance.

Very dangerous in hindsight.

She just wanted to trust.

It was this trust in this woman
that led to her death.

♪♪

Talk about your boutique.
Yes.

You have expansion plans
there, too, as well?

Yes, we are negotiating
right now to be franchising out.

There's also going to be
a perfume

that's going to be coming out,
the Selena perfume,

and it's going to smell like
chorizo and huevos.

[ Laughter ]

Welcome back.

By March 1995, Latina singing
sensation Selena Quintanilla

was working on
an English-language album,

preparing to become
a mainstream pop star,

but at the same time,
there was trouble brewing.

Her family believed
Yolanda Saldivar,

her friend, boutique manager,
and fan-club president,

was embezzling money
and needed to be let go.

But Selena -- lovely, kind,
trusting Selena --

wasn't ready
to believe it...yet.

No one could have predicted
the horrifying fatal turn

the story would take.

[ Cheers and applause ]

Woman: I have to ask you this
because I know it's --

you've heard this before,
but they keep calling you

the next Gloria Estefan.

How does it feel to be compared
to somebody like Gloria?

I take it as a compliment.

♪♪

Yolanda had spearheaded
a campaign

amongst the employees
to buy a ring for Selena.

She loved this ring.
She wore it all of the time.

Sterling: We later learned that
Yolanda had allegedly

collected money from a group
of people for this gift,

got the ring designed,
presented it to Selena

like it was a gift
from Yolanda alone,

and paid for it
with the company credit card.

It was a really ominous
sign of what was still to come.

Looking back,
this is a huge red flag.

If she had known that Yolanda
really didn't buy the ring

with her money, I think
that would've changed things.

I don't think I'd be
sitting here today.

Cossack: I'm not sure that
anybody ever suspected

that she was
capable of murder.

♪♪

Young: We know that Yolanda
had a gun.

We believe that the situation
was highly charged,

and that Yolanda probably,
based on what she said,

was angry at being confronted
about something.

Man: The only eyewitness has
said it's an accident.

Either she did it intentionally,

or she did not do it
intentionally.

♪♪

It's tax time.

It's March, and it's time
to gather a bunch of documents

from the businesses
to file tax returns.

Patoski: By the end of March,
the Quintanilla family

was convinced Yolanda Saldivar
was embezzling

from the fan club,
from the boutique,

from all of Selena's
related businesses

that she had had authority
to sign off on.

You got to remember that Selena
was just starting her business.

She had just started
the boutiques

this past year,

and so she was still trying
to get things rolling

and organized.

Selena was in the middle
of recording the English album.

She was also on tour
performing

sometimes three concerts
a weekend.

Patoski:
She had just done this concert
selling out the Astrodome,

and it was an incredible
performance.

It really was.

[ Singing in Spanish ]

[ Continues in Spanish ]

[ Cheers and applause ]

She was just literally so busy

that she was counting
on this person

to get all of the records
to where they needed to go.

Selena asked Yolanda
for the bank statements,

and there seems to be
some hemming and hawing.

Selena is realizing
something is wrong.

Valdez:
Selena kept calling Yolanda,

telling her,
"I need those documents.

I need those documents,"

so Yolanda agreed that she
would drive to Corpus Christi.

She wasn't taking the documents.
She was taking the gun.

♪♪

Sterling: So on March 30th,
Yolanda drives to Corpus

and checks into the Days Inn.

Valdez: Yolanda calls Selena
and says, "Selena,

I've got your papers here.
Come by."

♪♪

Cortina-Weiss: Selena actually
gets in the car

and drives herself
to the scene

where she'll ultimately
be murdered,

because she trusts.

She trusted someone
that was...

in essence, evil.

Selena shows up in room 158
at the Days Inn motel.

At that meeting,
she was firing Yolanda?

Yes, sir.

Selena decided she was
going to cut her losses

and let her go,

but she needed
the bank statements.

Yolanda had told Selena
that on her last trip to Mexico

that she had been raped,

so Selena, being the giving
person she was,

accompanied Yolanda
to the local hospital.

Like any good friend would do.

I mean, how could you
ignore somebody

who said they'd been
sexually assaulted?

Harris: When Selena and Yolanda
came into the E.R.,

Selena was a little bit
guarded,

but yet you could tell that
she cared about this woman.

And Yolanda's demeanor
was very flat.

Skurka: There were some
major discrepancies

while Yolanda was giving
her history to the nurses.

[ Clicking ]

Harris: Yolanda told me that
she had been assaulted

in Mexico
and hit with a bat.

[ Camera shutter clicking ]

From what I could see,

there was no injuries
that fit that pattern.

Sterling: Yolanda had
the clothes on that she said

she was
sexually assaulted in.

The people who worked
at the hospital were suspicious

because the damage to
the clothes looked like damage

that somebody had done
with a pair of scissors.

They didn't look like something
that happened during an assault.

Her story doesn't add up.

Sterling:
We think Yolanda's motivation

was to get sympathy
from Selena,

and maybe things
could turn around,

and Selena would forgive her
for what was going on.

Harris:
About 11 o'clock, I went in
to see my next patient,

and Selena stopped by the room
where I was at the time,

and she just looked at me,

and she says,
"Do you believe her?"

And I said, "Do I believe what?"

And she said, "Do you think
she's been raped?"

And I said, "Honey,
it's not up to me to decide

whether she's been
assaulted or not.

She says she has,
then she has."

And she said "Oh, well, okay."
And she left.

And then I thought to myself
right at that point,

"Wow, she's got a doubt."

Patoski:
I think Selena had finally
seen and understood

what her father
had been telling her

or what Martin Gomez
told her.

"Yolanda has been
stealing from you.

She hasn't been
telling the truth."

Selena drives Yolanda
back to the Days Inn,

and at the door,
they're talking,

and it's pretty clear
it's over.

Selena wants to drop her off,
get her paperwork, and leave.

By the time that
hotel room meeting comes along,

it had risen to a high boil.

Nobody else was there,
so we don't know

what the conversation
actually was

other than what Yolanda says.

Cortina-Weiss:
They have a conversation,

presumably about
the bank statements,

and at some point,
a gun comes out.

What do you do with all of
this success you're having?

I'm enjoying every bit of it,
and it's like a dream come true,

and it's like I don't want
anybody to wake me up from it.

It's been a great year.

This year has been
really wonderful.

♪♪

Sterling: The evidence shows
that Yolanda had taken

the gun out of her purse.

Selena saw the gun and was
attempting to leave the room.

Selena turned around,
and pow...

[ Gunshot ]

...one single shot.

Sterling: We know Selena was
shot with the door open

because the blood
splatter evidence

was on the outside
of the door.

The bullet enters beneath
her right shoulder blade

and comes out
through the front.

♪♪

After Selena gets shot,
she runs to the hotel lobby,

which was not that close
to the room.

Skurka: She ran around the pool,
where she dropped her purse.

She'd already dropped
her briefcase

and her phone
in the grassy area.

She is bleeding profusely,
leaving a trail of blood.

♪♪

I was standing in the lobby
with Ruben DeLeon.

Look towards the right,
there was a window.

I see a lady running towards
one of the doors.

I had no idea who she was.

I had no idea.

Schultz: Selena came through
the front door quickly,

clutching her stomach,
and there was a lot of blood

pooling in the sweatshirt,

and she sort of stumbled
and said, "Help me.

Help me.
I've been shot."

DeLeon: We meet right
in the middle of the lobby

and kind of made contact there
and then moved her.

I guess we were trying to hide
her, keep her safe

because we just
figured somebody

was running behind her
with a gun.

Immediately, I went into
my office and called 911.

We were asking for towels

and just compressing
on her wound.

We start asking her,
"Who? Who shot you?"

And she mentioned
Yolanda's name,

and she also mentioned
the room number.

The desk clerk looked up
at the registration cards

and saw that room 158 had been
rented by Yolanda Saldivar.

And she's responding
as best as she could

and then started
fading and fading,

and we were just telling her
to hang in there,

that help was on its way.
[ Sirens wailing ]

And the ambulance was there
in 2, 3 minutes.

They were extremely quick.

By the time they got there,
she was unconscious.

And then they wheeled her out.

[ Sirens wailing ]

Patoski: Selena's rushed
to the hospital

with the hope
that they can save her,

and the hospital
is not that far away.

During the ambulance ride,
there's an ominous moment

when the EMT gets her arm
to put the IV in it.

Her fist opens up,
and the ring falls out.

It's the ring
that Yolanda gave her.

I'm just assuming that the day
that Selena was going to fire

her there at the hotel,

that I believe that she might
have taken the ring out

and was going to
give it back to her.

So by taking it off of her hand
and giving it back to Yolanda,

that was symbolic
that their relationship

had completely ruptured.

Selena was giving it
back to Yolanda

when Yolanda fired the gun
that killed Selena.

♪♪

Skurka: I don't think Selena
had a wicked

or evil bone in her body.

She couldn't believe
anybody would try to harm her.

It's got to be the ultimate
betrayal

to have your friend
not stab you in the back,

but shoot you in the back.

We are standing by live
in Corpus Christi.

[ Yolanda speaks
indistinctly ]

Man: No, no, you're not
going to do that, Yolanda.

♪♪

I'm really enjoying everything
that's going on around me.

It's kind of hard to handpick
which is the best thing

because there's
a lot of good things.

♪♪

Sterling:
There were some witnesses
who worked at the hotel

who heard the gunshot,

and they saw Selena
running from the room,

and they saw Yolanda come out
after her holding a gun.

Reynoso: Yolanda Saldivar
went back into room,

wraps the gun in a towel
and goes into her truck.

Young:
And she drives out to leave,

and then she gets blocked in
by police cars arriving,

and then she puts
the gun to her head.

Where she locks herself
in a standoff with police.

Skurka:
They call in hostage negotiators
to try to talk her down

and talk her out
into giving herself up.

We are standing by live
in Corpus Christi

right across the street
from the Days Inn.

The assistant police chief
tells us

that they have provided
the suspect with a telephone

and have been in constant
contact with her

trying to get her
to give herself up.

When we finally started talking,
Yolanda was asking about Selena.

"Where is she?
How is she?"

I told her that she was
at the hospital

and that they're
working on her.

Her emotional state
was extremely fragile.

I want to kill myself,
Larry!

She keeps insisting
she's done something real,

real bad to her friend.

Woman: We have hundreds
and hundreds of people,

fans of Selena Quintanilla,

coming by, waiting to see
how this is going to turn out.

The assistant police chief
tells us

that they are
going to wait it out.

All they want is to
get her out safe,

and they don't want her
to hurt herself or anybody else.

She basically holds
the police at bay for hours.

Man: Negotiators talk to her
continuously and never give up.

[ Yolanda sobs ]

Young: At one point during
the negotiations,

we decided that there needed
to be a switch,

and so we introduced
Isaac Valencia,

another negotiator.

He talks about religion.

His job is to come up
with any reason possible

to get her out of that truck.

Valencia: That everything
will be okay in the eyes

of Jesus Christ
and the Holy Spirit.

Skurka: And about halfway
through the negotiations,

one of the officers
mentioned something like,

"Well, you know, anything
can happen with guns.

Guns -- it may go off,"
and she seized upon this.

Valencia: What?

I was yelling to her, "Please,
I'm going to kill myself."

We could only assume
what happened,

and Yolanda's version

is that she took the gun
to commit suicide

and that she pointed
the gun to her head

and that she told Selena
to close the door.

She accidentally shot the gun.
[ Gunshot ]

The barrel was back?

She said it was an accident, but
we know that that's not true.

You have to have a certain
amount of pounds

of pressure
to pull a trigger.

[ Gunshot ]

Guns just don't go off.

Valdez: And the natural reaction
for somebody

who's been involved
in an accidental shooting

is to drop the gun
immediately, start screaming,

and try to help
the person who's hurt.

Villarreal:
She's a registered nurse.

If this was an accident,
why didn't she call 911?

Never did it, never did it.

Skurka: Nope, she didn't do
any of that stuff.

In fact, she went back
in her room,

covered the gun up,
and then went

and got back
in her truck to escape.

This wasn't an accident.

It was an intentional
act of murder.

Guns don't go off by themselves.

Somebody has to
pull the trigger,

and that's exactly
what Yolanda did.

♪♪

Valdez: I think there were
several things that combined

in that room,
in room 158 on that day.

Yolanda loved her life
with Selena.

Patoski: Her life was over.

She wasn't Selena's fan club
president anymore.

She wasn't running
the boutique.

She wasn't Selena's
business partner

or running buddy
or best friend.

All that was over.

She was back to being
Yolanda Saldivar,

and in the most selfish
act imaginable,

"If I can't have you,
no one can," bang.

♪♪

Finally, after 9 1/2 hours,

they convince her
to come out of that truck.

Woman: Oh, they got her!

-Woman 2: They got her?
-Get her!

-Whoa!
[ Clapping ]

Valdez: At 9:30 at night,
she was talked out of her truck,

and she finally
was placed under arrest.

And she's going, "Oh, Larry,
oh, Larry, I'm so sorry.

I'm so sorry.
How is she?"

Sterling: The place where
the bullet went through Selena

severed a major artery
in her body.

If it had been an inch or 2
in another direction,

she probably wouldn't
have been killed.

All efforts to resuscitate
her were futile.

She was declared dead
early afternoon.

♪♪

It was just so unreal
and bizarre and sad and tragic,

how somebody so good could have
such a horrible ending.

It was very devastating

for someone very young

to have all these dreams
just wiped away.

I mean...

...it was hard to live with
for a long time.

Abraham: When one of your
children is killed this way,

it's like somebody
grabbed a knife

and stuck it right
in your heart,

and the wound will always be
there for the rest of your life.

Cortina-Weiss: So when Selena
dies, her family, her label,

the people she worked with,

are left with this
impossible decision

of what to do with
the music she left behind.

She had already recorded
four tracks

for her English-language album.

This was Selena's dream,
to cross over into mainstream.

We had been working towards
this goal for the last 2 years,

and I want to make sure
that her dream comes true.

And so they decided
to release it,

and "Dreaming of You"
became an instant hit.

♪ 'Cause I'm dreaming ♪

♪ Of you tonight ♪

♪ Till tomorrow ♪

♪ I'll be holding you tight ♪

Patoski: The album comes out,
goes double platinum,

goes straight to the top
of the pop charts.

Cortina-Weiss:
This is what she worked really,
really hard for her whole life,

and it's just sad and tragic
that she wasn't able to see it.

♪♪

Yolanda is charged
with first-degree murder.

The district attorney's office
filed a formal complaint

accusing Yolanda Saldivar
of the murder

of Selena Quintanilla-Pérez.

We tried the case in Houston,
and she was found guilty

and sentenced
to life in prison.

Man: The jury, having found
the defendant guilty of murder,

assess her punishment
and confinement

in the institutional division

of the Texas Department
of Criminal Justice for life.

[ Crowd shouting ]

♪♪

But it was, you know, a hollow
win because Selena's gone.

She's not coming back,
and while justice was served,

it was still this idea,

"Why did this have to
even happen?"

Abraham: Yolanda could have
just walked away

and found herself another job.

To this day, for the life of me,

I just can't figure out
why she done this.

♪♪

Cortina-Weiss:
I think Selena is remembered

as much as a person
as she is as a performer.

She was this kind soul that,
for all intents and purposes,

didn't kind of understand
the enormity of fame

that she had acquired
in a short period of time.

To me, in my mind,
I see her every day.

I hear her music.

To me, she's still alive.

I mean, she really was special.

She would never tell you that,
or she never felt like she was,

but she really was.

Cortina-Weiss:
She had so gracefully

and so successfully

embraced her roots,
her culture, and her heritage.

And in that way,

she still continues
to inspire new generations.

Selena: You know, you hope
for something.

You wish for things to happen,
you know,

when you're not doing as well,
and when it comes around,

it's like, "oh," you know,
you want to slow down,

but you have to stop
and think where you came from,

and you appreciate it
even more.

♪♪

Yolanda Saldivar declined
our request for an interview.

She is still in prison
and up for parole in 2025.

Selena was buried
in her hometown

of Corpus Christi, Texas.

Two years after her death,

a movie starring
Jennifer Lopez was released

telling the true story
of Selena's incredible life.

It solidified her legacy
and inspired future generations.

Selena once said
that when she died,

she wanted to be remembered
not only as an entertainer

but as a role model
and someone who cared,

and she is.

Thanks for watching.
Good night.