Yolanda Saldivar was denied parole by the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles on Thursday.
Saldivar was arrested and eventually convicted for the 1995 murder of Tejano singer Selena Quintanilla-Perez in Corpus Christi. Saldivar shot her at a hotel.
Monday, March 31, will mark 30 years since Selena’s death.
In its decision, the parole board said the denial of parole was due to the nature of the offense. It said that the offender is a continued threat to public safety.
Saldivar's next parole eligibility is in 2030.
Selena's family issued a statement on Instagram:
The board's full statement read:
"In 1995, Yolanda Saldivar was convicted of Murder with a Deadly Weapon and sentenced to life in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice-Institutional Division. She was required to serve 30 years before becoming eligible for parole consideration. Her parole eligibility date is March 30, 2025, meaning that she could be released no earlier than that date.
"As with any other initial review of an offender for parole, approximately six months prior to her parole eligibility, she went into the parole review process. An Institutional Parole Officer prepared her file for submission to the parole panel responsible for rendering the discretionary decision. Within that confidential file there is a plethora of information including but not limited to: court documents, offense reports, support/protest information, criminal history, institutional adjustment and information/statements provided by the offender. The file was then sent to a parole panel of three. A simple majority was required to either grant or deny parole.
"After a thorough consideration of all available information, which included any confidential interviews conducted, it was the parole panels determination to deny parole to Yolanda Saldivar and set her next parole review for March 2030. The reason provided by the panel for denial was the Nature of the Offense: The record indicates that the instant offense has elements of brutality, violence, assaultive behavior or conscious selection of victim’s vulnerability indicating a conscious disregard for the lives, safety, or property of others, such that the offender poses a continuing threat to public safety."