Murder of Selena

Murder of Selena Quintanilla-Pérez
Murder of Selena Quintanilla-Pérez
	Graffiti left by fans at the motel room door where Selena met with Saldívar before being shot by her
Location	Days Inn, Corpus Christi, Texas, U.S.
Coordinates	27°48′05.6″N 97°27′15.2″W / 27.801556°N 97.454222°W
Date	March 31, 1995 ; 11:48 am (CST) (Central Time Zone)
Attack type	Murder by shooting
Weapon	Taurus Model 85 .38 Special revolver
Victim	Selena Quintanilla-Pérez
Perpetrator	Yolanda Saldívar
Motive	Money embezzlement and Selena's management demanding fan club's missing financial records
Verdict	Guilty
Convictions	First-degree murder ;
Trial	Trial of Yolanda Saldívar
Sentence	Life imprisonment with possibility of parole after 30 years

On the morning of March 31, 1995, American singer Selena Quintanilla-Pérez was shot and fatally wounded at the Days Inn in Corpus Christi, Texas. Although paramedics tried to revive Selena, she died of hypovolemic shock at Corpus Christi Memorial Hospital at age 23. The killer, Yolanda Saldívar, was the president of Selena's fan club who was exposed as having embezzled thousands of dollars from the singer's earnings.

The Latino community was deeply affected by the news of Selena's death; some people traveled thousands of miles to visit her home, boutiques and the crime scene, while churches with large congregations of Latinos held prayers in her name. All major television networks in the United States interrupted their regular programming to break the news. The public's reaction to Selena's death was compared to those that followed the deaths of John Lennon, Kurt Cobain and John F. Kennedy. On April 12, 1995, two weeks after her death, then-Texas governor George W. Bush declared her birthday Selena Day in Texas.

At the time of Selena's death, Tejano music was one of the most popular Latin music subgenres in the U.S. Selena was called the "Queen of Tejano Music" and became the first Latina artist to have a predominantly Spanish-language album—Dreaming of You (1995)—debut and peak at number one on the US Billboard 200 chart. After her death, the popularity of Tejano music waned. During Saldívar's trial for the murder—called the "trial of the century" and the most important trial for the Latino population—Saldívar said she accidentally shot Selena while attempting suicide. Saldívar was sentenced to life imprisonment. Jennifer Lopez was cast as Selena in a 1997 biopic film about her life and achieved fame after the film's release.