Selena’s Killer Yolanda Saldívar Has a ‘Bounty on Her Head’ in Texas Prison: ‘Everyone Wants to Get Her’ (Exclusive)

On a hot summer day in 2016, guards were moving Yolanda Saldívar between cells inside Mountain View Unit, a maximum-security women's prison in Gatesville, Texas.

As other prisoners caught sight of the infamous inmate from a distance, they began to jeer at the woman who's serving a life sentence for gunning down beloved Tejano singer Selena Quintanilla-Pérez in 1995.

As Saldívar was moved through the prison corridors, at least two women lunged at her and had to be restrained by other guards, a former inmate tells The Messenger.

In the ensuing melee, guards had to usher Saldívar to safety.

"She is despised," says the former inmate. "Everyone wants to get her. She's the most hated person at Mountain View."

Saldívar, now 62, hopes to be released when she's eligible for parole in March 2025.

"There's a bounty on her head," a relative tells The Messenger of her circumstances behind bars. "She says she doesn't feel safe in prison, which is why she wants to get out."

'Justice For Selena'
Another former inmate, Yesenia Dominguez, says that Saldívar is an enigma: housed in protective custody, she is rarely seen by the general population — but is frequently the topic of conversation.

"Everyone was always like, 'let me have five minutes with that b----,'" says Dominguez. "Everyone wanted to get justice for Selena."

On March 31, 1995, the singer confronted Saldívar — then a founder of her fan club and manager of her boutiques — because Selena believed she was embezzling money from her.

During their encounter at a Corpus Christi hotel, Saldívar shot Selena in the back. She later died at a hospital of blood loss.

At trial, attorneys for Saldívar claimed that the shooting was accidental and that she had meant to kill herself, not the singer.

But a jury disagreed, and convicted Saldívar of first degree murder.

Selena's death enraged her fans, who'd lost the "Queen of Tejano" at 23, just as her star was quickly rising in the wider music industry. Many have never forgiven Saldívar.

The singer's fanbase has continued to grown in the years since her murder — and the anger has not subsided among some who live behind bars with her killer.

In a 2018 interview with Univision's Primer Impacto, Selena's father, Abraham Quintanilla, said other inmates have continued to threaten Saldívar's life.

"To this day, we still receive letters from women who are in the same prison where they say they are waiting for her," he said in Spanish.

"That they are going to kill her. There are bad women in there. Women who have murdered other people in the past. That is why they are in there. They have nothing to lose."

Credible Threats — and Regular Lockdowns
The Messenger spoke to a former guard at Mountain View, who confirmed that there have been frightening incidents over the years, but says Saldívar has never been in grave danger.

"We kept the other inmates away from her," the former guard says. "But there were credible threats sometimes. But our job is to keep her safe, no matter how many people hate her."

Now, when Mountain View's notorious inmate is moved around the prison, the entire facility is locked down.

Saldivar has filed complaints with the jail — and even a federal lawsuit in 2017 claiming that her living conditions were "unsafe and dangerous."

The Messenger has learned that Saldívar plans to cite her safety fears as one of the justifications for release when she's up for parole in 18 months.

"She thinks it's time," Saldívar's relative said previously. "She's been in jail for almost 30 years."

But Dominguez has little sympathy for Selena's killer.

"She can cry all she wants about feeling like she's in danger," she says. "But at least she's alive to complain about it. And Selena is still dead."