Carlos Valdez - Justice for Selena: The State Vs Yolanda Saldivar

Justice
for
Selena

THE STATE VERSUS YOLANDA SALDIVAR

Carlos Valdez

Copyright 2005 Carlos Valdez.

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ISBN 1-4120-6525-9

ISBN: 978-1-4122-3840-3 (ebk)

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CONTENTS

On March 31, 2004 Abraham Quintanilla called a press conference at the Q Production Studios in Corpus Christi, Texas. It was the ninth anniversary of the tragic murder of his talented and much beloved daughter, Selena Quintanilla Perez. He was about to announce plans for a memorial tribute to Selena involving among other events, a concert featuring some well known names in the Latino music industry. The tribute would be held during the tenth year anniversary of Selenas death and Mr. Quintanilla was giving the media one years advance notice. That was the reason for the press conference.

Mr. Quintanilla had graciously invited me to attend the media event to hear the announcement. I had readily agreed to attend giving me an opportunity to get away from the stress at the office for a little while. I asked Mark Skurka, my first assistant to go with me so that he could also be in on the big announcement. Besides, I knew how much the Quintanilla family respected Mark and I thought that they would be more than happy to see him.

We were standing around the main production hall at the impressive Q Production studios when I was approached by one of our local reporters. She started asking me questions about the trial. Pretty soon I was being interviewed by a couple of other reporters who were asking the same questions that I had answered many years before. I realized that the reporters had never really gotten a full and complete rendition of what had actually happened during the trial, at least not from the prosecutions perspective. Many of the questions they were asking were based on misinformation or information they had obtained from second hand sources. I thought to myself, Now is the time to tell my story. The true story of how the case against Yolanda Saldivar was put together and prosecuted. It was time to write that book that I had always been saying that I would write one of these days.

I had already started writing a few passages about different parts of the trial. I had also kept a log during the entire judicial process. I could refer to it to help me remember some things that I had forgotten. There were transcripts of the trial and of the many hearings that were held. And I also had my original trial notebook that I had relied upon so much during the trial. All I had to do was to bring all these different sources of information together, rely on my memory for certain things, and start writing.

The process took several months. Many times when my memory failed me I had to stop in the middle of a sentence to search for the information I needed. I would write very early in the morning and late at night. Anytime I could find some spare time away from my duties I would spend writing a few words. The task was made no less daunting by the fact that I dont yet utilize the modern convenience called the computer. Every word in the book was handwritten by me on a piece of paper to be later prepared for publication. And thats the way I wanted it. I think much better when Im writing things down instead of trying to type them with my two fingered, hunt and peck technique. I wanted every single word coming from me instead of having a ghost writer tell me what I really wanted to say. In the end, if people dont like the end result I have no one else to blame but myself.

I decided from the start that I would use legalese only when absolutely necessary. If there are some legal phrases in the book it is only because I couldnt think of another way to say it. Ive always believed that we lawyers intentionally came up with our own language so that lay people had to hire us to interpret things for them. Instead of saying that someone filed an application for the issuance of a habeas corpus, Id much rather just tell you that he was trying to get the bond reduced.

Having been in the practice of law for almost twenty five years I am well aware that every story has at least two different sides. Most of the time a story will have three, four and five different versions depending on whos telling it. The following story is told from the point of view of the prosecution. It is my own personal perspective that is found within these pages. I do not try to tell anybody elses story because Im afraid I wouldnt succeed. Telling our story is all that Ive set out to do.

Finally, I must explain the title. During the pretrial phase of the case I was on my way to lunch one day as we were getting ready for an afternoon hearing. A woman who never identified herself stopped me and started talking about the case. She told me that everyone was counting on me to do a good job. She went on and on about what a good human being Selena was and how tragic it was that her life was taken away at such an early age. She explained to me that although some people appeared to be angry at Yolanda Saldivar, the vast majority of Selenas fans were not interested in avenging her death. They didnt want revenge against Saldivar. They werent interested in an eye for an eye or anything like that. Mr. Valdez, she said quietly, All we want is justice for Selena. Thats what she deserves and thats probably what she, herself, would have wanted. From that point forward I decided to make it my personal quest to obtain justice for Selena. What follows is the story of how we went about trying to find it.

The Prelude

In preparing for battle I have always found that the plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.

Old Military Maxim

Friday March 31, 1995 was not unlike any other day in the District Attorneys Office in Corpus Christi. During the morning I had busied myself with the mundane administrative duties involved in running an office whose jurisdiction extends through three South Texas counties along the Gulf Coast. It was a cool day with a few clouds teasing the landscape with the possibility of rain. The oppressive heat and humidity of the summer months had not yet descended upon us and it was that nice time of the year when everything is in the process of renewal.