LOS ANGELES, Feb 20, (AP): In a recently released documentary, Yolanda Saldívar, the woman found guilty of Selena Quintanilla's murder in March 1995, breaks her silence almost three decades after the tragic incident. The two-part Oxygen True Crime docuseries, titled "Selena & Yolanda: The Secrets Between Them," features 63-year-old Saldívar sharing her perspective from prison, recounting the events that led to Selena's death and insisting that the shooting was accidental.

Opening up about the prevailing public opinion that condemned her even before the trial commenced, Saldívar expresses frustration, saying, "They have been fed a narrative that is not correct, that I was an embezzler, that I was an assistant. My right as a citizen of the United States to be innocent until proven guilty was reversed on me. I was guilty and needed to prove my innocence."

The fatal shooting occurred at a Days Inn hotel in Corpus Christi, Texas, on March 31, 1995, just two weeks before Selena would have turned 24 on April 16, 1995. Saldívar, accused of embezzling money from Selena's fan club and clothing boutiques, asserts her innocence, stating, "They've never proven to me that I stole a single cent from her. If I was an embezzler like [Selena's father, Abraham Quintanilla] claimed, why didn't he ever press charges on me? He didn't because he never had that evidence," she claims.

Saldívar discloses that she purchased the gun used in the shooting after a tense meeting on March 9, 1995, where she was accused of embezzlement by Abraham Quintanilla. Feeling unsafe, she explains, "It was my own self-defense that if anything came my way, I was going to protect myself. I was fearful."

Despite the tragic outcome, Saldívar maintains her innocence, asserting, "At no point did I mean to hurt anyone."