Selena Named Killer In Last Words, Witnesses Say

HOUSTON - Bleeding from a bullet wound, the Tejano singer Selena in her last words identified her murderer and expressed fear she would be shot again, witnesses testified today.

"She said `Yolanda Saldivar in Room 158,' " said Ruben Deleon, sales director at a Corpus Christi Days Inn where the shooting occurred March 31.

Shawna Vela, a front-desk clerk at the motel, gave a similar account today at Saldivar's murder trial, contradicting defense claims that the shooting was an accident.

Vela said Selena burst into the motel lobby crying and saying, "Lock the door! She'll shoot me again."

Deleon described a scene of hysteria as Selena, bleeding from a .38-caliber bullet wound to the back, collapsed to the floor.

"She looked up at me," Deleon said. "She told me and her eyes rolled back."

The motel's assistant manager, Rosalinda Gonzalez, today also told how she saw Selena stumble into the lobby and fall to the floor.

"She was yelling, `Help me, help me! I've been shot!' " Gonzalez said.

"I asked who shot her. She said the lady in Room 158. She moaned. Her eyes rolled up."

After the shooting, Saldivar held police at bay for nine hours in her pickup truck and threatened to kill herself. Police said Saldivar admitted to the shooting after the standoff.

Saldivar, who rose from president of Selena's fan club to manager of her two boutiques in Texas, could get up to life in prison if convicted.

The testimony contradicts a defense claim that the shooting occurred accidentally as Saldivar, 35, was waving a .38-caliber handgun.