New Orleans Woman Charged With Murder In Super Bowl Drugging Death Of Kansas City Reporter: “Don’t Want Her To See The Light Of Day”

Lock her up and throw away the key.

The Super Bowl was held in New Orleans last month amid heightened security concerns following the Bourbon Street terrorist attack on New Year’s Day.

By all accounts the event was a massive success (except for the Kansas City Chiefs and Taylor Swift), but the week was marred by the tragic death of a Kansas City reporter in town to cover the big game.

Adan Manzano, a reporter for Telemundo affiliate KBKC, was reportedly found dead in his hotel room in Kenner, Louisiana, not far from New Orleans. He was reported missing by his co-workers at 4 PM on Wednesday after missing a meeting earlier in the day, and when authorities found him in his hotel room, they realized that his cell phone and the credit card that he had used to check into the hotel were missing.

Authorities previously said there were no obvious signs of trauma to his body, but during a press conference yesterday the Jefferson Parish coroner revealed that Manzano had a blood alcohol content of .232, along with Xanax, and found that positional asphyxiation combined with thea alcohol and Xanax led to the reporter’s death. He was reportedly found with his face down in a pillow.

And last month, New Orleans resident Danette Colbert was arrested in connection with his death after being caught trying to use Manzano’s credit cards after his death.

According to police, when they went back to watch the security footage, they spotted Manzano entering his hotel room around 4:30 AM on Wednesday along with Colbert, who is from nearby Slidell, Louisiana. They weren’t sure when Manzano met Colbert, but she left a short time later before returning, and then leaving for the final time around 6 AM.

A search warrant that was executed at Colbert’s home led police to find Manzano’s cell phone and credit cards, as well as drugs and a gun that was believed to have been stolen but was unrelated to the reporter’s death.

And yesterday, police announced that the woman has now been charged with murder.

During a press conference, Kenner police said that Colbert will face second-degree murder charges in Manzano’s death:

“We don’t want Ms. Colbert to see the light of day again.”

Though the police chief revealed few details about what led them to that conclusion, they did announce that another man, Ricky White, has also been arrested in Florida in connection with the case.

Apparently White was connected to Colbert through text messages that were recovered during their investigation. Police wouldn’t say whether they believed White was with Colbert in the French Quarter the night of Manzano’s death, but said they expected that information to be revealed during the legal process (which sounds like a yes).

Unfortunately, it’s not the first time Colbert has been arrested for this same behavior. Public records show she has a long history of charges related to drugging and robbing men in both New Orleans and Las Vegas, and one victim spoke out publicly last month, revealing that he had previously warned the judge that someone would end up dead if Colbert wasn’t held accountable:

According to NBC News, David Butler was in New Orleans back in 2021 when he met Colbert at a bar in the French Quarter. He said that she approached him along with another woman and asked him to have a drink with them. After briefly leaving his drink unattended, he said he began to feel disoriented.

Colbert offered to help get him home, and the last thing he remembered was getting into an SUV. The next morning, Butler says he woke up on a mattress on the floor of a home he was in town to renovate, and he was missing his phone and wallet, as well as $80,000 from a cryptocurrency account.

He was able to identify Colbert for police by tracking the crypto, and the woman was charged with a slew of felonies and ultimately convicted on those charges last year. But at her sentencing, Orleans Parish Criminal Court judge Nandi Campbell sentenced Colbert to 10 years in prison – and suspended the entire sentence, meaning the woman would instead only serve probation.

It was a decision that Butler protested, telling NBC that he warned the court back in December that Colbert would not change her behavior and that he had “grave concerns” about her light sentence:

“The minimal fines and lack of meaningful incarceration for crimes that could have led to serious injury or loss of life are, quite frankly, an insult to public safety and the justice system. If someone dies due to her actions in the future, their blood will undeniably be on the hands of those who allowed her to escape real accountability today.”

It appears that those fears ultimately came true, and while it’s nice that Colbert is finally being held accountable, it’s sad that it took someone’s death to get them to keep her behind bars.