Woman found guilty of negligent homicide in Super Bowl reporter death

A Louisiana jury convicted a woman of negligent homicide on Thursday in the death of a Telemundo television reporter who had been visiting New Orleans to cover the Super Bowl, according to the Jefferson Parish District Attorney’s Office.

The woman, named Danette Colbert, 49, was also convicted of racketeering, as was her accomplice, 35-year-old Rickey White, according to Paul Purpura, a spokesperson for the District Attorney’s Office. Racketeering carries up to a 50-year sentence in Louisiana.

Both were also charged with manslaughter in Adan Manzano’s death, a 27-year-old reporter and anchor for Telemundo based in Kansas City, Missouri, who was found dead in his hotel room Feb. 5 in the New Orleans suburb of Kenner days before the Super Bowl last year.

Jurors found Colbert guilty of negligent homicide, a lesser charge, and White not guilty of manslaughter, according to the Jefferson Parish District Attorney’s Office.

In a press release, the Jefferson Parish District Attorney’s Office said that Colbert and White had targeted “seemingly affluent men in New Orleans tourism spots and drugged them in hotel rooms during their trysts before stealing their belongings as they slept it off.”

The two had allegedly spent years carrying out a criminal enterprise that drew in victims in the city’s historic French Quarter with the promise of sex, then used drugs to knock them out and drain their bank accounts using stolen cards and phones, according to prosecutors.

Colbert was the last person seen leaving the room of Manzano and an autopsy revealed that he died lying face down on a pillow, unable to breathe after ingesting a combination of alcohol and Xanax.

“They and others were engaged in a years-long scheme in which Colbert and other prostitutes lurked in New Orleans’ tourist areas in search of men whom they could lure to their rooms. Along the way, they secretly provided their unwitting victims with sedatives that would cause them to fall asleep. They then would steal their cell phones, credit cards and other items of value, including pricy watches,” the Jefferson Parish District Attorney’s Office said.

Assistant District Attorney Jenny Voss told jurors that Colbert “has been doing this for years, and she has not been doing it alone.”

“Enterprise, a group of people associated in fact. Danette Colbert was not doing this by herself. Danette Colbert was doing this with Rickey White (and others). They were not just pals. They were partners. All of them together had a separate role,” Voss said during closing arguments on Thursday.

Voss alleged that White was the one the alleged group went to “for instruction.”

Manzano, a widower and the father of a young child, was working for Spanish-language Telemundo network when he went to New Orleans to cover the Super Bowl.

“On Feb. 4, 2025, he and his colleagues partied in the French Quarter’s tourist areas where he met Colbert. She convinced the seemingly intoxicated man to take her to his hotel room in Kenner. At one point, after drinking tequila with Manzano, Colbert gave him alprazolam, a central nervous system suppressant used to treat anxiety and other conditions and is known by the brand name Xanax,” according to the Jefferson Parish District Attorney’s Office.

Kenner police conducted a wellness check on Feb. 5, 2025 in response to a 911 call from Manzano’s colleagues.

Police found his body face-down in his hotel bed and he had been dead for an estimated eight to 10 hours, according to the Jefferson Parish District Attorney’s Office.

“Ladies and gentlemen, I wish I could tell you something different, but the truth is, there is nothing anybody in this room can do to bring Adan Manzano back to his family,” Assistant District Attorney Brendan Bowen told jurors on Thursday. “What you can do is make his death mean something. Let Adan Manzano be the last victim that Rickey White and Danette Colbert ever get to target.”

The Jefferson Parish Coroner’s Office concluded that the combination of benzodiazepines, the alcohol and “positional asphyxia” caused Manzano’s death.

The alprazolam, in concert with the alcohol, rendered him unconscious and unable to move, meaning he suffocated with his face buried in a pillow, according to Jefferson Parish Coroner’s Office.

Colbert and White are scheduled to be sentenced in late September, according to the Jefferson Parish District Attorney’s Office.

Manzano was working as a sideline reporter for KGKC, Kansas City’s Telemundo affiliate, according to the station.

KGKC released a statement in a news release about the reporter after news of his passing spread. “We are saddened to share that Adan Manzano passed away yesterday in New Orleans,” KGKC said in a news release. “We are cooperating with law enforcement as they investigate this tragic event.”

They described Manzano as a “true professional and rising star who exemplified excellence in his work.”

“We will deeply miss Adan and his passion for sports, and the contributions he made to the local community,” the station said. “Our thoughts and heartfelt condolences go out to his family and loved ones during this difficult time.”

Manzano’s death came less than a year after his wife, Ashleigh LeeAnn Boyd Manzano, died in a car crash in Topeka, Kansas on April 11, 2024.