Woman accused in Super Bowl reporter’s death gets 25 years in unrelated case

This photo provided by Telemundo Kansas City shows television reporter Adan Manzano, a 27-year-old anchor and reporter for Telemundo in Kansas City, Missouri, who was found dead in his hotel room in the New Orleans suburb of Kenner during Super Bowl week. (Telemundo Kansas City via AP, File)

This photo provided by Telemundo Kansas City shows television reporter Adan Manzano, a 27-year-old anchor and reporter for Telemundo in Kansas City, Missouri, who was found dead in his hotel room in the New Orleans suburb of Kenner during Super Bowl week. (Telemundo Kansas City via AP, File)
By  JACK BROOK
 
Share

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A woman facing a second-degree murder charge for the death of a Super Bowl television reporter has been sentenced to 25 years in an unrelated case on Thursday.

Danette Colbert, 48, had previously been given a suspended sentence by an Orleans Parish judge last year after being convicted of theft and fraud charges.

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill’s office successfully argued in court that Colbert, who has multiple prior felony convictions involving fraud, was a habitual offender and deserved a harsher sentence.

Colbert had been on probation when police arrested her for allegedly stealing the cellphone and bank cards of a reporter found dead in his hotel room on Feb. 5. He was in town to cover Super Bowl LIX weekend in New Orleans.

Adan Manzano, a 27-year-old reporter and television anchor based in Kansas City, Missouri, suffocated while lying face down on a pillow. Alcohol and the depressant Xanax were later found in his system. Colbert was captured on security footage leaving Manzano’s hotel room in the New Orleans suburb of Kenner, police said.

Colbert and another person still face second-degree murder charges in Jefferson Parish, bordering New Orleans.

Parse.ly - related stories
California man who used underwater scooter in lake to try to evade arrest pleads guilty to fraud
 
The Southern Regional Jail in Beaver, W.Va., is seen in this undated photo. (Rick Barbero/The Register-Herald via AP, File)
Former West Virginia jail supervisor sentenced in coverup of assault that led to inmate’s death
 
Bryan Kohberger, accused of fatally stabbing four University of Idaho students, is escorted into court for a hearing in Latah County District Court, Sept. 13, 2023, in Moscow, Idaho. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)
Idaho judge wants an investigation of information leaks in Bryan Kohberger’s quadruple-murder case
 

“The evidence was overwhelming that this woman was a serial fraudster and took advantage of multiple tourists and innocent people over many years in the French Quarter,” Murrill said in an emailed statement.

Colbert’s attorney Jerome Matthews did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Stavros Panagoulopoulos, the lawyer representing Colbert in the second-degree murder case, declined to comment.

___

Brook is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.