A woman has been charged with second-degree murder in the death of a television reporter last month while he was on assignment to cover the Super Bowl in New Orleans, authorities said Tuesday.
Kansas City Telemundo anchor and reporter Adan Manzano, 27, was found dead on Feb. 5 in a New Orleans hotel room. Later that week, Danette Colbert, 48, was arrested on charges she had stolen Manzano’s bank cards and cellphone.
Authorities said Colbert was captured on surveillance video entering Manzano’s hotel room with him the last time he was seen alive. They also alleged that she was caught with his phone and credit cards.
On Tuesday, a second-degree murder charge was added against Colbert and police said a suspected accomplice had also been arrested in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on fraud and theft charges.
Adan Manzano, a reporter for Telemundo Kansas City, was found dead in a New Orleans hotel.
Telemundo Kansas City
The police chief of New Orleans suburb Kenner, Keith Conley, told reporters that Colbert has remained in jail since her arrest last month.
After her February charges were announced, Conley said Colbert is a career criminal with a prior arrest record “that includes allegations of drugging men, theft of currency, fraudulent use of credit and debit cards, and other financial crimes.”
The decision to charge Colbert in Manzano’s death was made despite preliminary autopsy results being inconclusive as to whether he was killed or died accidentally.
Dr. Gerry Cvitanovich, the Jefferson Parish coroner, told reporters that the autopsy found Manzano died from “positional asphyxia” as he was lying face down on a pillow and unable to breathe after ingesting a combination of alcohol and the depressant Xanax.
“Both of them are central nervous system depressants, and when you add them up they’re really bad,” the coroner said. “One of the dangers is you end up in a position where you are obstructing your ability to breathe.”
Conley said he was “very confident” authorities have enough evidence to successfully prosecute Colbert for murder, though he declined to discuss specifics of their case.
Colbert’s lawyer, Stavros Panagoulopoulos, did not respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press.
A screenshot of Danette Colbert’s mug shot from the Kenner police press conference in February.
Screenshot / Kenner Police / Facebook
Last month, police urged anyone who recognized Colbert and had any information “regarding her involvement in these crimes” to contact the police department.
Manzano was working as a sideline reporter for KGKC, Kansas City’s Telemundo affiliate, according to the station.
His 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.
Colbert was convicted of fraud and theft by a New Orleans jury last November, the Guardian reports. It was Colbert’s fifth felony conviction in Louisiana, according to court records.
“There’s a lot of pieces to this puzzle, we understand that this is going to be a circumstantial case,” Conley said Tuesday. “I feel very confident in our detectives and the other agencies involved.”
— With files from Global News’ Katie Scott and The Associated Press