New Orleans Woman Convicted of Fatally Drugging TV Sports Reporter

By Paul Greeley

Danette Colbert, convicted of fatally drugging Adan Manzano, a Kansas City sports reporter who traveled to New Orleans to cover the Super Bowl, was sentenced to 60 years in prison for her role his death, according to NOLA.

District Court Judge Nancy Miller cited aggravating circumstances in Colbert’s criminal history, which includes a pattern of targeting, drugging and stealing from tourists visiting the New Orleans, including the victim, 27-year-old Adan Manzano.

Colbert was convicted of negligent homicide and racketeering for theft scheme.

“I think the cousin of the victim in this case put it so appropriately, that you were indifferent to the impact that your actions had,” Miller said.

She sentenced Colbert to 10 years in prison for negligent homicide and 50 years in prison for racketeering.

Miller ordered those sentences be served consecutively to one another and consecutive to any other sentence Colbert is already serving.

Manzano, a sideline reporter for KGKC-TV, the Kansas City affiliate for Telemundo, came to New Orleans in February 2025 with a team of co-workers.

Surveillance video from the French Quarter presented during trial showed Manzano out with his colleagues during the early morning hours of Feb. 5, 2025, and later with his arm around Colbert, according to the Jefferson Parish District Attorney’s Office.

Colbert drove Manzano back to his room at the Comfort Suites in Kenner, and is the last person seen exiting the room, according to Kenner police.

Manzano was discovered dead in his bed later that afternoon. A concerned co-worker asked for a wellness check after he missed a meeting that morning.

An autopsy determined that Manzano died of asphyxiation while lying face down on a pillow due to the combined toxic effects of alcohol and alprazolam, the generic name for the anti-anxiety medication Xanax.

Colbert denied giving Mazano any drugs.

But investigators searched her Slidell home, they found an bottle of alprazolam as well as Manzano’s cell phone, credit card and a key from his hotel, authorities said.