Colbert resentenced to life for death of Telemundo reporter Manzano

Court cites six prior felony convictions under habitual offender law

On Wednesday, a Jefferson Parish judge resentenced Danette Colbert to life in prison plus 75 years under Louisiana’s habitual offender law for the death of Adan Manzano, a Telemundo Kansas City journalist.

“The court is going to find that Ms Colbert is at least a fourth felony offender,” Judge Nancy Miller of the 24th judicial district court said at the resentencing.

In September, Colbert had been sentenced to a total of 60 years in prison — 50 years for racketeering and a consecutive 10 years for negligent homicide in Manzano’s death. Prosecutors later moved to enhance her sentence under the habitual-offender statute, which permits harsher penalties for defendants with prior felony convictions.

At Wednesday’s hearing, prosecutors cited six prior felony cases against Colbert. Her criminal record includes 2024 convictions in New Orleans for computer fraud and illegal money transfers that resulted in a 25-year sentence as a habitual offender, along with earlier convictions for fraud, stolen property, burglary, theft, battery and witness intimidation dating from 2013 to 2019. Jefferson Parish sheriff’s office fingerprint analysis confirmed Colbert’s identity in all six cases.

“We believe that sufficient evidence has been presented” to establish Colbert as the person convicted in the previous cases, assistant district attorney Jenny Voss told Miller. Prosecutors needed to establish only three prior convictions to enhance her sentence, the district attorney’s office said.

Manzano, 27, had traveled to the New Orleans area to cover the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl clash with the Philadelphia Eagles when he was found dead in his hotel room in Kenner days before the game. The Jefferson Parish coroner’s office said Manzano died from positional asphyxiation; an autopsy found Xanax and alcohol in his system.

Prosecutors said Manzano was among the victims of a years-long operation in which Colbert, her accomplice Rickey White, and a co-defendant who testified against them, Christian Anderson, allegedly lured unsuspecting tourists in the city’s French Quarter with the promise of sex before drugging and robbing them. The alleged criminal enterprise dated back to 2012, prosecutors said.

The Jefferson Parish district attorney’s office said Colbert’s life sentence will be served consecutively to her 50-year sentence for racketeering and a 25-year sentence for unrelated crimes in New Orleans.