OAN Staff Brooke Mallory
5:51 PM – Tuesday, March 18, 2025
Police said on Tuesday that the woman who is accused of murdering a Telemundo reporter may have collaborated with an accomplice to plan her “lethal plot” to lure him to a hotel near New Orleans.
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Adan Manzano, a 27-year-old Telemundo reporter covering the Super Bowl, was allegedly tricked by “serial scammer” Danette Colbert into a hotel room in Kenner, Louisiana, where he was subsequently discovered dead.
Colbert has now been charged with second-degree murder by the Kenner Police Department, and Ricky White, who was described by police as a “transient,” has been taken into custody on suspicion of conspiring “hand in hand” with Colbert to steal the reporter’s identity and use his credit card in New Orleans.
After security camera evidence showed her entering a Comfort Inn Suites with Manzano, leaving alone, reentering, and departing again on the day he was discovered dead — police arrived to question Colbert.
Her suspected accomplice was apprehended by police in Hollywood, Florida, on Friday. He is now awaiting extradition from Fort Lauderdale.
Although the precise cause of Manzano’s death has not been established, police reported that a toxicology analysis revealed significant quantities of benzodiazepines, also known as Xanax, in Manzano’s system. A lethal “blackout cocktail” can occur when heavy Xanax use and heavy alcohol are combined, according to the University of Mississippi Medical Center.
Additionally, Jefferson Parish Coroner Gerry Cvitanovich told reporters that Manzano was discovered face-down on a pillow — which suggested that he may have been asphyxiated.
Police also claim that Colbert and White charged Manzano’s credit card at various establishments in New Orleans soon after.
“We found correspondence and information where [Colbert and White] were going back and forth. We think they were working hand-in-hand, in concert,” Kenner police chief Keith Conley told reporters.
Colbert is known as the “Bourbon Street Hustler” due to her lengthy history of thievery and fraud, which includes two similar schemes involving drugging men.
“She’s a career criminal … Ms. Colbert has quite a record and rap sheet for confidence games, access device fraud, and robbery schemes,” Conley told reporters after her arrest last month.
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