A woman last seen with a sports reporter before he was found dead in his hotel room after traveling to New Orleans to cover the Super Bowl has been charged with second-degree murder, police announced on Tuesday.
NOTE: The video is from a previous report.
Adan Manzano, a reporter for KGKC Telemundo Kansas City and Tico Sports, was found dead in his hotel room in Kenner, Louisiana, on Feb. 5, police said.
A woman who police said was seen going into Manzano’s hotel room hours before he was found dead — Danette Colbert of Slidell, Louisiana — was initially charged with property crimes, including theft and fraud-related offenses, after police said she had his cellphone and credit card in her home.
On Tuesday, she was also booked on a second-degree murder charge, Kenner Police Chief Keith Conley.
“We recognize it’s going to be a circumstantial case,” Conley said during a press briefing, though he called getting the probable cause affidavit signed for the second-degree murder charge “a good start.”
“We’re not going to give up. We are still investigating this case around the clock,” he said.
Surveillance video shows Manzano and Colbert at his hotel the morning of Feb. 5, police said. Colbert was seen leaving his room and coming back, then leaving again later that morning, police said. No one else entered the room and Manzano never left.
Manzano died from the combined effects of Xanax — an anti-anxiety medication — and alcohol along with “positional asphyxia,” Jefferson Parish coroner Dr. Gerry Cvitanovich revealed on Tuesday.
His alcohol level was almost three times the legal limit, Cvitanovich said.
He was found face down in a pillow, the coroner said.
The manner of death is undetermined due to the “uncertain circumstances” of the case, Cvitanovich said.
“In most cases of overdose deaths, the manner of death is accidental, and that’s whether or not there’s positional asphyxia,” the coroner said. “However, given the uncertain circumstances of this case and the additional collection of circumstances of this case, we felt that the most appropriate manner of death is undetermined.”
An alleged accomplice of Colbert’s in the property crimes has also been arrested, police said Tuesday.
Ricky White was arrested in Hollywood, Florida, and is awaiting extradition to Louisiana, Conley said. He faces the same property crime charges as Colbert, the chief said.
“We found correspondence and information where they were going back and forth. So we think they were working hand in hand, in concert with each other on this,” Conley said.
Since Colbert’s arrest on Feb. 6, the Kenner Police Department said it has been contacted by people “claiming to be victims or reporting suspicious deaths under similar circumstances.”
Colbert was ordered held without bail on Feb. 25 after a judge in Jefferson Parish decided she was a flight risk and a danger, citing her prior criminal history.
