GRETNA, La. (WVUE) - Two defendants operating a scheme to drug and rob New Orleans visitors -- which resulted in the death of a Kansas City reporter assigned to cover the Super Bowl in February 2025 -- were sentenced to serve decades in state prison on Monday (Sept. 28).
A Jefferson Parish jury on Sept. 17 found Danette Colbert and Rickey White guilty of racketeering in connection to the theft scheme that resulted in the death of Kansas City sports reporter Adan Manzano.
Judge Nancy Miller of the 24th Judicial District Court sentenced Colbert to the maximum 50 years for racketeering and 10 years for negligent homicide, with the sentences to be served consecutively for a total of 60 years.
White was sentenced to 45 years for racketeering.
Manzano, 27, was in New Orleans to cover Super Bowl LIX, but never made it to the game. He was found dead from positional asphyxiation in his Kenner hotel room on Feb. 5, according to the Jefferson Parish coroner. An autopsy determined Manzano had ingested a lethal combination of Alprazolam (the generic name for Xanax) and alcohol that left him with a blood-alcohol percentage of .232.
Authorities proved Manzano had fallen victim to a recurring scheme of Colbert, White and cooperating co-defendant Christian Anderson, in which White worked with alleged prostitutes such as Colbert to target and drug victims with sedatives for the purpose of robbing them inside hotel rooms. Jefferson Parish prosecutors alleged the trio’s criminal operation dated to 2012.
Miller told Colbert from the bench, “The court finds your behavior in this matter quite alarming. You were indifferent to the impact that your actions had. That is evident by your consistent pattern in your criminal history. Apparently, you’ve been doing this for quite some time. It’s finally caught up to you with the death of one of your victims.”
Manzano, who was born in Mexico and realized his dream of becoming a television reporter in the United States, was remembered by his parents and cousins in emotional victim-impact statements read to the court before the sentences were imposed.
The victim’s father told the court, “Today is a sad day for me and my family. I trust the laws of this country that justice will get done. May the laws of this country lock up the people that destroyed my life and the life of all of my family.
“They snatched his dreams, life and family as we were seeing him happy and successful. I just respectfully ask that you give them the sentencing that they deserve and I trust that will happen.”
Manzano’s parents appeared before the court via Zoom, a decision explained by the victim’s mother Veila Aguilar.
“Honestly, I didn’t want to be there today, because I’m not ready to see these people, to see the people that snatched my son’s life away,” she said. “I don’t want to see them, because I don’t want to fill my heart with hatred and anger toward them.
“I know that nothing that happens or gets done will give me back my son. I’m living a double-mourning or double-grief. When Adan passed away, his wife passed away nine months before (in a fatal car accident). ... The little one (the couple’s daughter) was left without a father and without a mother. Obviously, nothing can bring back her parents. I come to you and I trust the laws of this country that justice will be done. I don’t want other mothers, fathers, siblings or families to go through the pain we’re going through.
“I don’t want to say anything to the people who committed this crime, because they are beings of darkness and beings that don’t have God in their lives. ... They can’t continue to be free.”
_This developing story will be updated._
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