Two people have been charged in connection with the death of a sports reporter in Louisiana last month to cover the Super Bowl.
Adan Manzano, 27, was found unresponsive in his hotel room in Kenner, Louisiana, on February 5, as CrimeOnline reported. Manzano was in town to report on the football game in New Orleans for Telemundo Kansas City and Tico Sports. He was discovered during a welfare check after he failed to show up for a morning appointment.
Hotel security footage captured Manzano with a Slidell woman named Danette Colbert, 48, on the morning he was found dead. The video later shows Colbert leaving his room alone. After departing the hotel, Colbert was seen using Manzano’s credit cards throughout the New Orleans area.
Colbert was arrested on charges of bank fraud, computer fraud, illegal transmission of monetary funds, access device fraud, and purse snatching. Police were reportedly waiting for an autopsy report for any further charges.
Kenner Police Chief Keith Conley said Tuesday that Colbert has now been charged with second degree murder, WDSU reported.
Conley said Manzano’s autopsy determined that he died from a combination of alcohol and Xanax with “positional asphyxia” — the reporter was found facedown with his nose and mouth pressed into a pillow. The chief said that Manzano’s blod alcohol content was three times the legal limit and that he had a “not insignificant amount” of Xanax in his system.
The autopsy listed “undetermined” as the manner of death, but Colbert was charged with murder anyway.
An alleged accomplice was also taken into custody by US Marshals in Hollywood, Florida. Ricky White faces similar property crimes to those Colbert was original facing. White is awaiting extradition to Louisiana.
