Louisiana AG says woman connected with KC reporter death shouldn’t have been on probation
As a Louisiana woman faces pending fraud charges connected to the death of Kansas City sports reporter Adan Manzano, Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said this week that the woman should have been in custody on previous charges at the time of Manzano’s death.
At the time of his death, Manzano, 27, was on assignment in New Orleans, Louisiana, covering Super Bowl LIX for Telemundo and Tico Sports, a multimedia production company that broadcasts Kansas City Chiefs games in Spanish.
Manzano was found unresponsive in his Comfort Suites hotel room in Kenner, Louisiana, on Feb. 5.
Danette Colbert, 48, was arrested Feb. 7 by Kenner, Louisiana, police, who found Manzano’s cell phone and credit card in Colbert’s Slidell, Louisiana, home.
Surveillance footage captured at Manzano’s hotel shows Colbert entering with Manzano between 4:30 and 5 a.m. on the morning of his death, then leaving alone shortly thereafter. Colbert allegedly used Manzano’s credit card at several New Orleans stores starting at 7 a.m. Feb. 5, according to Kenner police.
During a February bond hearing in Jefferson Parish Magistrate Court, a Kenner police detective testified that Manzano had the antidepressant alprazolam in his system when he died, and that the same drug was found in Colbert’s apartment. Alprazolam, also known as Xanax, is often used in robberies because it can cause amnesia.
Colbert has a history of drugging men and stealing from them, Kenner police said on the day of her arrest. When detained in connection with Manzano’s death, Colbert was on probation after having been convicted of multiple felonies in November 2024, according to Murrill’s office.
In a statement shared with The Star Wednesday, Murrill said Colbert should not have been eligible for probation under the prior charges, and therefore should not have been free on the night Manzano died.
“Our position is that the original sentence was not eligible for probation,” Murrill said in the statement.
Louisiana district attorney Jason Williams, of Orleans Parish, has filed a motion to revoke Colbert’s probation, which would lead to a new prison sentence for the November felonies. This motion could see Colbert sentenced to 20 years in prison, when she was originally sentenced to 10 years plus five years probation, WWL-TV Channel 4 in Louisiana reported Tuesday.
“A motion to correct an illegal sentence can be filed at any time,” Murrill said in the statement.
Murrill’s office took over all pending charges against Colbert this week after district courts from multiple parishes in Louisiana became involved in her case. If Colbert’s parole was retroactively revoked in her felony convictions, she would be re-sentenced as a habitual offender, Murrill said.
Criminal defendants can be tagged as habitual offenders after a fourth felony charge, according to Louisiana law, and could face longer prison sentences.
“We’re just trying to keep her in jail,” a spokesperson for Murrill’s office told The Star on Wednesday. “It sounds like she should be in jail … we’re trying to make sure she stays behind bars.”
Colbert is currently being held without bail and is facing charges of purse snatching, illegal transfer of monetary funds, computer fraud, bank fraud and simple robbery in association with Manzano’s death, along with her previous felony convictions.
Colbert has not been charged with Manzano’s death, though an investigation is ongoing.
A Mexico City native who later moved to Topeka, Kansas, Manzano had been with Telemundo since 2021. He covered the Chiefs as a sideline reporter and was the play-by-play caller for KC Current games for Tico Sports. He had covered two previous Super Bowls while reporting on the Chiefs.
Manzano’s death comes less than a year after the death of his wife, Ashleigh Boyd, a teacher for the Topeka Public School District. Manzano and Boyd are survived by their toddler daughter.
Previous reporting by PJ Green contributed to this article.
This story was originally published March 12, 2025 at 6:15 PM.
