Police investigate if Telemundo Super Bowl reporter was drugged before he died
Louisiana police are investigating whether Telemundo Super Bowl reporter Adam Manzano was drugged before he was found dead in a New Orleans hotel room — as a previous victim of the suspect alleged that she left him for dead in a similar plot years ago.
Manzano, 27, a reporter for Telemundo Kansas City who was in town to cover the big game, was last seen on security cameras being lured into a hotel room by the so-called “Bourbon Street Hustler” Danette Colbert, 48, who was found with his cellphone and credit card in her home.
The Kenner Police Department told reporters Monday that Colbert has a history of drugging men and stealing from them, with officials waiting on a toxicology report to see if Manzano was one of these victims.
Since Colbert was arrested and charged with robbery in connection to the Manzano case, several of her alleged victims have come forward to tell police their story, the KPD added.
David Butler, 52, was one of those victims who met Colbert at a French Quarter bar in New Orleans in November 2021, NBC News reports.
Butler said Colbert and another woman approached him and offered him a cocktail, and after enjoying the drink, he quickly started to feel disoriented and needed help getting back home.
“She ushered me into some kind of black Suburban that was literally right there,” he told the outlet. “And that’s the last thing I remember that night.”
A property manager found Butler passed out on the floor and shook him awake, with the victim finding his phone and wallet gone and his credit cards used to make thousand dollar charges at Best Buy and Walmart.
More than $80,000 that Butler stashed away in a cryptocurrency account for retirement was also gone, he said.
Since then, Butler has kept tabs on Colbert, fearing that “she wouldn’t stop,” with the suspect facing similar charges the next year.
Nevada court records show that Colbert was charged in 2022 with grand larceny and administering a drug to aid in the commission of a felony in two separate cases. Both cases, however, were dismissed after the victims refused to testify in court.
Colbert was ultimately convicted last October of computer fraud, theft, and illegal transmission of monetary funds, with Orleans Criminal District Judge Nandi Campbell foregoing prison time and instead ordering her to pay restitution and remain on probation for five years, according to court records.
Butler slammed the sentence and claimed Manzano would not have lost his life if Campbell had applied a harsher sentence.
“Had the court acted decisively by incarcerating Ms. Colbert or enforcing stricter conditions for her release, it is possible Mr. Manzano would still be alive today,” Butler told NBC.
“The minimal fines and lack of meaningful incarceration for crimes that could have led to serious injury or loss of life are, quite frankly, an insult to public safety and the justice system,” he wrote to Campbell in December.
“If someone dies due to her actions in the future, their blood will undeniably be on the hands of those who allowed her to escape real accountability…”
Campbell’s office did not respond to The Post’s request for comment. Lawyers for Colbert, who remains in custody at the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center, could not be reached.
