A woman known as the “Bourbon Street Hustler” was convicted of negligent homicide in the death of a Telemundo reporter visiting Louisiana to cover the Super Bowl.
Denette Colbert, 49, was also found guilty by a Louisiana jury on Thursday of racketeering alongside her accomplice Rickey White, 35, in the death of Adam Manzano, 27, at the hotel in Kenner, a suburb of New Orleans, according to the Jefferson Parish district attorney’s office.
Though the pair were both hit with a manslaughter charge, jurors found only Colbert guilty of negligent homicide after deliberating for just over five hours.
Negligent homicide carries a sentence of up to 40 years of prison, while Racketeering carries a 50-year sentence in Louisiana, according to prosecutors.
“Ladies and gentlemen, I wish I could tell you something different, but the truth is, there is nothing anybody in this room can do to bring Adan Manzano back to his family,” Assistant District Attorney Brendan Bowen told jurors in closing arguments Thursday, urging them to convict the pair.
“What you can do is make his death mean something. Let Adan Manzano be the last victim that Rickey White and Danette Colbert ever get to target.”
Colbert was the last person seen leaving Manzano’s room before he was found dead in his hotel room on Feb. 5, 2025.
Manzano, a Telemundo Kansas City reporter who was in town to cover the Super Bowl, died lying face down on a pillow, unable to breathe after ingesting alcohol and Xanax.
He died just a year after his wife was killed in a car accident, and the couple left behind a toddler daughter.
Video captured Colbert and Manzano entering a Comfort Suites hotel around 5 a.m. that morning. Over the next few hours, the footage shows Colbert leaving the room, coming back, and leaving again.
Manzano never emerged and was found dead that night — with his phone and credit card missing from the hotel room.
The card was used for fraudulent charges in stores around New Orleans, Kenner Police Chief Keith Conley said at the time.
Cops arrested Colbert the next day, after a sweep of her house uncovered the credit card and phone, along with narcotics and a stolen firearm.
Colbert and White had spent years carrying out a criminal enterprise, luring victims in the French Quarter with sex, then drugging them and stealing their credit cards and phones.
Big Easy locals even referred to her as the “Bourbon Street Hustler,” the Daily Mail previously reported.
In court documents, prosecutors described Colbert as acting under the guise of a “prostitute or ‘party girl’” while White, known as “King Ricky,” acted as her “pimp”, providing security and searching for victims.
Prosecutors argued that Colbert, White, and Christian Anderson — another man who helped Colbert and White with their criminal scheme — targeted the reporter that night.
Court documents revealed extensive text messages between the trio showing that the victims discussed their plots to incapacitate and rob victims.
Anderson, 35, testified against Colbert and White in exchange for reduced charges of simple robbery and access device fraud. He pleaded guilty to both charges and received a six-year prison sentence.
Stavros Panagoulopoulos, Colbert’s attorney, told KLTV that he was disappointed in the racketeering conviction but considered the jury’s decision on the negligent homicide charge a small legal victory.
He plans to appeal her conviction, the outlet reported.
Colbert and White will be sentenced in late September, according to the district attorney’s office.
With Post Wires
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