A second person has been charged in connection with the slaying of Adan Manzano, a Telemundo sports reporter who was killed by con artists while covering Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans, police said.
Authorities in Florida arrested Rickey White back in March on robbery and fraud charges related to Manzano’s death, and he was extradited to New Orleans. On Monday, the Kenner Police Department announced that White is also facing a count of second-degree murder in the case, but they provided few other details, saying only that the new charge was the result of “continued investigative efforts.”
Manzano was found dead on February 5 inside his room at the Comfort Inn & Suites in the suburb of Kenner, where he’d staying been ahead of the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl showdown against the Philadelphia Eagles. The 27-year-old showed no obvious signs of trauma. However, detectives discovered his cellphone and the credit card he’d used to check into the hotel were missing.
An autopsy later revealed Manzano died while lying facedown on a pillow, leaving him unable to breathe after he ingested a combination of alcohol and Xanax, Jefferson Parish Coroner Gerry Cvitanovich previously said.
Police said he fell victim to alleged con artist Danette Colbert, also known as the “Bourbon Street Hustler.” She was caught on hotel surveillance entering Manzano’s hotel room around 5 a.m., police said, just hours before he was found dead.
Colbert was arrested the following night, after she used Manzano’s credit card at several different stores in New Orleans. A subsequent search of her home in Slidell, just northeast of the city, also turned up the five cellphones — including one that belonged to Manzano — as well as a stash of narcotics, according to authorities. Police have since described her as a “career criminal” who trawled the French Quarter for unsuspecting men. She would then allegedly ply them with booze and drugs so that she could steal their credit cards and valuables.
White’s attorney, Kevin Boshea, said he was not made aware of the murder charge until he was contacted by a reporter from the Associated Press this week. He added that authorities so far have not yet provided any evidence confirming White was in Louisiana at the time of Manzano’s death.
“I don’t think he’s guilty of the other crimes,” Boshea said, “so how can he be guilty of murder?”
