The woman allegedly caught using a dead Super Bowl reporter’s credit cards has a long history of drugging and robbing men.
Danette Colbert, 48, dubbed the ‘Bourbon Street Hustler’ by New Orleans locals, has a sordid criminal history going back to at least 2012.
KGKC Telemundo Kansas City reporter Adan Manzano, 27, was found dead in his room at the Contempra Inn in Kenner, Louisiana, about 4pm on Wednesday.
A hotel manager found him face-down on his bed after his TV station called for a welfare check after he missed a morning assignment.
Colbert in her previous crimes relentlessly targeted young men out on the town, three wearing Rolex watches that she stole, and seduced and/or drugged them.
Manzano died after a night out during an NFL reporting trip just nine months after his wife Ashleigh, the mother of his young daughter, died in a car crash.
He was seen entering his room with Colbert about 4am that morning, before she left alone just a few minutes later.
She was arrested about 9pm on Thursday after allegedly using his credit cards at several shops, and charged with fraud and property crimes.
KGKC Telemundo Kansas City reporter Adan Manzano, 27, was found dead in his room at the Contempra Inn in Kenner, Louisiana , about 4pm on Wednesday
Danette Colbert, 48, is known as the ‘Bourbon Street Hustler’ by New Orleans locals and has a sordid criminal history going back to at least 2012
Colbert was not charged with a crime directly relating to Manzano’s death and toxicology reports are still pending. He had no obvious signs of trauma.
The episode is eerily similar to numerous other crimes Colbert committed against men she picked up at bars in New Orleans and Las Vegas.
Her first known conviction was from a simple robbery in New Orleans in 2012. She skipped several court dates before eventually pleading guilty to possession of stolen goods, and given two years probation on October 1, 2013.
Then on November 4, 2014, she talked her way into a tourist’s hotel room and left with $100 cash, his credit cards, and a $4,000 Rolex watch.
Colbert met the 35-year-old man on Bourbon Street at 4am and ‘inquired if he wanted to party with her’ – to which he agreed.
He took her to a convenience store to withdraw cash and eventually to his hotel room, only to wake up at 10am to find his property gone.
The plot thickened after police laid a trap at a Winn Dixie grocery store she where had used her victim’s credit card 20 times.
Detectives gave the manager a wanted poster with CCTV images of her wearing a blonde wig in the hotel, and he called them when she arrived on November 16.
Manzano was the only one to die, meeting her on his NFL reporting trip just none months after his wife Ashleigh, mother of his young daughter, died in a car crash
Colbert was arrested about 9pm on Thursday after allegedly using his credit cards at several shops, and charged with fraud and property crimes
But police were too slow to catch her, and she returned three hours later with two accomplices to take revenge.
‘You called the police,’ she yelled at the manager while he was serving another customer, then the trio beat him in the head with a blunt object.
Colbert was finally arrested, with charges of second-degree battery and witness intimidation added. All together, she racked up $3,584.86 on the stolen cards.
She received a sentence of eight years of probation and a five-year suspended sentence after pleading guilty in May 2015.
Colbert didn’t stay out of trouble for long. Next, she approached a man who was drinking at a bar with friend on Bourbon Street on November 30, 2016.
This time assisted by two other women, she again propositioned the man who woke up in his hotel room missing his phone, two credit cards, and Rolex watch.
She was again undone by an observant manager, who saw her buy $1,500 worth of gift cards at a Walmart Neighborhood Market in Kenner.
Another $105.45 was swindled when she bought paper towels and got a cash back.
This time Colbert was jailed for three years in May 2017, but was out of jail in time to run up another tab on a credit card that wasn’t hers in May 2018.
Colbert was caught in 2014 when detectives gave the manager a wanted poster with CCTV images of her wearing a blonde wig in the hotel, and he called them when she arrived
Manzano was seen entering his room with Colbert about 4am that morning, before she left alone just a few minutes later
Her crime was much easier that time, as she simply found a lost credit card at a Bourbon Street strip club and charged $3,000 at a Sam’s Club.
She and two other women then tried to buy gift cards plus a $3,000 cash back at a Walmart in Gretna, Louisiana, and arrested on the spot.
For that crime, she got five years probation – despite repeatedly breaking earlier probations.
Her next arrest was in May 2022 over a crime earlier that year on January 17.
Colbert picked up a man who thought he was about to have a threesome with her and another woman at the Wynn Casino in Las Vegas.
Instead, he woke up with a bloody nose missing $50,000 cash, a $30,000 Rolex watch, $11,000 in casino chips, his iPhone 11, a Louis Vuitton luggage bag worth $5,000 and a satchel valued at $2,000.
He told police he made drinks for the women in his room, but gave one of them $200 to leave because she was rude.
The last thing he remembered was walking the woman to the door, and told police he believed he was drugged. CCTV showed Colbert leave minutes after the first woman.
‘Colbert is seen leaving [the victim’s] room alone carrying a large black bag,’ police said at the time.
Colbert was arrested in May 2022 after robbing a man in his hotel room at the Wynn Casino in Las Vegas
Wynn spotted the women at the casino again on January 29 and called police, leading to her being interrogated, and eventually charged.
While on bail for this crime, Colbert drugged and robbed yet another man in Sin City – this time at the Encore casino on July 9.
Yet again, a man invited her and another woman back to his hotel room and they started drinking.
‘While sitting on the couch, one of the females grabbed [his] head, forced it back, while the other female poured an unidentified liquid down his throat,’ police said.
‘[He] described the liquid to smell like tequila but was unsure.’
Soon he became dizzy and realized he had been drugged, and the women took advantage of the situation to demand money.
Through his stupor, he refused – so they attacked him until he was able to force them out of his room.
Next morning he woke up and found his Audemars Piguet Royal Oak watch worth $60,000, $1,500 in casino chips and his credit card were missing.
He checked his credit card statement and saw they already racked up a bill.
Another wanted poster for Colbert in New Orleans in 2021
Police arrested both women days later when they returned to the Las Vegas strip, and Colbert claimed the man gave her $1,100 in chips to dance for him.
‘These are the same casino chips [the victim] reported stolen after being drugged,’ police said.
‘Surveillance video shows Colbert cashing the chips at the cashier’s cage of the casino.’
Again, she was let out on bail in time to speed down Las Vegas Boulevard on August 12, 2022, at 97mph in a 25mph school zone.
‘When the lights are flashing for a school zone to reduce your speed, it’s not a suggestion!’ police wrote on Twitter with a photo of her black Mustang being towed.
‘If YOU choose to drive 97MPH in a 25MPH school zone, YOU choose to take a ride to Clark County Detention Center!’
Despite being seen weaving in and out of traffic, Colbert insisted to police that she did nothing wrong when they pulled her over.
The police report showed Colbert told the officer he would have to prove she was speeding, and that he only pulled her over because she was black.
Colbert was arrested for speeding down Las Vegas Boulevard on August 12, 2022, at 97mph in a 25mph school zone
Police mocked her crime in a Twitter post showing her black Mustang being towed
New Orleans locals were stunned that the notorious Colbert was arrested in Las Vegas instead of being in jail.
‘How is she out on bail… Holy shit… In New Orleans they call her the Bourbon street Hustler,’ one wrote online in 2022 after seeing a police report.
Finally, record from last year showed Colbert’s crimes spread to a third state – her home jurisdiction of Tennessee.
Colbert was arrested after police saw her attacking a man outside the Downtown Nashville Moxy last June.
As the officers approached, they saw her follow the man while yelling and pushing him until they we able to intervene.
Police said Colbert was visibly drunk and stank of alcohol. She told them she met the man while bar hopping on Broadway.
She was booked for disorderly conduct and public intoxication and released on a $1,000 bond.
Colbert is so far only being charged the same kind of property crimes as her previous arrests in the Manzano case, Kenner deputy police chief Mark McCormick said.
They include bank fraud, computer fraud, illegal transmission of monetary funds, access device fraud, and purse snatching.
‘Obviously, there are allegations in [Colbert’s] past criminal history that make us consider that. But we don’t have anything at this point,’ McCormick said.
Manzano is a Mexico native, but went to college at Kansas State before taking a local job
Manzano (seen this week in New Orleans) was described by his employers as a ‘rising star’
Manzano graduated from Kansas State University and joined the Chiefs’ beat at the beginning of the 2024 season as a sideline reporter.
He was covering his third straight Super Bowl, having also been in Arizona and Las Vegas before this month’s visit to New Orleans.
On Monday night, Manzano posted photos from the Super Bowl’s opening night at the Superdome, where he was on duty interviewing the players.
He was also a regular soccer reporter, covering Sporting Kansas City, and of Big 12 basketball and the Kansas Jayhawks.
In New Orleans this week, he had already interviewed Travis Kelce, Patrick Mahomes and other Chiefs players.
