Danette Colbert and Rickey White sentenced in case involving reporter Adan Manzano’s death

Danette Colbert and Rickey White were sentenced to 60 and 45 years in prison, respectively, on Monday in a Louisiana case involving the death of Telemundo reporter Adan Manzano. Colbert’s sentence covers racketeering and negligent homicide; White’s is for racketeering. The Jefferson Parish District Attorney’s Office says Colbert’s new terms will run after a 25-year sentence she is already serving in a separate case.

Judge Nancy Miller imposed 50 years for Colbert’s racketeering conviction and 10 years for negligent homicide, ordering the terms to run consecutively. White received 45 years for racketeering. A jury returned the convictions on 17 September, according to the district attorney’s office. Local broadcaster WVUE reported that the jury acquitted White of manslaughter.

How the sentences fit together

The 60-year sentence announced on 28 September is separate from Colbert’s existing 25-year Orleans Parish term for fraud and theft. Miller ordered the new sentences to run consecutively to that term, the Jefferson Parish District Attorney’s Office said. The stated terms therefore add up to 85 years. The available accounts do not establish how prison authorities will calculate Colbert’s eventual release eligibility or how much time she will serve.

The district attorney’s office says Colbert is due back before Miller on 14 October for a proceeding under Louisiana’s habitual-offender law, where she could receive additional prison time. That hearing has yet to take place, and no additional term from it has been imposed. White’s 45-year sentence stems from his racketeering conviction; the local report’s account of his manslaughter acquittal is a separate part of the verdict.

Manzano’s death and the prosecution case

According to the district attorney’s account, Colbert met Manzano in New Orleans’ French Quarter and accompanied him to his hotel. Prosecutors said she gave him alprazolam and that the drug, together with alcohol, caused his death. Those details describe the prosecution’s account of the encounter; the convictions reported by the district attorney’s office were for negligent homicide and racketeering in Colbert’s case, and racketeering in White’s.

Prosecutors described a longer-running scheme in which visitors to New Orleans tourist areas were drugged in hotel rooms and had belongings stolen. WVUE reported that prosecutors alleged the operation dated to 2012. The district attorney’s office identified Christian Anderson as a co-defendant who testified against Colbert and White. Manzano was described by prosecutors as the group’s last known victim.

Family testimony at sentencing

Manzano’s parents addressed the sentencing hearing remotely and urged Miller to impose the maximum sentences, according to the district attorney’s office. His father called it ‘a sad day for me and my family’ and asked the court to give the defendants the sentences they deserved. The office said two of Manzano’s cousins also gave victim-impact testimony.

Manzano’s mother told the court she was not ready to face the defendants in person and that nothing the court did could bring her son back, WVUE reported. The district attorney’s office said Manzano’s wife had died in a car collision months before his death, leaving their young daughter without either parent. The family’s statements described the loss behind a case whose sentencing now leaves one further hearing scheduled for Colbert.

WVUE reported that Miller told Colbert her conduct was ‘quite alarming’ and that she had been indifferent to its impact. The judge’s remarks followed the jury’s verdict and preceded the announced prison terms. The district attorney’s office has set out the 14 October proceeding as the next court date, but its outcome and any effect on Colbert’s sentence remain unknown.