\n<\/p>\n
A Louisiana jury convicted a woman of negligent homicide on Thursday in the death of a Telemundo TV reporter who had been visiting New Orleans to cover the Super Bowl, according to the Jefferson parish district attorney\u2019s office.<\/p>\n
Danette Colbert, 49, was also convicted of racketeering, as was her accomplice, 35-year-old Rickey White, according to Paul Purpura, a spokesperson for the district attorney\u2019s office. Racketeering carries up to a 50-year sentence in Louisiana.<\/p>\n
The two had spent years carrying out a criminal enterprise that drew in victims in the city\u2019s historic French Quarter with the promise of sex, then used drugs to knock them out and drain their bank accounts using stolen cards and phones, according to prosecutors.<\/p>\n
Colbert was the last person seen leaving the room of Adan Manzano, a 27-year-old reporter and anchor for Telemundo based in Kansas City, Missouri, who was found dead in his hotel room on 5 February in the New Orleans suburb of Kenner days before the Super Bowl last year.<\/p>\n
An autopsy revealed that Manzano died lying face down on a pillow, unable to breathe after ingesting a combination of alcohol and the depressant Xanax.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors had sought to convict both Colbert and White on the charge of manslaughter, which carries up to a 40-year sentence. White was found not guilty.<\/p>\n
Colbert\u2019s negligent homicide conviction carries a maximum sentence of 10 years, Jenny Voss, Jefferson parish assistant district attorney, told reporters. She said the jury had carefully weighed all the evidence and she respected its decision.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are pleased with the verdict \u2013 we knew this was a difficult case going in,\u201d she told reporters. \u201cJustice was served.\u201d<\/p>\n
Manzano\u2019s family was unable to attend the trial, Voss added. Steve Downing, the general manager of Telemundo Kansas City where Manzano had worked, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n
Stavros Panagoulopoulos, Colbert\u2019s attorney, and Leo Caillier III, White\u2019s attorney, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n
Colbert, whose arrest record included allegations of drugging men and theft, later used Manzano\u2019s credit card at a New Orleans gas station and other stores in the area.<\/p>\n
In court documents, prosecutors described Colbert as acting under the guise of a \u201cprostitute or \u2018party girl\u2019\u201d while White served as her \u201cpimp,\u201d who provided security and helped find and rob victims.<\/p>\n
Another man who assisted Colbert and White with their criminal ring, Christian Anderson, 35, testified against them in exchange for reducing his charges to simple robbery and access device fraud, according to Purpura. Court records show he pleaded guilty to both charges and received a six-year prison sentence.<\/p>\n
Anderson \u201cis relieved to be able to put this behind him\u201d, said his attorney, Bradley Phillips. Anderson has been cooperating with law enforcement since his arrest and \u201chas clearly demonstrated remorse for his past behavior\u201d.<\/p>\n
In court documents, prosecutors revealed extensive text messages dating back years among Colbert, White and Anderson, discussing using drugs to incapacitate and rob victims.<\/p>\n
Colbert and White are scheduled to be sentenced in late September, according to the Jefferson parish district attorney\u2019s office.<\/p>\n
Manzano\u2019s death came a year after his wife died in a car accident. The couple left behind a toddler daughter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A Louisiana jury convicted a woman of negligent homicide on Thursday in the death of a Telemundo TV reporter who had been visiting New Orleans to cover the Super Bowl, according to the Jefferson parish district attorney\u2019s office. Danette Colbert, 49, was also convicted of racketeering, as was her accomplice, 35-year-old Rickey White, according to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":52292,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[13342,376,21614,1846,848,25331,14936,668],"class_list":{"0":"post-52291","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-crime-justice","8":"tag-convicts","9":"tag-death","10":"tag-homicide","11":"tag-jury","12":"tag-louisiana","13":"tag-negligent","14":"tag-reporter","15":"tag-woman"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=52291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52291\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/52292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=52291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=52291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=52291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}