Danette Colbert, convicted in Jefferson Parish of negligent homicide in the death of a Kansas City journalist in town to cover the Super Bowl last year, has been resentenced to life in prison.
Judge Nancy Miller last month sentenced Colbert to a total of 60 years, but on Wednesday, issued the life sentence, based on Colbert's numerous prior felony convictions.
"The court is going to find that Ms. Colbert is at least a fourth felony offender," the judge said.
A jury found Colbert guilty in the death of Aden Manzano. The 27-year-old was in New Orleans in February 2025 covering Super Bowl LIX featuring the Kansas City Chiefs versus the Philadelphia Eagles.
Prosecutors said Manzano met Colbert in the French Quarter, accompanied him back to his hotel in Kenner, and at some point in the evening slipped him the sedative alprazolam. The Jefferson Parish Coroner's Office said this is what ultimately caused Manzano's death.
Authorities said this was part of a long-running scheme of Colbert's: drugging out-of-town visitors and stealing their belongings after they were knocked out.
The district attorney's office listed six prior convictions for Colbert:
- Computer fraud and illegal transmission of monetary funds in 2024, in New Orleans. She was sentenced to 25 years as a habitual offender as a consequence of those convictions.
- Access device fraud in Jefferson Parish in 2019. She was given probation, which was terminated in 2021.
- Access device fraud and two counts of possession of stolen property in Jefferson Parish in 2017. She was sentenced to three years in prison.
- Purse snatching, burglary of an inhabited dwelling and theft in New Orleans in 2016. Her probation was terminated unsatisfactory the following year.
- Intimidating a witness, second-degree battery, bank fraud, theft and burglary in New Orleans in 2016. Her probation was terminated unsatisfactory the following year.
- Theft in New Orleans in 2013 and received two years of probation.
