Louisiana authorities accused a second suspect of murder for the death of a television reporter who had traveled to New Orleans to cover the Super Bowl.
Adan Manzano, a 27 -year -old reporter and presenter in Kansas City, Missouri for Telemundo, was found dead on February five in his hotel room in Kenner’s suburb, in New Orleans. A woman seen in a security video leaving Manzano’s room was subsequently accused of second degree murder and stealing her credit and cell phone cards.
Kenner police announced Monday that an accomplice, Rickey White, 34, was also accused of second degree murder. White was arrested in Florida in March for charges of theft and fraud related to the death of Manzano, and then extradited to Louisiana.
Kenner police said in a press release that the accusation of murder against White resulted from “continuous investigation efforts”, but the authorities did not give more details.
Kenner’s Chief of Police, Keith Conley, said at a press conference on March 18 that the investigators had linked White with Danette Colbert, the suspicious woman accused in the case, based on “correspondence and round trip information. So we believe they were working hand in hand with each other.”
Kevin Boshea, White’s lawyer, said he had not been informed of the murder accusation before an Associated Press reporter called him Monday.
“I don’t think it’s guilty of other crimes,” said Boshea, “So how can it be guilty of murder?”
Boshea said he pressed the police during a preliminary hearing on the charges of theft and fraud last month to show evidence that White was in the New Orleans area when Manzano died, but they did not present any.
A Colbert lawyer said the police were doing “assumptions and conjectures” to link her with the death of Manzano.
According to Louisiana’s law, a subject can be accused of second -degree murder for distributing drugs that cause death or committing certain crimes, including robbery, which result in someone’s death.
An autopsy found that Manzano died face down on a pillow and unable to breathe after ingesting a combination of alcohol and the Xanax depressor, he told reporters in March the Forensic of the Jefferson County, Gerry Cvitanovich.
Police said a hotel security video where Manzano showed him already showed him Colbert entering his room together on the day of his death. The images showed Colbert out without him about an hour later. The authorities have said that Colbert then used the Manzano credit card to make a purchase in a gas station in New Orleans and in several stores in the area.
The police have also said that Manzano’s medical records showed no recipes for Xanax or other depressants, and that they recovered the drug from Colbert’s house.
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Bynum reported from Savannah, Georgia.
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This story was translated from English by an AP editor with the help of a generative artificial intelligence tool.
