A Jefferson Parish jury on Thursday (Sept. 17) found a prostitute and her pimp guilty of being part of a criminal enterprise in which they targeted seemingly affluent men in New Orleans tourism spots and drugged them in hotel rooms during their trysts before stealing their belongings as they slept it off.
Their last known victim was Adan Manzano, who was in town to cover the Super Bowl last year when he met prostitute Danette Colbert in the French Quarter and later died in his Kenner hotel room from the narcotics she gave them.
Colbert, 49, of Slidell, and Rickey White, 35, of Harvey, were convicted as charged of racketeering. Both were also charged with manslaughter in Manzano’s death. Jurors found Colbert guilty of negligent homicide, a lesser charge, and White not guilty of manslaughter.
They and others were engaged in a years-long scheme in which Colbert and other prostitutes lurked in New Orleans’ tourist areas in search of men whom they could lure to their rooms. Along the way, they secretly provided their unwitting victims with sedatives that would cause them to fall asleep. They then would steal their cell phones, credit cards and other items of value, including pricy watches.
Colbert “has been doing this for years, and she has not been doing it alone,” Assistant District Attorney Jenny Voss told jurors in closing argument Thursday in describing the racketeering charge. “Enterprise, a group of people associated in fact. Danette Colbert was not doing this by herself. Danette Colbert was doing this with Rickey White (and others). They were not just pals. They were partners. All of them together had a separate role.”
White, the pimp known as “King Rickey,” played a central role in the enterprise. “Rickey White was the one they went to for instruction,” Assistant DA Voss said. “He was the one they went to with the (stolen) property. He was the one who helped them get into the phones and get the money. And he disbursed it from there.”
Manzano, 27, of Topeka, Kan., was a widower and the father of a young child. He was working for the Spanish-language Telemundo network when he was dispatched to New Orleans to cover the Super Bowl. On Feb. 4, 2025, he and his colleagues partied in the French Quarter’s tourist areas where he met Colbert. She convinced the seemingly intoxicated man to take her to his hotel room in Kenner.
At one point, after drinking tequila with Manzano, Colbert gave him alprazolam, a central nervous system suppressant used to treat anxiety and other conditions and is known by the brand name Xanax. Kenner police, conducting a wellness check on the afternoon of Feb. 5, 2025 in response to a 911 call from Manzano’s colleagues, found his body face-down in his hotel bed. He had been dead for an estimated eight to 10 hours.
“Ladies and gentlemen, I wish I could tell you something different, but the truth is, there is nothing anybody in this room can do to bring Adan Manzano back to his family,” Assistant District Attorney Brendan Bowen told jurors in closing argument Thursday, urging them to convict Colbert and White. “What you can do is make his death mean something. Let Adan Manzano be the last victim that Rickey White and Danette Colbert ever get to target.”
Toxicology tests done during the autopsy found that Manzano had ingested benzodiazepines, which is a class of suppressants that includes alprazolam. Alprazolam was one of the choice of drugs that Colbert and her cohorts called “knock-out” and were used to incapacitate their victims. Additionally, Manzano’s blood-alcohol content was 0.232 percent, about three times higher than the legal limit to drive in Louisiana.
The Jefferson Parish Coroner’s Office concluded that the combination of the drug, the alcohol and “positional asphyxia” caused Manzano’s death. In effect, the alprazolam, in concert with the alcohol, rendered him unconscious and unable to move, meaning he suffocated with his face buried in a pillow.
Following her arrest on Feb. 7, 2025, Colbert admitted to Kenner Police Department detectives that they drank straight tequila that morning. She denied giving him drugs or stealing from him. However, detectives found an unmarked bottle of alprazolam on the nightstand in her Slidell bedroom, next to the key to Manzano’s hotel room and a receipt she obtained after using one of Manzano’s credit cards. Manzano was not known to use alprazolam and had no other drugs in his system.
The investigation into Manzano’s death by Kenner police, Louisiana State Police and the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office Digital Forensics Unit yielded tens of thousands of text messages, images and videos that showed how Colbert, White and others had engaged in a criminal enterprise in which they targeted men.
In one of the messages sent six months before Manzano died, they acknowledged that someone could die from their activities.
“They knew it,” Assistant DA Voss told jurors of the potential lethality. “They knew it months before it happened. And they did it anyway, because this was a big weekend for them.”
Kenner police also obtained security video from Project NOLA, a nonprofit that operates an array of crime cameras in the French Quarter. Videos showed Manzano and his colleagues partying, and the videos show Manzano with his arm around Colbert at about 3 a.m.
The last Project NOLA video found during the investigation shows Colbert and Manzano on Bourbon Street at Canal Street at 3:14 a.m. Seven minutes later, Colbert texted a personal identification number to White, presumably meaning she had already gotten a PIN number belonging to Manzano.
Police also obtained video of Manzano and Colbert arriving at Manzano’s hotel in the 2700 block of Idaho Avenue. Videos show Colbert leaving, purchasing drinks at a nearby convenience store and returning to the room. None show Manzano leaving.
Immediately after she left Manzano’s hotel room a final time, Colbert went to a convenience store in the 1600 block of Tulane Avenue in New Orleans. She used one of Manzano’s credit cards to purchase a charger for Manzano’s cell phone, which she also stole.
She also began texting and calling White after leaving Manzano’s hotel room.
Colbert made numerous videos of herself, beginning while she was still in Manzano’s hotel room, where she practiced using the swipe code to open Manzano’s cell phone and tried to log into his bank accounts on his cell phone. She did so “while he lay dying or dead,” Assistant DA Voss told jurors.
She recorded more videos of herself as she drove away from the hotel and into New Orleans, singing and boasting about her successes and her ability to pay her $2,000 monthly rent. She also boasted about “Rick,” meaning White, her pimp.
“She is dripping with pride as she speaks about her abilities as a thief and her pride in her relationship with Rickey White,” Assistant DA Bowen told jurors. “She’s practically swearing fealty to him over the internet, because he’s ‘King Rickey.’”
Among the other videos, she recorded herself marveling over the information that Manzano had stored on the cell phone related to his coverage of the Super Bowl, including the hotels where the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles were staying and where the teams were practicing. She also had photographs of Manzano’s driver’s license.
The defense attorneys described their clients as “petty thieves” and “schmucks on Bourbon Street,” but denied they plied Manzano with alprazolam or that there was an organized criminal enterprise needed to prove racketeering.
Jurors this week heard testimony from victims of this scheme, including a man who said he lost about $100,000 because of an encounter with Colbert. Louisiana State Police, using information obtained from the thousands of text messages between Colbert, White and others, investigated to find other victims of the criminal enterprise.
A third codefendant charged with Colbert and White in the criminal enterprise, Christian Dean Anderson, 35, of Slidell, entered into a plea agreement with the District Attorney’s Office and testified against the duo this week, laying out details of how the criminal enterprise operated and testifying that he had seen Colbert put drugs in victims’ drinks.
Anderson pleaded guilty to simple robbery and access device fraud. Judge Nancy Miller of the 24th Judicial District Court sentenced Anderson to six years in prison for each count. The judge ran the sentences concurrently and noted he gets credit for the year he already has been in custody. In connection with his guilty plea, Anderson told Judge Miller that he let Colbert use his car, which she used to drive Manzano to his hotel.
Jurors deliberated for 5 ½ hours before returning with their verdicts just after 6 p.m. Judge Miller is scheduled to sentence Colbert and White on Sept. 28.
Assistant District Attorneys Jenny Voss, Brendan Bowen and Mallory Grefer prosecuted the case.