More than three years before a Louisiana woman was arrested last week in the death of a TV reporter in New Orleans to cover the Super Bowl, a man visiting the city from out of state accused the woman, Danette Colbert, of drugging him, robbing his savings and leaving him for dead.
Colbert, 48, was convicted in October of computer fraud, theft and illegal transmission of monetary funds, and David Butler said in a victim impact statement he shared with NBC News that her “continued disregard for others” should have resulted in a maximum prison sentence.
The judge suspended a combined sentence under which she would have spent years behind bars and instead ordered Colbert to pay restitution and remain on probation for five years, court records show.
“Had the court acted decisively by incarcerating Ms. Colbert or enforcing stricter conditions for her release, it is possible Mr. Manzano would still be alive today,” Butler said about Telemundo reporter Adan Manzano, 27, who was found dead in his hotel room last week.
A spokesperson for Orleans Criminal District Judge Nandi Campbell, who presided over Butler’s case, said Campbell could not comment and referred NBC News to Butler’s victim impact statement, which was read into the record in November.
Lawyers for Colbert in both cases did not respond to requests for comment. Neither did a spokesperson for the Orleans Parish District Attorney’s Office.
Court records show the prosecutor in Butler’s case filed a motion Monday to revoke Colbert’s probation.
Similar accounts reported after death
Colbert has been charged with fraud and other theft-related crimes in connection with Manzano’s death. Police in Kenner, west of New Orleans, said in a statement Monday that investigators uncovered additional evidence and are working with forensic experts and the coroner’s office to determine whether Colbert should be charged with additional crimes.
Results from a toxicology test could take weeks, authorities said.
Since the announcement of Colbert’s arrest last week, people claiming to be victims of Colbert or reporting deaths similar to Manzano’s have reached out to the police department, according to the statement.
In Nevada, court records in two cases show Colbert was charged in 2022 with grand larceny and administering a drug to aid in the commission of a felony. Both cases were dismissed after the victims said they did not want to testify in court, The Associated Press reported.
In Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, Colbert pleaded guilty to fraud in 2019 after authorities accused her of accessing a man’s device and stealing more than $1,000, court records show. In the same parish two years before, Colbert pleaded guilty to three counts of fraud in a similar case.
‘I knew she wouldn’t stop’
Butler, 52, who did not want to share his location for privacy reasons, said he was among those who reached out to the Kenner Police Department after he learned of Manzano’s death. He had been regularly monitoring Colbert online since 2021, he said, “because I knew she wouldn’t stop.”
In November of that year, Butler encountered Colbert while he was in New Orleans renovating a property he owns. After a long day of work, Butler said, he was going out to a French Quarter bar when Colbert and another woman approached him and asked whether he wanted a drink. He agreed, he said, and after he briefly stepped away from their table, he returned, finished his cocktail and quickly started to feel disoriented.
Butler said he took Colbert up on an offer to help him get home.
“She ushered me into some kind of black Suburban that was literally right there,” he said. “And that’s the last thing I remember that night.”
Butler said he came to hours later on a mattress on the floor of the home he was renovating. He said that had no idea how he got there and that his property manager had to repeatedly yell and shake him to wake him.
Butler soon discovered that his phone and wallet were gone, he said. The device’s “Find My iPhone” feature had been shut off, he said, and his credit cards had been used to charge thousands of dollars at stores like Best Buy and Walmart. More than $80,000 that he had stashed away for retirement in a cryptocurrency account was also gone, he said.
Months later, when New Orleans police put out a poster identifying Colbert as a suspect in the case, the police department said she was wanted for the theft of more than $134,000.
“The ordeal,” Butler later said in his victim impact statement, “devastated my life.”
Butler said he did not go to the hospital and does not know what his drink was allegedly spiked with. He regrets that decision, but he said that at the time, he was focused on trying to figure out who had stolen his things.
Butler said he was able to help identify Colbert through the theft of his crypto savings. He searched the unique identifier associated with the account his money had been transferred to — “QueenTX100” — and came across Colbert’s Facebook page, which uses the same name and included a photo of the woman he had met in the French Quarter.
Butler provided those details to police, he said in an interview. His account and allegations track with his victim impact statement that was read in court.
A police spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and the police department did not immediately respond to a public records request for the case.
After Colbert took the case to trial and was convicted, the judge ordered her to pay Butler $50,000 in restitution, with monthly payments of $834 for five years, according to the court records. So far, Butler said, he has not received any money.
In a message to Campbell’s office in December, Butler wrote that he had “grave concerns” about Colbert’s sentence.
“The minimal fines and lack of meaningful incarceration for crimes that could have led to serious injury or loss of life are, quite frankly, an insult to public safety and the justice system,” Butler wrote in a message that he shared with NBC News. “If someone dies due to her actions in the future, their blood will undeniably be on the hands of those who allowed her to escape real accountability today.”
Butler said he did not hear back.
