A woman charged with second-degree murder for the death of a Super Bowl TV reporter received a 25-year sentence for a separate case on Thursday.
Danette Colbert, 48, was earlier handed a suspended sentence last year by an Orleans Parish judge following her conviction for theft and fraud.
The office of Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill effectively argued that Colbert, who has numerous previous felony convictions for fraud, should face a stricter sentence as a habitual offender.
Colbert had been on probation when police arrested her for allegedly stealing the cellphone and bank cards of a reporter found dead in his hotel room on Feb. 5.
He was in town to cover Super Bowl LIX weekend in New Orleans.
Adan Manzano, a 27-year-old reporter and television anchor based in Kansas City, Missouri, suffocated while lying face down on a pillow.
Alcohol and the depressant Xanax were later found in his system.
Colbert was captured on security footage leaving Manzano’s hotel room in the New Orleans suburb of Kenner, police said.
Colbert and another person still face second-degree murder charges in Jefferson Parish, bordering New Orleans.
“The evidence was overwhelming that this woman was a serial fraudster and took advantage of multiple tourists and innocent people over many years in the French Quarter,” Murrill said in an emailed statement.
Colbert’s attorney Jerome Matthews did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Stavros Panagoulopoulos, the lawyer representing Colbert in the second-degree murder case, declined to comment.
