3 days ago
9
A man who survived being drugged and robbed of more than $134,000 by a woman linked to the death of a television sports journalist covering the recent Super Bowl in New Orleans said he wants “to see her go to jail for as long as she can” after she was let off with probation in his case.
David Butler, 52, also said he had tried to warn both the public and the courthouse that handled his case against Danette Colbert that she might “end up killing someone” if left unchecked.
But, with authorities now working to confirm whether she fatally drugged reporter Adan Manzano before he was found dead and robbed in his hotel near New Orleans, he has been left to rue that those attempted admonitions were, evidently, fruitless.
“I believe she’s very dangerous,” Butler said in an interview. “I want to see her locked up for the rest of her life” if she killed Manzano, he added, though she could still be bound for prison in connection with probation violations.
Butler’s retelling of his costly encounter with Colbert during a night out on New Orleans’ famous Bourbon Street in the fall of 2021 came less than two weeks after Manzano’s death.
Surveillance camera images released by police showed Manzano and Colbert together on Bourbon Street before they walked into his room at a hotel near New Orleans’s airport in Kenner, Louisiana, during the early morning of 5 February. Colbert eventually left alone. Hotel staff found Manzano dead after he missed a meeting about his work for the Spanish-language television channel Telemundo Kansas City, which would be chronicling that city’s football team, the Chiefs, playing the Philadelphia Eagles in the Super Bowl at New Orleans’ Caesars Superdome on 9 February.
Investigators later arrested Colbert, 48, on allegations that she had stolen the credit card Manzano had used to check in to his hotel along with his cellphone. They also began theorizing that Colbert may have drugged Manzano, 26, before his death because of news stories documenting allegations that she had drugged and robbed men in Las Vegas, though the results of tests showing which substances may have been in the late reporter’s body remained pending Friday.
Those test results could lead to Colbert being charged directly with Manzano’s death. Nonetheless, in the meantime, international news coverage of Manzano’s death prompted Butler to come forward in the media and describe what he endured when he, too, had met Colbert on Bourbon.
He said he had been in the city from out of town renovating a property he owns and had gone out to Bourbon Street to unwind on the evening of 5 November 2021. Late into the night, Colbert and another woman accompanied Butler into a bar, where they shared drinks. He “started feeling woozy” unusually quickly, as police later wrote in a sworn statement filed in court, and he decided to head home.
As he climbed into a cab, Colbert got in and said: “Let me get you home safe.” Then she accompanied him to the property he was renovating, court documents said. Butler’s last recollection of the night was walking into the home. His next memory was being woken by his leasing agent and realizing that his gold ring, watch, cellphone and wallet were gone.
More than $80,000 in cryptocurrency that he had been counting on for his retirement was missing, too. His credit card had been used to charge thousands of dollars at retailers.
Because he was focused on finding out who had robbed him, Butler said he did not go to the hospital to see what may have been put in his drink.
Police said they eventually identified Colbert as Butler’s thief because she had been associated with the name of the digital cloud account to which his crypto savings was transferred: “QueenTX100.” Authorities charged her with crimes including theft and fraud, at one point publishing a news release about the case.
after newsletter promotion
Butler shared that release on social media, adding: “She is going to end up killing someone.”
Colbert was eventually convicted at trial. Butler hoped she would receive a stiff punishment: not only had he submitted a statement to the court outlining how Colbert’s actions had “devastated [his] life”, but also, in early 2022, she had been accused of stealing $100,000 in cash, jewelry, upscale luggage and casino chips from the Las Vegas hotel room of another man whom she had allegedly drugged.
Furthermore, while out on bond in the Las Vegas case, she had allegedly drugged another man there and stolen his $60,000 watch, casino chips and credit cards after he invited her to his hotel room.
Prosecutors in Las Vegas ultimately dismissed both of those cases, according to court records. However, a third case from 2022 in Las Vegas remained unresolved, centering on allegations that she had driven through a school area at nearly 100mph, landing her charges of speeding, among other offenses.
Butler did not see Colbert get the punishment he had hoped for. She was put on probation for five years and ordered to pay $50,000 in restitution – at monthly payments of $834 for the duration of her sentence.
According to Butler, Colbert has not paid him a cent of restitution. He submitted a letter to the courthouse where Colbert was convicted that asked: “Why was someone with such a history of endangering lives given yet another chance? 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.”
It was a little more than two months after Butler sent his letter that Manzano – a widowed father of a toddler – was found dead, and Colbert was arrested again. Among her numerous other legal issues confronting her in various jurisdictions, prosecutors in Butler’s case by Monday had filed a motion to revoke Colbert’s probation and send her to prison.
Butler on Friday said all he could hope for now would be for his case and Colbert’s to spark a meaningful dialogue about the need for people with histories like hers to face substantial consequences before it’s too late.
“I was afraid she would strike again and again and again,” Butler said. “And … I guess I would like to see some reform.”
