Liam Payne: Close friend among five charged over One Direction star’s drug death
Five people have been charged over the death of Liam Payne after the One Direction star plunged to his death from a hotel balcony in Buenos Aires.
Local media have reported two of those charged, former waiter Braian Paiz, 24, who has previously admitted to taking drugs with Payne, and an employee of the CasaSur hotel where Payne died, Ezequiel Pereyra, would be prosecuted for supplying narcotics for payment, which carries a sentence of 4 to 15 years in prison.
They are accused of supplying Payne with drugs on two occasions, according to Argentinian newspaper infobae.
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Payne’s close friend, businessman Rogelio ‘Roger’ Nores, has also been charged with negligent homicide, which is related to his alleged “abandonment of a person followed by death and facilitation of narcotics”.
Mr Nores has previously protested his innocence, saying: “I never abandoned Liam, I went to his hotel three times that day and left 40 minutes before this happened.
“There were over 15 people at the hotel lobby chatting and joking with him when I left. I could never have imagined something like this would happen.
“I wasn’t Liam’s manager. He was just my very dear friend.”
The hotel manager who was present on the day of Payne’s death, Gilda Martin, was charged with manslaughter as was another hotel manager, Esteban Grassi.
All five have been summoned to appear in court.
Payne had checked into the CasaSur Palermo hotel on October 13 before falling to his death from a third floor balcony on October 16. He was 31-years-old.
An autopsy determined he had died due to multiple traumatic injuries, while toxicology tests revealed he had alcohol, cocaine and anti-depressants in his system.
Payne was reported as behaving erratically in the lobby of the hotel, prompting an employee to call emergency services believing he was under the influence of drugs and a risk to himself.
After his death, police discovered Payne’s hotel room had been smashed up and a drugs were found on a desk in the room.
“Everything indicates that the musician was alone when the fall occurred, and was going through some kind of episode due to substance abuse,” the prosecutor’s office said at the time.
“City police who surveyed the scene found substances inside the room that at first glance - and pending confirmation from the experts — would be narcotics and alcoholic beverages, as well as several destroyed objects and furniture,” it added.
Payne’s death sparked an outpouring of grief around the world with his former bandmates leading tributes.
He rose to fame alongside Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Zayn Malik and Louis Tomlinson as part of One Direction — a boy band that had its genesis in reality TV singing contest The X Factor.
After the band shared a joint statement on Payne’s death, Styles shared his own photo of Payne on tour during their One Direction days with a black heart emoji.
He wrote: “I am truly devastated by Liam’s passing.”
“His greatest joy was making other people happy, and it was an honour to be alongside him as he did it.
“Liam lived wide open, with his heart on his sleeve, he had an energy for life that was infectious. He was warm, supportive and incredibly loving.”
