An Argentine judge accepts charges against five people related to the death of the One Direction singer Liam Payne to move forward
The Argentinian Public Prosecutor’s Office announced on Monday that Judge Laura Bruniard, through a decision of December 27, allowed the prosecution of five people to proceed. The trial date will be set in January, according to sources.
Among the defendants are a hotel employee and a waitress who allegedly supplied Payne with narcotics before he was shot to death from the hotel room’s third-floor balcony. Hotel Casa Sur In Palermo, Buenos Aires, October 16.
The hotel manager and receptionist who were on duty when Payne died have also been charged with murder.
Liam Payne British Vogue And Tiffany & Co. Celebrate Fashion And Film Party 2023 at Annabel’s in London on 19 February 2023.
Dave Bennett/Getty Images
ABC News has reached out to the hotel for comment.
Payne’s friend, Rogério Nores, who allegedly traveled to Argentina with the singer and allegedly stayed at the hotel and left before taking the singer to the hotel room, has been charged with murder. Nores was previously charged with desertion followed by death before that charge was dropped, prosecutors said.
Nores, a dual citizen of the U.S. and Argentina, is barred from leaving the country, a police source and a prosecutor’s office source told ABC News.
The hotel staff and waiter charged with “supplying narcotics” could face between four and 15 years in prison if convicted. Bruniard ordered them to be jailed before trial, and they must pay 5 million pesos in bail — about $5,000 — or face forfeiture of the same amount, according to the prosecutor’s office.
Nores, the hotel manager and the receptionist will not serve jail time before the trial, but must pay 50 million pesos — about $48,000 — in bail, prosecutors said.
Payne, who was 31 when he died, had various substances in his system when he died, according to sources. These substances included “pink cocaine,” a recreational drug that is usually a mixture of methamphetamine, ketamine, MDMA, and other drugs, as well as cocaine, benzodiazepines, and crack cocaine. A makeshift aluminum tube for ingesting drugs was also found in his hotel room, sources said.
A preliminary autopsy report also revealed that Payne had suffered “multiple trauma” and “internal and external bleeding”.
British singer Liam Payne hits the red carpet as he arrives at the 2019 BRIT Awards in London on February 20, 2019.
Rendering by Akmen/AFP via Getty Images
Bruniard, who allowed charges against the five people to go forward in a Dec. 27 ruling, said prosecutors’ evidence showed Payne “couldn’t take care of herself” in the moments before her death.
Bruniard also cited “credible” hotel security camera footage in which she said Payne was in a “vulnerable state” when she was confronted by the hotel manager and receptionist before being escorted to her room.
The judge said the decision by the hotel manager and receptionist to “take Payne (in that condition) to room 310 where he was staying” created a “legally unacceptable risk to his life”.
“Payne’s consciousness was altered and there was a balcony in the room,” Bruniard said. “It was necessary to leave him in a safe place and with company until the doctor arrived.”
Bruniard said he didn’t believe the hotel manager and receptionist acted maliciously in Payne’s death, “they were careless in taking him to the room.”
Nores has denied any involvement in Payne’s death, saying MailOnline in a statement last month, “I never abandoned Liam.”
“I went to his hotel three times that day and left 40 minutes before this happened,” he said at the time. “There were over 15 people in the lobby of the hotel chatting and joking with him when I left. I never would have imagined anything like this would happen.”
It was Payne take a rest at a private service on November 20. His family and friends — including One Direction bandmates Louis Tomlinson, Zayn Malik, Niall Horan and Harry Styles — attended the service in the UK, where Payne. was born and his musical career began.
