Court drops charges against three tied to Liam Payne’s death

Buenos Aires: A court in Argentina has dropped charges of criminal negligence against three indicted in connection with the death of Liam Payne, the former One Direction singer who fell from a third-floor hotel balcony in Buenos Aires last October.

The ruling, obtained by The Associated Press, drops charges against three key defendants: Rogelio Nores, an Argentine businessman with US citizenship who had accompanied Payne during his trip to Buenos Aires; Gilda Martin, the manager of the CasaSur Palermo Hotel where Payne died, and Esteban Grassi, the hotel’s main receptionist.

One Direction (from left) Louis Tomlinson, Niall Horan, Harry Styles, Liam Payne, and Zayn Malik, perform in Melbourne in 2012.Credit: Getty Images

However, former hotel employee Ezequiel David Pereyra and a waiter who had served Payne at a local restaurant, Braian Paiz, remain in custody on charges that they supplied the singer with narcotics in the days, even hours, leading up to his death on October 16.

Because the charge they face carries a sentence of four to 15 years in prison, the court said preventative detention was justified.

A toxicology report from tests taken after an autopsy revealed that Payne, 31, had alcohol, cocaine and a prescription antidepressant in his system when he fell from the balcony.

Prosecutors argued that Nores had failed to comply with his duty of care by leaving Payne alone while inebriated. The court sided with defence attorneys who contended that Nores had no legal, moral or social duty to care for Payne. He was outside the hotel at the time of his friend’s death.

The two hotel employees, Martin and Grassi, were in the hotel lobby that evening when they saw Payne severely intoxicated and decided to take him to his room with the help of others, investigators determined.

Prosecutors said Payne should have been kept away from his hotel room, where a balcony posed a clear danger until he could receive proper medical care.

The court ruled that prosecutors failed to prove how taking Payne to his hotel room “constituted unlawful, unruly, clumsy, reckless, imprudent or negligent conduct”.

Payne’s death drew an outpouring of grief around the world from heartbroken fans of One Direction, among the most successful boy bands of all time.

AP