Just two months after Liam Payne’s tragic death, the Argentina prosecutor’s office announced new charges against five people, including the singer’s friend.
CasaSur Palermo Hotel manager Gilda Martin, receptionist Esteban Grassi, two employees, as well as the former One Direction singer’s friend Rogelio “Roger” Nores, have all been charged with manslaughter. Judge Laura Bruniard said they contributed to “creating a risk that resulted in Payne’s death.”
So what exactly did they do? According to the prosecutor’s office, Ezequiel Pereyra, a hotel employee, and Braian Paiz, a waiter at a local restaurant, have been accused of supplying drugs to the British performer, and they’ve been charged with that. The two were remanded in custody, according to the press release. If convicted, they face four to 15 years in prison. Hotel employee Pereyra is accused of being paid to deliver cocaine to Payne on October 15 and October 16.
As for waiter Paiz, whom Payne met at a restaurant in the Puerto Madero neighborhood, he was allegedly paid to deliver cocaine to the star on October 14, throughout the day. Payne’s friend Nores is accused of manslaughter for allegedly failing to fulfill “his duties of care, assistance and aid” to the singer by “abandoning him to his fate, knowing that he was incapable of caring for himself [due to] multiple previous addictions — to alcohol and cocaine.” Prosecutors strongly noted that Nores had “full knowledge” of Payne’s “intoxication, vulnerability and helplessness.”
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As we previously reported, the former One Direction singer fell from his room’s balcony on the third floor of his hotel in the upscale neighborhood of Palermo in the Argentine capital on October 16. His autopsy stated he died from multiple injuries and external bleeding.
Liam Payne was laid to rest on Wednesday, November 20, 2024, at St Mary’s Church in Amersham, Buckinghamshire, England. The private funeral was attended by all of his former bandmates.
A statement was released at the time saying, “His legacy will live on through the timeless work he created, and he will forever be remembered as an icon of his generation.”