Judge allows charges to be laid against 5 people in connection with Liam Payne’s death

An Argentinian judge has allowed charges to be brought against five people suspected of being involved in the death of One Direction singer Liam Payne.

The Argentine prosecutor’s office said in a statement on Monday that Judge Laura Bruniard made a decision on December 27 to allow charges to be filed against the five people. in January.

Those charged include a hotel employee and a waiter who allegedly provided drugs to Payne, who then walked away from a hotel room in Palermo, Buenos Aires on October 16 at the Casa Sur Hotel. He fell from the balcony and died.

The hotel manager and receptionist who were on duty at the time of Payne’s death have also been charged with manslaughter.

ABC News has reached out to the hotel for comment.

Payne’s friend Rogério Nores, who allegedly traveled to Argentina with the singer and was allegedly at the hotel at the time and left before the singer was taken to his hotel room, has also been charged. Guilty of manslaughter. Prosecutors said Nores had previously been charged with abandonment causing death, but the charges were later dropped.

Police sources and sources in the prosecutor’s office told ABC News that Nores holds dual U.S. and Argentinian citizenship and is prohibited from leaving the country.

Hotel employees and waiters charged with “supplying narcotics” could face 4 to 15 years in prison if convicted. Bruniard ordered them jailed before trial and ordered them to pay 5 million pesos (about $5,000) or have an equal amount of assets confiscated, according to the prosecutor’s office.

Nores, the hotel manager and receptionist, will not go to jail before trial but will be required to pay a reserve of 50 million pesos (about $48,000), the prosecutor’s office said.

Sources revealed that Payne was only 31 years old when he died and had a variety of substances in his system when he died. These substances include “pink cocaine” – a recreational drug that is often a mixture of drugs including methamphetamine, ketamine, ecstasy and others – as well as cocaine, benzodiazepines and crack. Sources revealed that a simple aluminum pipe used to smoke drugs was also found in his hotel room.

The preliminary autopsy report also showed that Payne suffered “multiple traumatic injuries” and “internal and external bleeding.”

Bruniard, who allowed the charges against the five people in her December 27 sentencing, said prosecutors’ evidence showed Payne was “unable to look after himself” in the moments before his death.

Bruniard also cited “compelling” hotel security camera footage in which she said Payne appeared to be in a “vulnerable state” when he encountered the hotel manager and receptionist before being taken to his room.

The judge said the hotel manager and receptionist’s decision “[bring] Payne “posed a legally unacceptable risk to his life” by traveling to room 310, where he was staying, according to the state.

“There was a change in Payne’s consciousness, and a balcony appeared in the room,” Bruniard said. “The right thing to do is to keep him somewhere safe and with someone until doctors arrive.”

While Bruniard said she did not believe the hotel manager and receptionist had any malicious intent in Payne’s death, “their actions in allowing him to be taken to the room were imprudent.”

Nores has denied having anything to do with Payne’s death, telling the Daily Mail 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. “When I left, there were more than 15 people in the hotel lobby chatting and joking with him. I never thought something like this would happen.”

Payne was laid to rest in a private funeral on November 20. Niall Horan and Harry Styles – both attended the funeral, which was held at the church.