Liam Payne death: Charges dropped against 3 of 5 people indicted – National

[Pelican Press 0]

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

Liam Payne death: Charges dropped against 3 of 5 people indicted – National

A court in Argentina dropped charges of criminal negligence against three of the five people 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, according to a ruling obtained by The Associated Press on Thursday.

In its decision issued Wednesday, the Argentine federal appeals court ordered the other two defendants in the case to remain in custody. They are facing prosecution on charges that they supplied the famed British boyband star with narcotics.

The ruling drops charges against three key defendants: Rogelio Nores, an Argentine businessman with U.S. citizenship who had accompanied Payne during his trip in Buenos Aires; Gilda Martin, the manager of the CasaSur Hotel in the trendy neighborhood of Palermo where Payne died on Oct. 16; and Esteban Grassi, the hotel’s main receptionist.

The charge of negligent ********* carries a sentence of one to five years in prison in Argentina.

Story continues below advertisement

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

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png">

2:34
Liam Payne ********: One Direction bandmates among mourners at private church service

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

Trending Now

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png">

Sunwing cancels southbound trips from Toronto amid ongoing delays

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png">

‘How did no one know?’: 3 abandoned Michigan kids found living in squalor

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png">

Get daily National news

Get the day’s top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.

The two hotel employees, Martin and Grassi, were in the CasaSur Hotel lobby on Oct. 16 when they saw Payne severely intoxicated and decided to take him to his room with the help of others, investigators determined.

Prosecutors said that Payne should have been kept away from his hotel room, where a balcony posed a clear danger, until he could receive proper medical care. On Wednesday, the court ruled that prosecutors failed to prove how taking Payne to his hotel room “constituted unlawful, unruly, clumsy, reckless, imprudent or negligent conduct.”

Story continues below advertisement

The court also ordered the other two defendants in the case — Ezequiel David Pereyra, a former employee at CasaSur Hotel and Braian Paiz, a waiter who had served Payne at an upscale Buenos Aires restaurant — to remain in detention on charges that they supplied Payne with narcotics in the days, even hours, leading up to his death.

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

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

More on Crime
More videos

&copy 2025 The ********* Press

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

#Liam #Payne #death #Charges #dropped #people #indicted #National

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up