One of the men accused of selling drugs to Liam Payne before his death has been arrested.
- READ MORE: Liam Payne 1993-2024: One Direction star who helped spark a pop phenomenon
The former One Direction star died on October 16, after he fell from a third-floor balcony at the CasaSur Palermo Hotel. The Argentinian prosecutor’s office later shared that the cause of death was due to multiple traumas and internal and external bleeding.
On December 30, Judge Laura Bruniard – who is handling the investigation into Payne’s death – updated charges against the five people charged in connection with his passing.
This included Braian Paiz, a restaurant waiter who is accused of selling drugs to the late One Direction singer. Paiz was ordered to preventative jail time as he awaits trial and on Friday (January 3) he was detained, per Rolling Stone.
Back in November, Paiz broke his silence, admitting that he met Payne twice before his death and confessed to taking drugs with him. However, he insisted that he never supplied Payne with narcotics nor accepted any money from him.
Paiz’s attorney, Fernando Madeo Facente also previously shared a statement with Rolling Stone which slammed the accusation, calling the judge’s ruling “completely arbitrary and illegitimate.”
“This resolution does nothing more than demonstrate what we maintain as a ‘witch hunt’ ought to be carried out in this case,” Facente added. “[They’re] looking for guilty parties and accusing innocent people of committing crimes.” He has not commented on Paiz’s detainment.
Paiz is accused alongside hotel worker Ezequiel Pereyra who also allegedly sold Payne drugs. Both could face four to 15 years in prison if found guilty. Paiz also must pay a $4,900 (£3,945) fine.
Paiz was charged with giving Payne cocaine “in exchange for a price” in the early hours of October 14, according to a statement from the prosecutor last week. Payne allegedly consumed said drug at the hotel while Paiz spent time with him in his room.
“Also, on the same day, [Paiz] is accused of having delivered more cocaine, for a price… between 10:03 and 10:44am.,” read the prosecutor’s description of the charges. “Payne appeared at the defendant’s home… travelling in a taxi and returning to the hotel.”
The charges were levelled against them due to their “imprudence and negligence”, resulting in Payne’s death. Last week’s ruling also saw Nores’ charges being lowered after originally facing five to 15 years in prison for “abandonment followed by death.”
The charges came days after Nores filed a 91-page document to support his defence to the charge of abandonment followed by death.
In the document, Nores maintained that he was not Payne’s doctor, lawyer, or representative, and claimed that when he left Payne at the hotel the day he died, he was “greeting fans” and seemed to be fine.
“I was a friend who loved him very much, who helped him selflessly in everything I could, who spent my own money to help him, and even then it was not enough,” Nores wrote. “I do not consider that I deserve the accusation that is being levelled at me.”
The judge, however, concluded that Nores had taken on the “position of guarantor” to Payne’s family and was the main contact for the singer at the hotel. Based on Payne’s autopsy report, Bruniard went on to note that “Payne’s state of vulnerability was evident” when Nores decided to leave the hotel 50 minutes prior to the musician’s deadly fall.
In her ruling, the judge declared that while in a severely vulnerable and intoxicated state, Payne was “trying to leave his room through the balcony” prior to the fall. “Payne’s consciousness was altered and a balcony was in the room. The proper thing to do was to leave him in a safe place, and with company, until a doctor arrived,” she wrote, adding that the hotel employees who had taken him back to his room “did not act maliciously” but were “imprudent” in their actions.
She continued: “I maintain that [Payne] tried to leave from the balcony of the place where he was left because the forensic experts noted that he did not lose his balance. This is how the fall occurred.”
In regard to Nores’ role in the death, Bruniard wrote that “he should have consulted with a doctor given the commitment made to the family of the deceased. He should have done this without trusting how the hotel employees could have dealt [with Payne].”
The post One of Liam Payne’s alleged drug dealers has been arrested appeared first on NME.