Liam Payne: the legal story for her death continues

The legal affair continues, in progress in Argentina, linked to the death of Liam Paynethe former singer of One Direction. The last procedural move is of the lawyers of the five indicted for trial that appealed against the complaints formalized at the end of December by the judge Laura Bruniard.

Payne died on October 16, 2024 from a fall from the third floor of the Hotel Casa Sur in Buenos Aires after consuming alcohol and drugs

The autopsy established that the cause of the death was a “multiple trauma” and an “internal and external bleeding”, as a consequence of the fall from the hotel balcony. The autoptic examination reports have established that Payne may have fallen into a state of semi-inconecience or total unconsciousness.

The prosecutor’s office said this excludes the possibility of a conscious or voluntary act by Payne and concluded that the singer did not know what was doing and had no understanding of his actions.

Following the investigations of the Argentine police in total there are five people under accusation for the tragedy: the director of the hotel, the manager of the reception, an entrepreneur related to the singer, an employee of the Sur and a waiter that the victim had met during his stay in Buenos Aires.

The first three will have to respond for manslaughter, the other two for drug dealing.

According to the accusations, the hotel employee is suspected of selling cocaine to Liam Payne between 15 and 16 October. The waiter is suspected of selling cocaine to Liam Payne twice on October 14th. Payne’s friend is suspected of manslaughter to be, according to the accusations of the judge, “failed to his duties of care, assistance and help” against the singer after having “abandoned him knowing that he was unable to look after himself And knowing that Payne suffered from multiple addictions “.

The director of the hotel is suspected of manslaughter for not preventing Payne from being brought to his hotel room a few moments before his death.

The court decreed that, given the artist’s state, the balcony of the room represented a “serious threat” and the director should have ensured that Payne was held in a safe place until the arrival of medical rescue. The chief receptionist is also suspected of manslaughter for presumably asking three people to “drag” Payne, who did not stand up, in his room, instead of keeping him safe.

Judge Bruniard said he did not believe that Liam Payne’s friend, the hotel director and the receptionist “planned or wanted Payne’s death”, but that their actions created a “risk” for his life .

If considered guilty, the three could be sentenced to penalties between one and five years in prison. For the two accused of having provided the drug, the sentence is more severe and goes from four to 15 years in prison.

Now the competent Argentine court will have to decide whether to accept the appeals of the defendants and the requests for revocation of the pre -trial detention in prison of two of them.