An Argentine judge has argued that former One Direction singer Liam Payne’s manager and employees at the hotel where he was staying failed the pop star in the moments before his death and allowed charges against him to proceed, according to a statement. from the prosecutor’s office this Monday. .
Payne died after falling from a hotel balcony in Buenos Aires in October.
Payne’s manager, as well as the hotel manager and front desk manager, are charged with involuntary manslaughter in connection with the former pop superstar’s death. They face up to five years in prison if convicted.
A hotel employee and a local bartender are accused of supplying Payne with cocaine during his stay and face up to 15 years in prison. In her ruling Friday, the judge ordered him jailed before trial.
“Taking Payne to his room in the state he was in was putting his life at risk,” the judge said in her decision, which was released with the prosecutor’s statement. “It was obvious he was vulnerable.”
Payne’s autopsy showed that at the time of his death he had “large amounts” of cocaine and alcohol in his system, according to the statement.
Payne allegedly purchased cocaine at least four times from the hotel employee and bartender over a three-day period.
Footage from the lobby of the Casa Sur hotel in the upscale Palermo neighborhood showed that minutes before Payne’s death on Oct. 16, three people saw him unconscious and were carrying him to his room.
The hotel receptionist led the group and was later seen with the hotel manager in the hallway outside Payne’s room, the statement said.
“Payne’s consciousness was altered and there was a balcony in the room. It was appropriate to leave him in a safe place and in company until a doctor arrived,” the judge said.
He added that the evidence showed that Payne tried to leave his room through the balcony but due to the state he was in he fell.
Payne’s manager, identified only by his initials “RLN,” left the hotel less than an hour before the fall. The judge argued that he should not have entrusted hotel employees with Payne’s well-being.
The judge prohibited the manager, who is a US citizen, from leaving Argentina.
(Reporting by Kylie Madry; Editing by Mark Porter)
