Full list of charges against five suspects in Liam Payne’s death, including receptionist accused of manslaughter for instructing three individuals to move the star to his room.

Today, the complete charges against five suspects in the tragic death of Liam Payne were disclosed. Among them, a hotel receptionist is facing accusations of manslaughter for allegedly instructing the One Direction star to be brought to his room when he was unable to stand.

Furthermore, the singer’s close friend, Rogelio ‘Roger’ Nores, is also charged with manslaughter for supposedly leaving Payne on his own, despite being aware of his inability to care for himself and his struggles with addiction, according to court records.

Judge Laura Bruniard stated that Nores neglected his responsibilities to provide care and support to the singer, who tragically passed away on October 16 after a fall from a third-floor balcony at the CasaSur Palermo hotel in Buenos Aires.

Nores ‘should have consulted a doctor’ and ‘should have done this without relying on what the hotel employees could do’, the judge said.

She added that she did not believe that Liam’s friend and the two hotel staff also accused of manslaughter ‘had planned or wanted the death of Payne’ but said that their alleged actions and decisions added to the ‘risk’ on his life.

A restaurant waiter and a CasaSur employee have been ordered into custody for allegedly selling Liam cocaine. 

Five people, referred to by their initials by the prosecutor’s office in the Argentine capital, were charged today. Judge Bruniard listed the charges:

• Liam Payne’s friend RLN (Rogelio ‘Roger’ Nores) is accused of manslaughter for allegedly ‘failing to fulfil his duties of care, assistance and help’ towards the One Direction singer after having ‘abandoned him to his luck knowing that he was incapable of fending for himself and knowing that he [Payne] suffered from multiple addictions’;
• CasaSu Hotel employee EDP (Ezequiel Pereyra) who is accused of having sold Liam Payne cocaine on October 15 and October 16;
• Waiter BNP (Braian Paiz) who is also alleged to have sold cocaine to Liam Payne twice on October 14;
• Hotel Manager GAM (Gilda Martín) is accused of manslaughter for allegedly failing to stop Liam Payne being taken to his hotel room. According to the court papers, she should have seen the ‘serious threat’ posed by his room’s balcony and instead ensured Payne was kept in a safer place until paramedics arrived;
• Chief receptionist ERG (Esteban Grassi) is also suspected of manslaughter for allegedly asking three people to ‘drag’ Payne to his room when he could not stand. He too should have kept him safe until help arrived, it is alleged.

Today it was revealed that Judge Laura Bruniard has moved ahead with prosecutions of all the suspects in the case following evidence from prosecutors. 

WhatsApp messages between Liam Payne and an Argentine waiter he met on a night out with his girlfriend Kate Cassidy are at the centre of the case, it has emerged.

They allegedly reveal how the star was sold cocaine twice in the days before he plunged to his death from a Buenos Aires hotel balcony.

Argentina’s National Criminal and Correctional Prosecutor’s Office said on Monday, in a statement which referred to the defendants only by their initials.

They are reported to be hotel manager Gilda Martin, receptionist Esteban Grassi and Payne’s friend Roger Nores. Two others, hotel employee Ezequiel Pereyra and waiter Braian Paiz, have been charged with supplying cocaine.

Prosecutors launched an investigation shortly after Payne’s death on October 16.

Nores has been ‘held criminally responsible’ for Payne’s death by prosecutors, who alleged he failed in his duty of care responsibilities to Payne.

The prosecutors claim he ‘abandoned’ Payne, ‘knowing that he was incapable of caring for himself, knowing that the accused suffered from multiple previous addictions – to alcohol and cocaine – and having full knowledge of the state of intoxication, vulnerability and helplessness in which he found himself’.

The head of the National Criminal and Correctional Court No 34, judge Laura Bruniard, said Nores ‘is responsible for the crime of negligent homicide as the perpetrator given that he had assumed a position of guarantor in front of the family of the deceased’.

It is claimed there is footage showing US citizen Nores was in the hotel around 50 minutes before Payne’s death, and the judge said he ‘should have consulted a doctor’ and ‘should have done this without relying on what the hotel employees could do’.

Prosecutors also claim Martin and Grassi saw Payne under the influence in the lobby, but did not provide medical help.

Judge Bruniard said that on the day of Payne’s death he ‘was unable to care for himself’ and footage shows he was unconscious and being dragged ‘by three people’.

‘The way he was being handled shows a state of vulnerability,’ the judge said, adding that Payne being taken to his room was a ‘risk to his life’.

‘Payne’s consciousness was altered and there was a balcony in the room,’ she added.

‘The proper thing to do was to leave him in a safe place and with company until a doctor arrived.’

She added that she does not think Martin and Grassi acted ‘maliciously’, but were ‘imprudent in allowing him to be taken to the room and taking him there respectively’.

Concluding, the judge said Nores, Martin and Grassi ‘contributed, although not in a planned manner, to creating a risk that resulted in Payne’s death, whether by action or omission’.

Pereyra is accused of supplying cocaine to Payne in the early hours of October 15 and 16.

Paiz is allegedly to have supplied cocaine on two occasions on October 14, with one transaction claimed to have happened at the defendant’s home in Buenos Aires.

He allegedly told prosecutors this was not in exchange for money, and he wanted to ‘spend time’ with Payne.

However, prosecutors claim cocaine was supplied ‘for money’, based on footage in the hotel, witness statements and messages.

WhatsApp messages between Liam and Braian Paiz are said to have played a key part in Judge Bruniard’s decision to accuse him of selling cocaine twice – on two separate occasions on October 14 – two days before Liam died. 

But today his lawyer Fernando Madeo called the drug dealing charge ‘illegitimate, unfounded and arbitrary’, insisting his client is a One Direction superfan who took drugs with Liam but never sold him any.

‘My client had drugs for personal use, they got together once and got high together. When he went to the hotel where Liam was, he already had drugs’, Mr Madeo said, adding: ‘He wasn’t the dealer’.

Paiz’s Argentine lawyer confirmed his client met Liam when the star went to eat with friends and his girlfriend Kate Cassidy at the restaurant in the upmarket Buenos Aires neighbourhood of Puerto Madero where Braian was working at the time. 

In November this year Mr Paiz spoke to the media about his time with Liam Payne and said: ‘We took drugs together, but I never took drugs to him or accepted any money. I have messages where he’s offering me money because he was apparently used to offering money for everything but I never accepted anything.’   

Mr Madeo said: ‘Liam went to talk to him and they started a brief dialogue. 

‘They exchanged Instagrams. Braian was a lifelong One Direction fan and tried to talk to him to get to know him. 

‘He wasn’t the dealer. You wouldn’t talk for so many hours in a private setting if you were’.

He said: ‘My client had drugs for personal use, they got together once and got high together. When he went to the hotel where Liam was, he already had drugs’.

Braian has been ordered into custody.

His lawyer said: ‘Braian made a very extensive statement and gave all the facts. Among them, he stated that he met Liam on two occasions. Among several issues, which they did in a private environment, they also consumed narcotics but it is not true that he sold him drugs’. 

In an interview with Argentinian online news portal Todo Noticias, the lawyer added: ‘What we said in the disclaimer is that Braian is a person who is a frequent drug user. 

‘A while back, he used to use more. He had drugs in his house for his own use, he met Liam and they both used. It’s not that one took drugs to the other, they both just shared what they had. 

‘They had very wide-ranging chat conversations. It seemed like the only thing that brought them together was this, but it wasn’t. They were two people who happened to meet each other. 

‘In fact, Liam was the one who sought out my client’. 

Pereyra, who is accused of selling Liam drugs on October 15 and 16, has yet to make any comment personally or through a defence lawyer. 

Mr Grassi and Mr Martin have been identified as two of the three men pictured carrying Liam back up to his room from his hotel lobby shortly before his balcony plunge in the last harrowing photo of the singer to emerge. 

The chief receptionist, who made an emergency 911 call moments before the singer died, has not made any public comment since being named as one of the suspects. 

His death shocked the world and raised questions about how he had fallen from his balcony. His room had been smashed up.

Police launched a wide-ranging investigation into his death and previously Nores denied being a suspect.

Mr Nores, who vehemently denies abandoning the singer before he died, is not believed to be in custody but has reportedly been banned from leaving Argentina and has had around £40,000 of his assets frozen. 

A 911 call the day the singer died warned that he had been acting aggressively and could have been under the influence of drugs and alcohol.

Grassi, the chief receptionist, claimed Liam called down ‘insistently’ to ask for alcohol, and to ask where he could get cocaine – allegedly insulting a member of staff who said he could not help.

Further to this, text messages purporting to have been exchanged between Liam and an escort in which he offered her $5,000 (£3,900) to ‘party’.

It came as reports suggested a psychiatrist had emailed Nores to advise it was ‘impossible’ to continue supporting Liam with his mental health – and to warn of the risks associated with mixing antidepressants and alcohol.

Alleged dealers Braian Nahuel Paiz and Ezequiel David Pereyra, a former employee at the Buenos Aires hotel, said they were ‘retaining their right to remain silent’ during a previous hearing in front of Laura Bruniard.

Following a police investigation, both defendants were charged with the crime of supplying narcotics for payment, which could lead to a sentence of up to 15 years in prison.

Braian had told an Argentine TV journalist last month he had taken marijuana and the former One Direction star snorted cocaine during a rendezvous at the CasaSur Palermo Hotel, where Payne was staying shortly before his death.

But Braian insisted in his interview with Guillermo Panizza on Telefe Noticias: ‘I never took drugs to him or accepted any money.’

Pereyra, 21, identified locally as the hotel worker suspected of delivering drugs to Liam in a Dove soap box, has made no public comment so far since it emerged he had been placed under formal investigation.

Nores told a TMZ documentary examining Payne’s death that he was ‘in good spirits and perfectly balanced’ the day he died as he refuted claims the singer was intoxicated and acting erratically shortly before his October 16 fatal fall from his third-floor hotel balcony.

The businessman, fighting accusations he abandoned his pal before his death amid claims he was Liam’s ‘de facto’ manager, has previously protested his innocence after being named locally as one of the men under investigation.

He said 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.

‘There were over 15 people at the hotel lobby chatting and joking with him when I left. 

‘I could have never imagined something like this would happen.

‘I gave my statement to the prosecutor on October 17 as a witness and I haven’t spoken to any police officer or prosecutor ever since.

‘I wasn’t Liam’s manager. He was just my very dear friend.’

Grassi and Martin have been identified as two of the three men pictured carrying the singer back up to his room from his hotel lobby shortly before his fall.

The chief receptionist, who made an emergency 911 call moments before the 31-year-old singer died, has not made any public comment since being named as one of the suspects.

Tests have shown the singer binged on alcohol and cocaine before he died and also had traces of an antidepressant in his system.

Prosecutors also made it clear the idea that Liam had committed suicide had been ruled out and said he was in a state of ‘semi or total unconsciousness’ as he fell to his death from his hotel balcony when he ‘didn’t know what he was doing.’

They said of the hotel worker and the alleged ‘drug dealer’: ‘The second suspect is a hotel employee who must respond for two proven supplies of cocaine to Liam Payne during the time he was in the hotel.

‘The third is also a drug dealer who is being investigated on suspicion of another two clearly proven supplies of cocaine at two different times on October 14.’

The recent publication of the last photo of Liam, showing him being carried back up to his room from his hotel lobby shortly before his fall by three men said to include Mr Grassi, has led to speculation in Argentine media that the court investigation could eventually become a manslaughter probe.

Horrified tourist Bret Watson, who saw Liam fall to his death, revealed to TMZ earlier that the tragedy will forever remain ‘burned into his brain.’

‘It’s something that’s been burned into my brain and something I’m never going to forget,’ Mr Watson admitted. 

It comes after Liam’s girlfriend reportedly agreed to be interviewed by Argentinian Police as they continue their investigation into the pop star’s tragic death.

Kate Cassidy was with Payne just two days before he died when he fell from the third floor of a Buenos Aires hotel on October 16.

The 25-year-old is not under investigation for any wrongdoing, instead she will provide a witness statement to provide police with an insight into Payne’s final days.

In words reported by the Daily Mirror, a source claimed that Ms Cassidy is speaking with the force because ‘she wants the right people to be brought to justice’.

The source said: ‘She’s going to help in any way she can, she wants the right people to be brought to justice, and if that takes her answering their questions, she’s going to do it.

‘Obviously, there’s no reason for her not to cooperate, she tried for a long time to help him get clean, and is still haunted by what happened. Anyone who provided drugs to Liam should be prosecuted, she says.’