Three people have been charged in connection with Liam Payne’s death in Buenos Aires, Argentina, last month, a prosecutor’s office has said.
The One Direction singer died at the age of 31 on October 16 after falling from a third floor balcony at the Casa Sur Palermo Hotel.
Argentinian prosecutors probing his death confirmed the arrests of three suspects who are now under formal investigation. They said the crimes were punishable by a prison sentence of up to 15 years on conviction. They also confirmed one of the suspects included a hotel worker.
In only their third statement since Liam’s death, the public prosecutors revealed only alcohol, cocaine and an anti-depressant were found in the star’s system.
The long statement said: “The National Prosecutor’s Office for Criminal and Correctional Matters N°14, led by prosecutor Andrés Esteban Madrea, informs, following the lifting of the secrecy of summary proceedings, that within the framework of the investigation into the death of British musician Liam James Payne, which occurred on 16 October when he fell from a balcony in a hotel in the Buenos Aires neighbourhood of Palermo, unlawful conduct was discovered, as a result of which three people were charged with the crimes of abandonment of a person followed by death, supply and facilitation of narcotics.
“From the beginning of the investigation and within a few days, exhaustive and meticulous actions and measures were carried out to clarify the circumstances surrounding the death of the artist. In this sense, several dozen statements were received at the headquarters of the Public Prosecutor’s Office including the testimonies of hotel staff, family and friends and medical professionals.
“A detailed analysis of more than 800 hours of video footage from various security cameras in the hotel and others in the street was also carried out, with staff from the prosecutor’s office and specialised analysts from the Superintendence of Special Investigations and the Technological Support Division of the City Police, made available from the outset by the Deputy Chief of the City Police, Jorge Guillermo Azzolina.”
The statement continued: “Likewise, the forensic extraction of the contents of the deceased musician’s mobile phone was carried out. From this, his calls, messages, chats on messaging applications and social networks were analysed. The registry of guests and the hotel’s bar/restaurant orders were also examined to find out who visited the musician and his drinking and eating habits.
“Also, with the help of expert personnel from the Superintendence of the Fight against Cybercrime of the City Police, headed by Commissioner General Carlos Gabriel Rojas, several gigabytes of data were obtained and examined in a short period of time from the extraction of data from other mobile phones such as the one at the hotel reception and those of witnesses who volunteered to corroborate their statements. After the autopsy, all the necessary thanatological and laboratory studies were carried out and completed, and the complete relevant samples were ordered to be kept in reserve for any future comparison, according to the protocols, indications and reports of the Forensic Medical Corps.
“After this, and with the favourable opinion of the Prosecutor’s Office, the Criminal and Correctional Court N°34, led by Judge Laura Graciela Bruniard, authorised the delivery of the body to the father of the deceased, Geoff Payne, which took place last weekend. The musician’s father was informed in person.
“As a result of the evidence gathered and after analysing the various bodies of evidence and numerous documentary annexes and the background of the case, the prosecutor Andrea Madrea formally charged three people, requesting their indictment and detention in a 180-page report presented last Friday before Judge Bruniard.
“The first of the accused is the person who accompanied the artist on a daily basis during his stay in the city of Buenos Aires, who is charged with the crimes of abandonment of a person followed by death – contemplated in article 106 of the Penal Code and which provides for a prison sentence of 5 to 15 years -, as perpetrator, in ideal concurrence with the supply and facilitation of narcotics (art. 5 inc. e) of Law 23.737 on Narcotics).
“The second defendant is an employee of the hotel who is charged with two proven supplies of cocaine to Liam Payne during the period he was at the hotel, and the third, also a supplier of narcotics, is charged with two other clearly proven supplies at two different times on 14 October. Both were charged with the offence of supplying narcotics, two acts each (art. 5 inc. e) of Law 23.737).
“The report details the investigation carried out by the prosecutor’s office to reconstruct the days during which Payne was staying at the hotel ‘Casa Sur’ at 6092 Costa Rica Street in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, between 13 and 16 October last. In addition, nine searches were requested at homes in the Federal Capital and the province of Buenos Aires, as well as the establishment of the secrecy of summary proceedings until they are executed, in order to protect the results and also the logical integrity of the investigation.
“Judge Bruniard, in accordance with her ruling and the evidence she analysed, granted the raids requested by the prosecutor’s office, which were carried out with positive results, and took into account the facts alleged by the Public Prosecutor’s Office to notify the accused and prohibit them from leaving the country.
“In addition to the strong evidence obtained so far (visual, registry, medical, scientific, documentary, telephone, testimonial, etc.), the investigation must continue, since, among other proceedings, the unlocking of the victim’s personal netbook – which is broken – and other devices seized in the investigation are still in progress. According to the investigation led by Madrea and his team of prosecutors, which analysed testimonies, video footage, messaging, documents, invoices, social networks and communications, among other elements, at least four supplies of narcotics from third parties and other facilitations of addictive consumption were visibly, concretely and convincingly accredited by his direct environment, which were aimed at the former member of the group One Direction during his stay at the hotel, between 13 and 16 October last.
“The results of the toxicological studies – already communicated to his family – revealed that, in the moments prior to his death and during at least his last 72 hours, Payne only had traces in his body of a poly-consumption of alcohol, cocaine and a prescribed anti-depressant. This conclusion was reached after full toxicological tests on urine, blood and vitreous humour, which were carried out in a very short time. The morticians of the Forensic Medical Corps (CMF) who carried out the autopsy were the director of the Judicial Morgue, Santiago Maffia Bizzozero, and the forensic doctor Roberto Víctor Cohen, who concluded that Payne’s death was caused by ‘polytraumatisms’ and ‘internal and external haemorrhage’, as a result of the fall the musician suffered from the balcony of the third floor room of the hotel in the Palermo neighbourhood where he was staying.
“In three additional reports of medico-legal considerations, requested by the prosecutor Madrea, Maffia Bizzozero and Cohen ratified, among other points, that all the injuries that Payne presented were compatible with those produced by a fall from a height and that self-injury of any kind and/or the physical intervention of third parties were ruled out. They also stressed that the victim did not adopt a reflexive posture to protect himself in the fall, so that, for the moment, it can be inferred that he may have fallen in a state of semi- or total unconsciousness.
“On this point, the prosecutor Madrea requested an additional forensic psychiatric report and took testimony from the expert who prepared it. Although other medical antecedents of the victim’s medical history have yet to be analysed, the phenomenon of the lack of defence or conservation reflex in the fall, together with other relevant data due to its consumption, allow us to conclude that Liam Payne was not fully conscious or was in a state of noticeable decrease or abolition of consciousness at the time of the fall.
“For the prosecution, this situation would also rule out the possibility of a conscious or voluntary act on the part of the victim, since, in the state he was in, he did not know what he was doing and could not understand it.”
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