Liam Payne's manager, two hotel workers charged in One Direction singer's death

Alexandra Del Rosario and Karen Garcia, Los Angeles Times on Dec 30, 2024

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A representative for Liam Payne was charged with manslaughter in connection with the One Direction veteran’s death in October, Argentine officials confirmed Monday.

The National Criminal and Correctional Prosecutor’s Office of Argentina announced in a Spanish-language statement that Judge Laura Graciela Bruniard on Friday prosecuted five people for alleged involvement in the pop singer’s death. Payne’s representative (identified as “R.L.N.”) and the manager and the head of reception of the Buenos Aires hotel where the British singer fell to his death were charged with manslaughter.

Another hotel employee and a waiter whom Payne met in a restaurant were charged with allegedly supplying the singer with narcotics.

Payne, an “X Factor” alum who was one-fifth of the global boy-band sensation One Direction, died Oct. 16 after falling from a balcony at the CasaSur Palermo Hotel. He was 31. Shortly after his death, officials determined the singer died from multiple traumas and internal and external bleeding caused by the fall.

Payne had traces of alcohol, cocaine and a prescription antidepressant in his system when he fell, officials announced in November. Prosecution at the time said it was considering ruling out the possibility of suicide.

In Monday’s announcement, the prosecutor’s office detailed the defendants’ alleged roles in Payne’s death. The hotel employee (identified as “E.D.P.”) and waiter (“B.N.P.”) both allegedly supplied Payne with cocaine multiple times during his stay in Buenos Aires. Payne died two weeks after arriving in Argentina, where he attended an Oct. 2 concert by his former bandmate Niall Horan.

According to Monday’s announcement, Payne’s representative “failed to comply with his duties of care, assistance and assistance that he had with respect to” the singer. Prosecutors alleged R.L.N. abandoned the singer despite knowing he was “unable to fend for himself” and having previous knowledge of Payne’s struggles with addiction.

The prosecutor’s office detailed an alleged incident where Payne was carried up to his third-floor room by a group of three people prior to his death. The hotel manager (identified as “G.A.M.”) and the hotel’s head of reception (“E.R.G.”), who allegedly led the group, should have kept Payne “in a safe area without sources of danger, in company and until he could be provided with medical care,” the prosecutor’s office said.

Bruniard, the judge, said Monday that the hotel managers “did not act maliciously” in connection with Payne’s death “but they have been reckless in enabling him to be taken to his room and driven there respectively.”

“They created a legally disapproved risk and Payne’s death is the realization of that risk,” Bruniard said.

R.L.N. is “responsible for the crime of manslaughter ... given that he had assumed a position of guarantor toward” Payne’s family, Bruniard added.

Ultimately, Payne’s representative and the hotel managers “have contributed, although not in a planned manner, to creating a risk that resulted in Payne’s death, whether by action or omission,” Monday’s statement said.

The two people charged with supplying Payne drugs before his death were sentenced to pre-trial detention. R.L.N. and the two hotel managers were charged without pretrial detention, according to the prosecutor’s office.

More than a month after Payne’s death, his former bandmates, family and friends gathered for a funeral service in England. Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, Louis Tomlinson and Horan attended the ceremony northwest of London. Also in attendance were “X Factor” judges Simon Cowell and Cheryl Cole (who shares a young son with Payne), and his girlfriend Kate Cassidy.

Though Payne is best known for his work with One Direction, he also pursued a solo career after the boy band went on hiatus in 2016. As a soloist he released songs “Strip That Down,” “Bedroom Floor” and “Teardrops” and teamed with artists including Quavo, Ed Sheeran and Charlie Puth.

Payne was also open about his struggles with mental health and addiction. In a YouTube vlog shared in 2023, he revealed he was six months sober.

Times staff writer Nardine Saad contributed to this report.