Liam Payne death: Waiter accused of selling One Direction star drugs before his death arrested
A waiter accused of selling Liam Payne cocaine before he plunged to his death at a Buenos Aires hotel has been arrested.
A judge had ordered Braian Nahuel Paiz’s remand in prison after charging him with supplying the singer with drugs.
Judge Laura Bruniard had given him 24 hours to hand himself in so he could be sent to jail but the arrest didn’t take place until Friday, January 3, after police went to his home at Ingeniero Budge on the outskirts of Buenos Aires.
Paiz’s lawyer Fernando Madeo confirmed this afternoon his client had been arrested but didn’t give any more details.
Earlier on Friday, it emerged Madeo was claiming it was “impossible” the charges against his client would stick following Liam’s third-floor fatal plunge at the CasaSur Palermo Hotel in Buenos Aires on October 16.
He also insisted the 24-year-old was the victim of a “witch hunt” sparked by the authorities’ desire for culprits.
Labelling some recent media reports claiming his client had refused to testify in front of a judge who has charged him with selling drugs to Liam as “fake,” Madeo insisted: “We presented a very long statement in which we addressed all the issues and the false accusations against Braian and we have explained everything from his point of view.”
Paiz was one of five men charged by a Buenos Aires judge last Friday following former One Direction singer Liam’s October 16 death at the CasaSur Palermo Hotel.
He and 21-year-old Ezequiel David Pereyra, currently suspended from his job at the CasaSur Palermo Hotel, have been charged with supplying Liam with drugs.
Judge Bruniard said in her ruling there was evidence pointing to both men selling the singer cocaine on two separate occasions.
They have both been warned they could face between four and 15 years if convicted as charged and after being indicted were told to report to court so they could be remanded in prison.
The other three suspects, Liam’s close friend Roger Nores, chief hotel receptionist Esteban Grassi and the hotel’s head of security Gilda Martin, have been charged with manslaughter but allowed to remain free while their prosecution continues.
They are facing between one and five years in prison if convicted as charged although they have been told they could be eligible for suspended jail sentences.
Judge Laura Bruniard pointed the finger at the hotel chiefs over their decision to move Liam from the lobby to his third-floor room when he couldn’t stand on his feet because of his prior drink and drug binge, saying it “created a legally unacceptable risk to his life” which had “foreseeable” consequences.
Argentinian prosecutors referred to Liam’s friend Roger Nores in a lengthy statement they released earlier this week as the “victim’s representative” although they identified him only by his initials R.L.N.
Judge Bruniard in her indictment ruling accused the businessman, currently banned from leaving Argentina because of the charges against him, of “failing in his duty of care, assistance and help” towards the singer and “abandoning him to his fate, knowing he couldn’t fend for himself, aware he suffered multiple additions to alcohol and cocaine and fully conscious of the state of intoxication, vulnerably and defenceless he was in.
Nores told a recent TMZ documentary examining the life and death of Liam Payne that he was “in good spirits and perfectly balanced” the day he died as he refuted claims the singer was acting erratically and was intoxicated shortly before his fatal fall.
The businessman had previously protested his innocence and refuted claims he was Liam’s ‘de facto’ manager.
He said in a statement shortly after it emerged he was being officially investigated before being charged: “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’ve given 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.”
Paiz has confessed to consuming drugs with Liam at the hotel where he died but refuted claims he sold him any narcotics.
A respected Argentinian news website claimed court papers earlier this week showed the waiter had admitted to giving the singer drugs but claimed he gifted them to him.
Madeo said of the judge’s formal accusation that his client sold Liam drugs in a recent Argentinian TV interview: “It’s absurd, it’s not been proved and it’s not going to be proven because it’s not true.
“Under Argentine drug laws, the free supply of drugs where money doesn’t change hands is on a much lower penal scale.
“And there’s another possibility which is that where there’s an eventual supply which is occasional and intimate between two people without affecting third parties the penal scale diminishes considerably.
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“It could still end up being typified as a crime in that case but even if it were the reality and current Argentinian jurisprudence has established that one person’s private consumption is not punishable by law.
“The same legislation would arguably cover a situation where two people consume shared drugs in a private intimate setting without affecting other people outside of that environment of privacy and intimacy.
“The law in that situation diminishes considerably the punishment applied if it were to be treated as a crime.”
Madeo, confirming his client submitted a written statement to the judge after being summoned for questioning late last month, has previously been quoted as saying: “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.”