Liam Payne: Police in Argentina arrest three people in connection with One Direction star’s death

Argentine prosecutors investigating the death of Liam Payne last night confirmed the arrests of three suspects who are now under formal investigation.

They did not mention a “friend,” whom they accuse of “abandonment of a person followed by death” in connection with the singer’s death.

They also accuse the person of complicity in the supply of drugs, crimes that upon conviction are punishable by up to fifteen years in prison.

According to ABC News, two hotel employees are also among the three people now formally investigated by authorities.

It comes after the One Direction star, 31, died after falling from a third-floor balcony at the CasaSur Palmero Hotel in Buenos Aires on October 16.

In their third official statement since the star’s death, prosecutors revealed that only alcohol, cocaine and an antidepressant had been found in the former One Direction singer’s system.

Despite previous speculation, they have ruled out that the pop star committed suicide after falling from the balcony.

The statement from the investigation led by prosecutor Andrés Esteban Madrea confirmed that “illegal conduct” had been discovered in connection with the pop star’s death.

The statement read: ‘Three people were charged with the crimes of abandonment of a person followed by death, supplying and facilitating narcotics.

“From the beginning of the investigation, exhaustive and painstaking actions and measures were carried out within days to clarify the circumstances surrounding the artist’s death.

‘In this sense, several dozen statements were received at the headquarters of the Public Prosecution Service, including testimonies from 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 on the street was also carried out, with staff from the public prosecutor’s office and specialized analysts from the Superintendence of Special Investigations and the Technological Support Division of the city police, who from the beginning was made available by the deputy chief of the city police, Jorge Guillermo Azzolina.

“Similarly, 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 analyzed.

‘The hotel’s guest registration and bar/restaurant orders were also looked at to find out who visited the musician and what his drinking and eating habits were.

‘Also, with the help of expert personnel from the Chief Inspector of the Fight against Cybercrime of the City Police, led by Commissioner General Carlos Gabriel Rojas, several gigabytes of data were obtained and examined in a short time through the extraction of data from other mobile telephones such as those at the hotel reception and those of witnesses who voluntarily wanted to confirm their statements.

‘Following the autopsy, all necessary thanatological and laboratory investigations were conducted and completed, and it was ordered that the entire relevant samples be held in reserve for future comparisons, according to the protocols, indications and reports of the Forensic Medical Corps.

‘After this, and with the favorable opinion of the Public Prosecution Service, the Criminal and Correctional Court No. 34, presided over by Judge Laura Graciela Bruniard, authorized the handing over of the body to the father of the deceased, Geoff Payne, which took place last. weekend. The musician’s father was personally informed.

‘As a result of the evidence collected and after analyzing the various pieces of evidence and numerous documentary attachments and the background of the case, the Prosecutor Andrea Madrea formally charged three people and requested their indictment and detention in a 180-page report released last Friday was presented. before Judge Bruniard.

‘The first of the suspects is the person who accompanied the artist daily during his stay in the city of Buenos Aires, who is accused of the crimes of abandonment of a person followed by death – referred to in Article 106 of the Code of Criminal Law. and which provides for a prison sentence of 5 to 15 years -, as an offender, ideally concurrent with the supply and facilitation of narcotic drugs (art. 5 inc. e) of law 23.737 on narcotic drugs).

‘The second defendant is an employee of the hotel who is accused of two proven deliveries of cocaine to Liam Payne during the period he was at the hotel, and the third, also a narcotics supplier, is accused of two further clearly proven deliveries on two different occasions on October 14th. Both were charged with supplying narcotics, two acts each (art. 5 inc. e) of law 23.737).

‘The report describes the investigation carried out by the Public Prosecution Service to reconstruct the days on which Payne stayed at the ‘Casa Sur’ hotel at 6092 Costa Rica Street in the autonomous city of Buenos Aires between October 13 and 16.

‘In addition, nine searches of homes in the federal capital and the province of Buenos Aires were requested, as well as the institution of secrecy of summary proceedings until they are executed, in order to protect the results and also the logical integrity of the trial. research.

‘Judge Bruniard, in accordance with her ruling and the evidence she analyzed, authorized the raids requested by the Public Prosecution Service, which were carried out with positive results, and took into account the facts presented by the Public Prosecution Service in order to inform the suspect and ban prevent them from leaving the country.

‘In addition to the strong evidence obtained to date (visual evidence, registry material, medical, scientific evidence, telephone material, testimonies, etc.), the investigation must continue as, among other things, the unlocking of the victim’s personal netbook – which is broken – and other devices seized during the investigation are still ongoing.

‘According to the investigation led by Madrea and his team of prosecutors, which analyzed, among other things, testimonies, video footage, messages, documents, invoices, social networks and communications, at least four deliveries of narcotic substances from third parties and other facilitations of addictive substance consumption were visibly, concretely and convincingly accredited by his immediate environment, which were aimed against the former member of the group One Direction during his stay in the hotel, between October 13 and 16.

‘The results of the toxicology tests – which had already been communicated to his family – showed that in the moments leading up to his death and for at least his last 72 hours, Payne had only traces in his body of a polyconsumption of alcohol, cocaine and a prescribed antidepressant. This conclusion was reached after complete toxicological tests on urine, blood and vitreous humor, which were carried out in a very short time.

‘The undertakers of the Forensic Medical Corps (CMF) who carried out the autopsy were the director of the Judicial Mortuary, Santiago Mafia Bizzozero, and the forensic doctor Roberto Víctor Cohen, who concluded that Payne’s death was caused by ‘polytrauma’ and ‘internal injuries ‘. and external bleeding’, as a result of the fall the musician suffered from the balcony of the room on the third floor of the hotel in the Palermo district where he was staying.

‘In three additional reports of medico-legal considerations, at the request of the Prosecutor Madrea, Mafia Bizzozero and Cohen confirmed, among other things, that all injuries exhibited by Payne were compatible with those caused by a fall from a height and that self-injury of any kind and/or physical intervention by third parties excluded. They also emphasized that the victim did not adopt a reflexive position to protect himself during the fall, so at this point it can be inferred that he may have fallen into a state of semi- or total unconsciousness.

“At this point, Public Prosecutor Madrea requested an additional forensic psychiatric report and took testimony from the expert who prepared it. Although other medical antecedents from the victim’s medical history remain to be analyzed, the phenomenon of the absence of a defense or conservation reflex in the fall, together with other relevant data resulting from its consumption, allows us to conclude that Liam Payne was not fully conscious. or was in a state of noticeable decrease or abolishment of consciousness at the time of the fall.

“For the prosecutor, this situation would also rule out the possibility of a conscious or voluntary act by the victim, since in the state he was in he did not know what he was doing and could not understand it.”