Liam Payne’s alleged drug dealer and a hotel worker have been charged with selling the former One Direction star the drugs he took before his fatal balcony fall
Prosecutors have unveiled damning evidence against two men who were told yesterday they will stand trial for the tragic death of musician Liam Payne in a Buenos Aires hotel.
Waiter Braian Nahuel Paiz and ex-hotel employee Ezequiel David Pereyra have been behind bars since early January, accused of supplying the former One Direction star with the cocaine he allegedly took before his fatal fall from a third-storey balcony during a drug-fuelled episode.
Argentinian prosecutors had already secured condemning phone messages and hotel CCTV footage, which showed Liam by an open lift door at the CasaSur Palermo Hotel, conversing with a man believed to be Pereyra just before the singer’s demise on October 16 last year.
In this short interaction, the 31 year old Brit reportedly requested “seven grams of the same drug he had handed him earlier.”
The prosecution has now gone public with further details from their files, disclosing “incriminating” testimonies from FIVE hotel staff members against 24 year old Pereyra, who, alongside Paiz, has been informed he could face up to 15 years in jail if found guilty. Additionally, CCTV footage has emerged showing Pereyra delivering cocaine to Payne outside his hotel room roughly an hour and ten minutes before his untimely passing, reports the Mirror.
Pereyra has been charged with selling cocaine to Liam on two occasions, the second instance “between 3.30 and 4pm on October 16.”
The Argentinian public prosecution service stated in reference to Pereyra: “One of the witnesses that implicated him the most was the hotel’s head of general maintenance.
“He testified that around 9pm on 14 October he encountered Pereyra in a lift, noticed that he had a $100 note in his hand and when he enquired if it was a tip and who had given it to him, Pereyra responded that he had to ‘run an errand for a guest’ which he later clarified was ‘to bring drugs’.
“At 2:30 a.m. on 15 October, Payne requested a taxi from the hotel receptionist to an address – Pereyra’s residence at 2800 Homero Street in the Lomas de Zamora district of Buenos Aires – because ‘someone had to deliver him something’.
“Prosecutors ascertained, from the statement of the Cabify app car driver who made the journey, and from the footage of the security cameras outside the hotel, that Pereyra arrived at the hotel entrance at 3.25am, met Liam Payne outside on the street and walked with him towards the junction of Costa Rica and Dorrego Avenue, where a camera captured the accused man with ‘some sort of package in one of his hands.”
Chief prosecutor Andres Madrea disclosed that a computer technician employed by the CasaSur Hotel has also implicated Pereyra. He stated: “The employee, who speaks English, shared a lift with Payne the afternoon of his death. He has testified that when they reached a hotel basement Liam began to talk while still inside the lift with Pereyra, who was arranging some chairs outside the lift, and he heard the musician say: ‘Hey man I will need another seven grams more for today.'”
Public prosecutors elaborated in their statement: “Mr Madrea detailed in his trial request that the drug transaction took place around 3.45pm on October 16, in a third-floor corridor where cameras captured Pereyra’s arrival in the lift and the exchange.”
They noted that the indictment against Paiz, also accused of selling Liam Payne cocaine on two separate occasions prior to his death, was partly based on messages the two men had exchanged found on the singer’s phone after his fatal fall.
Prosecutors unveiled more details about the exchanges between the pair, who met at a restaurant where the musician dined in the posh Buenos Aires neighbourhood where Paiz worked as a waiter. They stated: “Lead prosecutor Andres Madrea reproduced in his trial request an exchange of messages in the early hours of October 14, where the singer asks the accused for five or five grams and the waiter replies an hour later that he had obtained three grams with the phrase in English: ‘I think I got to three.
“Paiz then sent the musician several photographs related to narcotics, including one of a transparent plastic bag with a white powder, after which they agreed that the waiter would go to the CasaSur Hotel where the accused arrived at 3:24am according to the security camera records.
“This shows that the accused Paiz, at Payne’s request, went to the hotel in question, stayed in his room, where he gave cocaine to Payne, until he left at around 8:15 am.”
The account continued with details of a second “drug deal” later the same day when Liam Payne took a taxi to Paiz’s flat to collect cocaine – and reference another subsequent message exchange about a third “possible deal” which they said concluded with the singer writing: “I have DOLLARS US 100. Party.”
Three other men initially implicated in Liam’s death were informed in February that the case against them had been dismissed.
Liam’s close mate Rogelio Nores, hotel receptionist Esteban Grassi and hotel head of security Gilda Martin were charged with his manslaughter by a female lower court judge before reversing her decision on appeal. No date has yet been set for the Paiz and Pereyra trial although it is anticipated to commence shortly.
Paiz, who has consistently maintained his innocence, reiterated from prison this week an earlier assertion that he had taken drugs with the artist but hadn’t committed the grave crime of selling him narcotics. The 25 year old lamented in a chat with Argentinian news outlet Infobae from his cell at a Buenos Aires police station: “I don’t know what I’m doing here, I’m a good person. “I shared drugs with Liam but I didn’t sell them.
“Identifying himself as a drug user who began smoking marijuana as a youth, he continued: “All I want to do is start studying again and leave jail to work, like I was doing before. “I regret now giving Liam my Instagram because it all spiralled from there.”
If I hadn’t I’d probably be working today, I’d be studying, I’d be making videos because before meeting Liam I’d participated in the filming of a video-clip for YouTube for a singer and other videos for TV.
“I miss the freedom I had, I miss work, I miss my family, my mum and my sisters.”
Pereyra turned himself in on January 6 after going on the run the previous week following unsuccessful police attempts to find and arrest him so he could be held in pre-trial custody on the orders of an investigating judge. He has yet to make any public statement.
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
