By ALMUDENA CALATRAVA, Associated Press
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — A court in Argentina dropped charges of criminal negligence against three of the five people indicted in connection with the death of Liam Payne, the former One Direction singer who fell from a third-floor hotel balcony in Buenos Aires last October, according to a ruling obtained by The Associated Press on Thursday.
In its decision issued Wednesday, the Argentine federal appeals court ordered the other two defendants in the case to remain in custody. They are facing prosecution on charges they supplied the famed British boyband star with narcotics.
The ruling drops charges against three key defendants: Rogelio Nores, an Argentine businessman with U.S. citizenship who had accompanied Payne during his trip in Buenos Aires; Gilda Martin, the manager of the Casa Sur Palermo Hotel where Payne died on Oct. 16; and Esteban Grassi, the hotel’s main receptionist.
The charge of negligent homicide carries a sentence of one to five years in prison in Argentina.
A toxicology report from tests taken after an autopsy revealed that Payne, 31, had alcohol, cocaine and a prescription antidepressant in his system when he fell from the balcony.
Prosecutors argued that Nores had failed to comply with his duties of care by leaving Payne alone while inebriated. The court sided with defense attorneys who contended that Nores had no legal, moral or social duty to care for Payne. He also was outside the hotel at the time of his friend’s death.
The two hotel employees, Martin and Grassi, were in the Casa Sur lobby on Oct. 16 when they saw Payne severely intoxicated and decided to take him to his room with the help of others, investigators determined.
Prosecutors said that the men should have kept Payne away from his hotel room, where a balcony posed a clear danger, until the singer could receive proper medical care. On Wednesday, the court ruled that prosecutors failed to prove how taking Payne to his hotel room “constituted unlawful, unruly, clumsy, reckless, imprudent or negligent conduct.”
The court also ordered the other two defendants in the case — Ezequiel David Pereyra, a former employee at Casa Sur Hotel and Braian Paiz, a waiter who had served Payne at an upscale Buenos Aires restaurant — to remain in detention on charges that they supplied Payne with narcotics in the days, even hours, leading up to his death.
Because the charge they face carries a sentence of four to 15 years in prison, the court said that preventative detention was justified.
Payne’s sudden death drew an outpouring of grief around the world from heartbroken fans of One Direction, among the best-selling boy bands of all time.
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