Three people were charged in relation with the death of singer Liam Payne, Argentina’s public prosecutor said Thursday.
The prosecutor’s statement said that during the investigation, “illicit conduct was discovered from which three people were charged with the crimes of abandonment of a person followed by death, supply and facilitation of narcotics.”
Payne, a former member of One Direction, fell from the balcony of a Buenos Aires hotel on Oct. 16.
Someone who was with Payne daily while he was in Buenos Aires is charged with abandoning a person following death, prosecutor Andrés Madrea’s statement said.
Forensic workers remove Liam Payne’s body from the hotel where he died in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on Oct. 16. Luis Robayo / AFP – Getty Images
A hotel employee is accused of supplying Payne with cocaine twice while he stayed at the hotel, the statement said, and a third person is accused of supplying drugs to him twice during his stay on Oct. 14.
They are both charged with two acts of supplying narcotics, Madrea said.
Toxicology reports showed that in the last 72 hours before he died, Payne had alcohol, cocaine and a prescription antidepressant drug in his system, according to the prosecutor’s office. The prosecutor’s statement made no reference to “pink cocaine,” which ABC News, citing sources, had reported he had in his system when he died.
Payne reportedly had a recreational drug that is typically made up of MDMA, ketamine and methamphetamine in his system. The drug rarely has any cocaine in it, and the pink comes from food coloring, officials have said.
His death was caused by “multiple trauma” and “internal and external hemorrhage” resulting from the fall from the third-floor hotel balcony, the prosecutor’s office said.
Forensic doctors who performed the autopsy told prosecutors that his injuries were consistent with a fall from that height and that self-harm, as well as interference from someone else, were ruled out. They added that because Payne “did not adopt a reflex posture” to protect himself during the fall, “it can be inferred that he may have fallen in a state of semi or total unconsciousness.”
Throughout the investigation, “exhaustive and meticulous actions and measures were taken to clarify the circumstances surrounding the artist’s death,” the statement said. Prosecutors heard testimony from “several dozen” hotel staff members, family members, friends, medical professionals, biochemists and psychiatrists.
Prosecutors also analyzed more than 800 hours of security video from the hotel and from public roads, and they looked through the contents of Payne’s cellphone.
Also following the investigation, Payne’s body was released to his father, Geoff Payne, last weekend.
Payne, who shot to fame as a member of the boy band One Direction, was reportedly exhibiting destructive behavior in the hours before he died.
The hotel where he was staying called 911 after he “overindulged in drugs and alcohol” and was “breaking the whole room.”
“The guest is in a room that has a balcony, and, well, we are a little afraid that he might do something life-threatening,” the caller said, according to audio obtained from local media by Telemundo, NBCUniversal’s Spanish-language network.
Payne was found dead just minutes after the call was made.
