Liam Payne's alleged drug dealer breaks silence on singer's death
The man who allegedly gave Liam Payne drugs before his fatal fall from his Buenos Aires hotel balcony last month has broken his silence on the singer's death.
In an interview with Argentina's Telefe Noticias, Braian Nahuel Paiz, 24, insisted he never supplied Payne with drugs or accepted any money from him though he admitted to two hotel meetings with him before his passing.
Paiz said he first met Payne on Oct. 2 at his workplace, Puerto Madero restaurant, where Payne dined with his girlfriend Kate Cassidy and two others. He said Payne appeared to be already under the influence of drugs at that point and didn't eat anything.
Paiz recalled Payne asking him for his contact details.
“I gave him my Instagram, and then he sent me messages because he wanted to do drugs, I think he was going to a concert or something," the waiter said.
That night, Payne attended the show of Niall Horan, his former bandmate at One Direction, at the Movistar Arena and allegedly made amends after not being in contact for some time.
"We swapped details and saw each other later that night. It was all normal,” Paiz said, adding that Payne fetched him from downstairs at the Park Hyatt Palermo hotel after getting lost.
Paiz claimed they did whisky shots while Payne showed him the music he was about to release.
He also claimed that they stayed in contact for several days, with Payne allegedly using a fake Instagram account, before meeting again on Oct. 13 at the CasaSur hotel, where Payne later fell to his death.
“We spent the night, we did drugs together and something intimate happened,” Paiz said, adding that he stuck to weed while Payne allegedly did cocaine.
“I saw him acting normal, he wasn’t aggressive at all, he was really sweet. He asked me if I was okay," he said.
When he left that night, Paiz said Payne offered him money and clothes “so people knew that I was with him,” but refused both.
“I don’t know why I didn’t take them, I just didn’t want to take anything from him," he said.
Paiz said Payne asked him to hang out a third time, to the point of visiting him at home, but he told Payne he had to work.
“He said, ‘Well, it’s been a pleasure,’ and that’s the last time I saw him," Paiz recalled Payne telling him.
In light of Payne's fall, Paiz said the singer was very “paranoid” days before his death, so much so that he allegedly prevented people from entering his hotel room.
According to Paiz, Payne might have snapped when left alone.
Paiz also denied knowing the other two suspects charged in Payne’s death: the singer's friend Rogelio "Roger" Nores and hotel worker Ezequiel David Pereyra.
Nores, in an interview with Daily Mail, denied abandoning Payne hours before his death, saying he “could have never imagined something like this would happen.”
Pereyra has yet to issue a public comment.
Charges against the suspects included abandonment of a person followed by death, and supply and facilitation of narcotics, the National Criminal and Correctional Prosecutor’s Office of Argentina said in a statement on Nov. 7.
The prosecutor's office said officials charged the three suspects after conducting nine raids and hearing “several dozen” testimonies from people, including hotel staff, Payne’s family and friends, medical professionals, and other experts.
Police analysts also reviewed over 800 hours’ worth of closed-circuit television footage from in and around the hotel; combed through Payne’s phone, including calls and messages across various platforms; and checked the hotel's registry of guests and assessed his orders from the bar and restaurant to understand his drinking and eating habits.
As the investigation into his death is ongoing, the prosecution said it was considering ruling out the possibility of suicide, because “in the state [Payne] was going through, he did not know what he was doing nor could he understand it.”
Payne fell to his death from a hotel balcony. He was 31.
His room was found destroyed, with broken objects and furniture, along with alcohol and suspected drugs.
Officials determined that Payne died from multiple traumas and internal and external bleeding caused by the fall. He “did not adopt a reflexive posture to protect himself and ... he may have fallen in a state of semi- or total unconsciousness,” they said.
His body was delivered to his father, Geoff Payne, this November after an autopsy report, including several toxicology tests, showed Payne had traces of alcohol, cocaine, and a prescription antidepressant in his system in the moments before his death.
Funeral arrangements are underway in Payne’s home country England.
