Liam Payne’s death suspect says he didn’t supply Singer with drugs

One of the suspects in the investigation into Liam Payne’s death broke his silence in an interview with an Argentine media outlet over the weekend. Three people were arrested last week in connection with Payne’s death on October 16 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where the One Direction singer and solo star died after falling from a third-floor balcony of a hotel.

In conversation with journalist Guillermo Panizza Telephone notificationsWaiter Braian Nahuel Paiz, 24, admitted partying with Payne but denied supplying drugs to the 31-year-old singer; So far, Argentine authorities have not released the names of the detained suspects billboard could not independently confirm that Paiz was one of them.

Paiz said he met Payne twice before the singer’s death but insisted: “I never supplied Liam with drugs. Liam’s first contact with me was at my workplace.” He said they exchanged information and met again later that evening, with the report including pictures of the two men together. “We met there and he showed me some of the music he wanted to release. I’ve heard people say he was on drugs, but the truth is that when he walked into the restaurant where I worked, he was already under the influence of drugs and wasn’t actually eating anything.” Paiz said the two men had about Paynes communicated via secret Instagram account.

When the two men met a second time at Payne’s hotel on October 13, Paiz – who reportedly lost his job amid the investigation – claimed that he had spent the night partying at the CasaSur Palermo Hotel, claiming the singer was there taking cocaine while Paiz smoked weed. “We did drugs together, but I never brought him drugs or accepted money,” Paiz said, adding that his home had been searched as part of the investigation but he had not yet been interviewed by investigators.

Paiz also said he didn’t know who the other two unnamed suspects were and that he didn’t know what happened to Payne after he left the hotel room. Click here to watch the interview in Spanish.

Last week, officials in Buenos Aires handed over Payne’s body to his family for repatriation to the UK, and a press release from the National Criminal and Correctional Prosecutor’s Office No. 14 revealed the final results of toxicology tests on the singer. According to a translated copy of the report, Payne had “alcohol, cocaine and prescription antidepressants” in his system in the 72 hours before he died after falling from a three-story hotel balcony in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The results of the autopsy concluded that Payne’s death was caused by “‘multiple trauma’ and ‘internal and external bleeding’, the result of the fall that the musician suffered from the balcony of the room on the third floor of the hotel in the Palermo district stayed.

Further reports concluded that the injuries Payne suffered were caused by a fall at the hotel from a height and that “self-harm of any kind and/or physical interference by third parties was ruled out.” Authorities also reported that Payne did not adopt a “reflexive stance” to protect himself from the fall, leading to the conclusion that he “may have fallen into a state of semi- or total unconsciousness.”

The three people arrested so far have been accused of abandonment resulting in death and supplying and arranging narcotics.