Liam Payne’s ex-manager ‘very happy’ after manslaughter charges are dropped
'We have always maintained that Rogelio Nores was not responsible for Liam Payne's death.'
Rogelio Nores’ lawyer has said he is ‘very happy’ after manslaughter charges were sensationally dropped against the US businessman over the death of his friend Liam Payne.
Appeal court judges also left the two hotel workers accused of the same crime in the clear by reversing an earlier decision to charge them following the singer’s third-floor balcony fall on October 16.
The pair accused of selling the former One Direction star cocaine before his fall from the CasaSur Palermo Hotel will remain in prison after being told they still face prosecution and probable trial.
Nores’ new lawyer Rafael Cuneo Libarona had centred his fight to get his client off his manslaughter rap on a rebuttal of prosecution claims he was Payne’s representative and had failed in his duty of care towards him.
He said overnight after news of the appeal ruling emerged: ‘We are happy to have reversed the decision by 360 degrees.
‘We have always maintained that Rogelio Nores was not responsible for Liam Payne’s death. He was only his friend and had no duty or legal obligation to ensure his safety.’
‘We have always maintained that Rogelio Nores was not responsible for Liam Payne’s death’ (Picture: Facebook)The three appeal court judges announced their ruling in a written document published eight days after a hearing at Argentina’s National Criminal and Correctional Court in Buenos Aires.
Cuneo Libarona, the brother of Argentina’s Justice Minister Mariano Cuneo Libarona, had attempted to overturn lower court judge Laura Bruniard’s December 27 decision to indict five men including Nores. ‘My client is not a manager, he is not a nurse, he is not a psychologist, nor a psychiatrist, nor is he dedicated to the recovery of addicts. He is a simple friend in Argentina who helps him in his business affairs,’ he said.
The other two men now in the clear are Esteban Grassi, the chief receptionist at CasaSur Palermo Hotel in Buenos Aires who made a 911 call moments before Payne died, and its head of security Gilda Martin.
Grassi was one of the three men identified alongside Martin in the last harrowing photo of the former One Direction singer to emerge showing him being carried back up to his room from his hotel lobby shortly before his fall.
Payne died in 2024 (Picture: Marc Piasecki/GC Images)Like Nores, they would have faced between one and five years in prison if convicted as charged although they had been told they could be eligible for suspended jail sentences. Nores was held in Argentina while the decision was made.
After the verdict he said (via Daily Mail): ‘These last few months have been hard but now I am cleared of anything to do with Liam’s death, I am delighted to be a free man and innocent of all charges.
‘Liam was my friend and I am so sorry for what happened but as my legal team and I explained to the court very clearly, I had nothing to do with it and I am not in any way responsible.’
Waiter Braian Nahuel Paiz, 24, and 21-year-old suspended hotel worker Ezequiel David Pereyra, lost their attempts to overturn Judge Bruniard’s decision to charge them with supplying Payne drugs and remand them in prison.
They have been warned they could face prison sentences of between four and 15 years if convicted.
Prosecutors can appeal the higher court decision on Nores and the two hotel workers but they have not yet indicated if they will do so.
Local reports say a number of electronic devices have yet to be opened and analysed, including Nores’ iPhone and Payne’s computer.
Nores’ alleged managerial role towards Payne, who died age 31, a position he had denied holding, had been key to the decision to prosecute the businessman.
Judge Bruniard in an indictment ruling at the end of December accused Mr Nores, banned from leaving Argentina following his indictment, of ‘failing in his duty of care, assistance and help’ towards the singer.
Payne fell from a third floor balcony (Picture: REUTERS)She alleged he ‘abandoned him to his fate, knowing he couldn’t fend for himself, aware he suffered multiple additions to alcohol and cocaine and fully conscious of the state of intoxication, vulnerably and defenceless he was in.’
It subsequently emerged the businessman had been described as Payne’s manager in an internal hotel email after he visited CasaSur Palermo Hotel and was shown a first-floor room he ‘liked a lot’ before the singer ended up checking into the third-floor suite.
The word ‘Manager’ was written along the name Roger Nores towards the end of an October 11 email and the words assistant manager against Lulu Miranda who has been referred to in prior reports about the Payne investigation as a pop star and a friend of Nores.
She was born in Los Angeles to an Argentinian diplomat father and a Brazilian mother who has lived in Buenos Aires since she was a teenager. She was not among the five people charged.
Argentinian prosecutors referred to Payne’s friend in a lengthy statement they released on December 30 as the ‘victim’s representative’ although they identified him only by his initials R.L.N.
One Direction achieved global success (Picture: Kevin Mazur/WireImage)Nores told a TMZ documentary aired in December examining the life and death of Payne that he was ‘in good spirits and perfectly balanced’ the day he died as he refuted claims the singer was acting erratically and was intoxicated shortly before his fatal fall.
The businessman had previously protested his innocence and refuted claims he was Payne’s ‘de facto’ manager which is seen as a key aspect to the prosecution decision.
He said in a statement shortly after it emerged he was being officially investigated before being charged: ‘I never abandoned Liam, I went to his hotel three times that day and left 40 minutes before this happened.
‘There were over 15 people at the hotel lobby chatting and joking with him when I left.
‘I could have never imagined something like this would happen.
‘I’ve given my statement to the prosecutor on October 17 as a witness and I haven’t spoken to any police officer or prosecutor ever since.
‘I wasn’t Liam’s manager. He was just my very dear friend.’
Nores also insisted in a written statement he presented to the courts that he ‘wasn’t Liam’s doctor, lawyer, representative or therapeutic companion’ and their relationship was based solely around friendship.
In deciding to indict hotel chiefs Grassi and Martin, Laura Bruniard had pointed the finger at them over their decision to move Payne from the lobby to his third-floor room when he couldn’t stand on his feet because of his prior drink and drug binge. She said it ‘created a legally unacceptable risk to his life’ which had ‘foreseeable’ consequences.
Ezequiel Pereyra handed himself in on January 6 after making himself a fugitive the previous week following failed police attempts to locate and arrest him so he could be remanded in pre-trial custody on the orders of the investigating judge.
Paiz was arrested on January 3 so he could be remanded in prison.
His lawyer Fernando Madeo had previously claimed it was ‘impossible’ the charges against his client would stick following Payne’s hotel death.
He also insisted the 24-year-old was the victim of a ‘witch hunt’ sparked by the authorities’ desire for culprits.
Waiter Paiz, who met Payne at a restaurant in the upmarket Buenos Aires neighbourhood of Puerto Madero where he had gone to eat with his girlfriend Kate Cassidy and friends, has confessed to consuming drugs with the singer at the hotel where he died but refuted claims he sold him any narcotics.
Public prosecutors confirmed on December 30 Judge Bruniard had accused Pereyra of ‘selling Liam cocaine on October 15 at 3.25am and between 3.30pm and 4pm on October 16 so that he could consume it during his hotel stay.’
They also claimed witness statements and CCTV analysis supported the allegation Pereyra had received 100 US dollars from Payne to buy narcotics for him and the singer had sent a car to his home on another occasion to pick up more drugs.
In November TMZ published footage showing Payne stepping out of a lift at the CasaSur Palermo Hotel and chatting with a man it identified as Pereyra shortly before the singer died, claiming the he had asked him for ‘seven grams of the same drug he had handed him earlier.’
An inquest into Payne’s death found the medical cause to be ‘polytrauma’. Polytrauma is a medical term for when a person has multiple traumatic injuries to their body and organ systems.
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