Hotel Employee Linked to Liam Payne’s Death Denies Supplying Singer with Drugs

The CasaSur Palermo Hotel employee who was charged in connection to Liam Payne’s death has denied supplying the late singer with drugs.

Braian Nahuel Paiz, a former waiter at one of the hotel restaurants, has been identified by Argentine authorities as a person allegedly involved in Payne’s death. 

He spoke to the news outlet Telefe Noticias over the weekend to share his alleged side of the story.

When asked if he supplied the late singer with drugs before his death, Paiz responded, “The truth is that I didn’t supply Liam with drugs.”

Paiz claimed to have met Payne at the restaurant he was working at on October 2, where they allegedly “exchanged contact information.” He alleged Payne was dining with his partner, Kate Cassidy, and two other people at the time.

“We saw each other that night, it was all normal,” Paiz continued. “He fetched me downstairs [at the Park Hyatt Palermo] because I got lost and I didn’t know how to get around and he went to get me.”

When the couple first arrived in Buenos Aires, Argentina, they stayed at the Park Hyatt Palermo Hotel. However, once Cassidy left for Florida two weeks later, the pop star checked into CasaSur by himself.

The former hotel employee told the outlet that Payne allegedly took him to his hotel room and showed him some of the music he was about to release and allegedly had some “shots of Whiskey.”

“They’re saying that he was not under the influence before getting to [CasaSur] but the reality is that he was already on drugs. In fact, he didn’t eat,” Paiz further claimed about their first hangout, which supposedly lasted an hour and a half.

He went on to claim that it was then that Payne — who had previously been open about his struggles with addiction — asked him for a drug dealer’s contact and wanted to get more drugs before a concert. Paiz allegedly then sent Payne the contact information via Instagram.

Payne and Cassidy attended Niall Horan’s concert that night in Buenos Aires. Following the show, Payne and his former One Direction bandmate allegedly made amends after not being in contact for some time.

Paiz claimed he and Payne — who allegedly used a fake Instagram account — stayed in contact via messages for several days before agreeing to meet up a second time on October 13.

“We spent the night, we did drugs together and something intimate happened,” he claimed, noting that he stuck to weed while Payne was allegedly doing cocaine.

“I saw him acting normal, he wasn’t aggressive at all, he was really sweet. He asked me if I was OK,” he alleged, noting that he didn’t delete their messages.

When asked what he thinks happened before the singer fell off the balcony on October 16, he suggested that Payne was left alone. 

He also claimed Payne was very “scared” and “paranoid” days before his death and even went to the extreme of allegedly preventing people from entering his room.

Paiz further insisted that he did not bring any drugs to Payne but did do them “together.” He also insisted that Payne wanted to pay him but he didn’t accept any money from him at the time.

“When I left, [Payne] wanted to give me some clothes so people knew we had been together but I didn’t accept it. I left it behind the room’s TV,” he alleged. “It was gray joggers and a T-shirt. I don’t know why I didn’t take them, I just didn’t want to take anything.”

Paiz further claimed that Payne asked to hang out with him a third time — even showing up at his home —but he rejected him due to work.

“I don’t know how he even got into my home,” he said. “He got back into his taxi.”

Paiz denied knowing any of the other people charged in Payne’s death. However, he did confirm that when he visited Payne in his room, he saw the soap box, which authorities believe was used to transport drugs.

On October 16, Payne fell to his death from the balcony of his third-story room in CasaSur. He was 31.

It was determined that he suffered a cranial fracture, as well as internal and external bleeding caused by 25 lesions.

A toxicology report also revealed that Payne was under the influence of drugs at the time of his death — including an anti-depressant, cocaine and pink cocaine — which caused him to pass out and fall off the balcony.

His death was not ruled a suicide.

Since then, Paiz and a drug dealer have been charged in connection with supplying Payne with drugs.

A third person, Payne’s “friend” Rogelio “Roger” Nores, was charged with abandonment for allegedly not telling the singer’s family that he had relapsed nor responding to police calls when the singer died.

Just like Paiz, Nores has tried to distance himself from the accusations, claiming that he “never abandoned” Payne.

“I went to his hotel three times that day and left 40 minutes before this happened,” Nores — an Argentinian businessman who befriended Payne in 2020 — told the Daily Mail last Thursday. “There were over 15 people at the hotel lobby chatting and joking with him when I left.”

The businessman — who “could have never imagined something like this would happen” — said that he gave his statement to the prosecutor on October 17 as a witness before affirming that he hasn’t spoken to “any police officer” since.

Payne’s body is finally being put to rest in England after his father, Geoff, was able to take his body home last week.