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Argentine Prosecutors Charge 3 People Linked to Death of Liam Payne

FILE PHOTO: A woman passes by a message written as a tribute to former One Direction singer Liam Payne, who was found dead after he fell from a third-floor hotel room balcony in Buenos Aires, in Manchester, Britain, October 21, 2024. REUTERS/Phil Noble/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A woman passes by a message written as a tribute to former One Direction singer Liam Payne, who was found dead after he fell from a third-floor hotel room balcony in Buenos Aires, in Manchester, Britain, October 21, 2024. REUTERS/Phil Noble/File Photo
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Argentine Prosecutors Charge 3 People Linked to Death of Liam Payne

FILE PHOTO: A woman passes by a message written as a tribute to former One Direction singer Liam Payne, who was found dead after he fell from a third-floor hotel room balcony in Buenos Aires, in Manchester, Britain, October 21, 2024. REUTERS/Phil Noble/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A woman passes by a message written as a tribute to former One Direction singer Liam Payne, who was found dead after he fell from a third-floor hotel room balcony in Buenos Aires, in Manchester, Britain, October 21, 2024. REUTERS/Phil Noble/File Photo

Three people have been charged in connection with the death of Liam Payne, a former member of musical group One Direction who died after falling from the balcony of his hotel room in Buenos Aires last month, Argentine prosecutors said Thursday.
Prosecutor Andrés Madrea charged the three suspects, whose identities were not revealed, with ​​the crimes of “abandonment of a person followed by death” and “supplying and facilitating the use of narcotics,” the prosecutor’s office said. Madrea also requested their arrest to judge Laura Bruniard, who ruled the three cannot leave the country, The Associated Press reported.
Payne fell from his room's balcony on the third floor of his hotel in the upscale neighborhood of Palermo, in the Argentine capital. His autopsy said he died from multiple injuries and external bleeding.
Prosecutors also said that Payne’s toxicological exams showed that his body had "traces of alcohol, cocaine and a prescribed antidepressant” in the moments before his death.
Investigators said hours after Payne’s death that he was by himself when he fell. But the prosecutors' office said Thursday that one of the people charged was often with the singer during his time in Buenos Aires. The second is a hotel staffer who allegedly gave Payne cocaine during his stay between Oct. 13 and 16. And the third is a drug dealer.
The charges in Payne’s case bear some resemblance to the US cases stemming from the death of “Friends” star Matthew Perry a year ago. The actor’s personal assistant and a longtime friend are among those charged with helping supply him with ketamine in the final months of his life, leading up to his overdose on the anesthetic.
Three young men were similarly charged in the opioid-overdose death of rapper Mac Miller in 2018.
Local authorities gathered, among other pieces of evidence, Payne's cell phone records, material for forensics and testimonies. They are yet to unlock the singer’s personal computer – which is damaged – and other devices that were seized.
Payne’s autopsy showed his injuries were neither caused by self-harm nor by physical intervention of others. The document also said that he did not have the reflex of protecting himself in the fall, which suggests he might have been unconscious.
Prosecutors in Argentina also ruled out the chances of Payne committing suicide.
One Direction was among the most successful boy bands of recent times. It announced an indefinite hiatus in 2016 and Payne — like his former bandmates Zayn Malik, Harry Styles, Niall Horan, and Louis Tomlinson — pursued a solo career.
The singer had posted on his Snapchat account that he traveled to Argentina to attend Horan’s concert in Buenos Aires on Oct. 2. He shared videos of himself dancing with his girlfriend, American influencer Kate Cassidy, and singing along in the stands. Cassidy had left Argentina after the show, but Payne stayed behind.

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Quincy Jones, Music Titan Who Worked with Everyone from Frank Sinatra to Michael Jackson, Dies at 91

US musician and producer Quincy Jones poses after being awarded Grand Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres at the Institut du Monde Arabe (Arabic World Institute) in Paris, on October 6, 2014. (AFP)
US musician and producer Quincy Jones poses after being awarded Grand Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres at the Institut du Monde Arabe (Arabic World Institute) in Paris, on October 6, 2014. (AFP)
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Quincy Jones, Music Titan Who Worked with Everyone from Frank Sinatra to Michael Jackson, Dies at 91

US musician and producer Quincy Jones poses after being awarded Grand Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres at the Institut du Monde Arabe (Arabic World Institute) in Paris, on October 6, 2014. (AFP)
US musician and producer Quincy Jones poses after being awarded Grand Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres at the Institut du Monde Arabe (Arabic World Institute) in Paris, on October 6, 2014. (AFP)

Quincy Jones, the multi-talented music titan whose vast legacy ranged from producing Michael Jackson’s historic “Thriller” album to writing prize-winning film and television scores and collaborating with Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles and hundreds of other recording artists, has died at 91.

Jones’ publicist, Arnold Robinson, says he died Sunday night at his home in the Bel Air section of Los Angeles, surrounded by his family.

“Tonight, with full but broken hearts, we must share the news of our father and brother Quincy Jones’ passing,” the family said in a statement. “And although this is an incredible loss for our family, we celebrate the great life that he lived and know there will never be another like him.”

Jones rose from running with gangs on the South Side of Chicago to the very heights of show business, becoming one of the first Black executives to thrive in Hollywood and leaving behind a vast musical catalog that includes some of the richest moments of American song and rhythm. Over the past half century, it was hard to find a music lover who did not own at least one record with Jones’ name on it or someone in the music, television or movie industries who did not have some connection to him.

Jones kept company with presidents and foreign leaders, movie stars and musicians, philanthropists and business leaders. He toured with Count Basie and Lionel Hampton, arranged records for Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald, composed the soundtracks for “Roots” and “In the Heat of the Night,” organized President Clinton’s first inaugural celebration and oversaw the all-star recording of “We Are the World.”

In a career that began when records were still played on vinyl at 78 rpm, singling out any work seems unfair. But honors likely go to his productions with Jackson on “Off the Wall,” “Thriller” and “Bad,” albums universal in their style and appeal. Jones’ versatility and imagination fit perfectly with the bursting talents of Jackson as he sensationally transformed from child star to the “King of Pop.” On such classic tracks as “Billie Jean” and “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’,” Jones and Jackson drew upon disco, funk, rock, pop, R&B and jazz and African chants. For “Thriller,” some of the most memorable touches originated with Jones, who recruited Eddie Van Halen for a guitar solo on the genre-defying “Beat It” and brought in Vincent Price for a ghoulish voiceover on the title track.

“Thriller” sold more than 20 million copies in 1983 alone, helped Jackson become the first major Black artist to have a video played on MTV and influenced countless performers.

“Michael had the look and the voice, and I had every sound you can think of,” Jones would explain.

The list of his honors and awards fills 18 pages in his 2001 autobiography “Q”: 28 Grammys (out of 80 nominations), an honorary Academy Award and an Emmy for “Roots.” He also received France’s Legion d’Honneur and the Rudolph Valentino Award from the Republic of Italy. In 2001, Jones was named a Kennedy Center Honoree for his contributions to American culture. He was the subject of a 1990 documentary, “Listen Up: The Lives of Quincy Jones,” and his memoir made him a best-selling author.

“Despite all the Grammys and the special awards and testimonials that maturity bestows, it will always be the values you carry within yourself — of work, love, and integrity — that carry the greatest worth, because these are what get you through with your dreams intact, your heart held firm and your spirit ready for another day,” he wrote in his book.

Born in Chicago in 1933, Jones would cite the hymns his mother sang around the house as the first music he could remember. But he looked back sadly on his childhood, telling Oprah Winfrey: “There are two kinds of people: those who have nurturing parents or caretakers, and those who don’t. Nothing’s in between.” Jones’ mother suffered from emotional problems and was eventually institutionalized, a loss that made the world seem “senseless” for Quincy. He spent much of his time in Chicago on the streets, with gangs, stealing and fighting.

Music was his passion, and, almost literally, his salvation. As a boy, he learned that a Chicago neighbor owned a piano and he soon played it constantly himself. His father moved to Washington state when Quincy was 10 and his world changed at a neighborhood recreation center. Jones and some friends had broken into the kitchen and helped themselves to lemon meringue pie when Jones noticed a small room nearby with a stage. On the stage was a piano.

“I went up there, paused, stared, and then tinkled on it for a moment,” he wrote in his autobiography. “That’s where I began to find peace. I was 11. I knew this was it for me. Forever.”

Within a few years he was playing trumpet and befriending a young blind musician named Ray Charles, who became a lifelong friend. He was gifted enough to win a scholarship at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, but dropped out when Hampton invited him to tour with his band. Jones went on to work as a freelance composer, conductor, arranger and producer. As a teen, he backed Billie Holiday. By his mid-20s, he was touring with his own band.

“We had the best jazz band on the planet, and yet we were literally starving,” Jones later told Musician magazine. “That’s when I discovered that there was music, and there was the music business. If I were to survive, I would have to learn the difference between the two.”

His survivors include actor Rashida Jones and five other daughters: Jolie Jones Levine, Rachel Jones, Martina Jones, Kidada Jones and Kenya Kinski-Jones; son Quincy Jones III; brother Richard Jones and sisters Theresa Frank and Margie Jay.