Former Los Angeles Angels employee Eric Kay convicted in Tyler Skaggs' overdose death
A former Los Angeles Angels employee was convicted Thursday of providing Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs the drugs that led to his overdose death in Texas. Eric Kay was convicted on one count each of drug distribution resulting in death and drug conspiracy, and faces up to life in prison when he is sentenced on June 28.
Skaggs' widow, Carli, and his mother, Debbie Hetman, hugged as the verdict was announced. Kay took off his jacket and tie and was placed into handcuffs, nodding toward his family and friends in the courtroom.
A 10-woman, two-man jury revealed the verdict after deliberating for no more than three hours following an eight-day trial. Kay was tried in federal court in Fort Worth, about 15 miles from where the Angels were supposed to open a four-game series against the Texas Rangers on July 1, 2019, the day Skaggs was found dead in a suburban Dallas hotel room.
Kay's attorney, Michael Molfetta, declined to comment after the verdict was read.
A coroner's report said Skaggs, 27, had choked to death on his vomit, and a toxic mix of alcohol, fentanyl and oxycodone was in his system.
The trial included testimony from five major league players who said they received oxycodone pills from Kay at various times from 2017-19, the years Kay was accused of obtaining pills and giving them to players. Kay also used drugs himself, according to testimony and court documents.
Pitcher Matt Harvey, who rose to stardom with the New York Mets nearly a decade ago, said he knew he was threatening his career by admitting to cocaine use in New York and California.
Harvey, one of the players who said he received oxycodone pills from Kay but also obtained them for Skaggs, said he was subpoenaed and testified only because he was granted immunity from prosecution. Harvey is unsigned after pitching for Baltimore last season.
In closing arguments, lead prosecutor Lindsey Beran said the government proved that Kay was the only one who could have given Skaggs the drugs that led to his death, that the delivery was in Texas and that fentanyl was the cause of death. The government argued Kay gave Skaggs counterfeit oxycodone pills that contained fentanyl.
Beran reminded jurors of the testimony of Harvey and fellow major league pitchers Cam Bedrosian and Blake Parker saying Skaggs' death scared them away from using oxycodone. Harvey testified the painkiller was commonly used in a league where players often face surgeries and deal with injuries.
"Blake Parker, 'I had a flashback to 2017 and I thought it could have been me,'" Beran told the jury, quoting the pitcher. "All of those people were one pill away from dying alone in a hotel room from a drug that Eric Kay gave them."
Molfetta said prosecutors didn't prove Kay gave Skaggs the drugs after the team landed in Texas on a flight from California, or that fentanyl was the sole cause.
Molfetta pointed to a white board prosecutors said made their case. It was filled with magnetic tiles showing text messages between Skaggs and Kay, and departure and arrival times along with other elements from June 30 and July 1.
"Those tiles, these things they've put up there, they prove nothing but what's on the tiles," Molfetta said. "There are so many assumptions behind it."
Kay served as the team's public relations contact on many road trips, and the trip to Texas was his first since returning from rehab. Kay was placed on leave shortly after Skaggs' death and never returned to the team. He didn't testify.
Defense attorneys acknowledged Kay lied to police the day Skaggs was found dead by saying he hadn't seen him the previous night. One of his colleagues at the time, current Angels director of communications Adam Chodzko, said Kay confided in him a couple of weeks later that he had been in Skaggs' hotel room. Chodzko testified that Kay told him he didn't give Skaggs pills that night and declined an offer from Skaggs to do drugs in the room.
Carli Skaggs testified she didn't know the extent of her husband's drug use, and would have tried to do something about it if she had.
Hetman testified that her son had issues with Percocet, a combination of oxycodone and acetaminophen, in 2013 but that he quit "cold turkey" at the time.
Garet Ramos, Skaggs' stepbrother, testified he couldn't remember the details of trying to help wean Skaggs off Percocet nine years ago and denied deleting text messages from his phone at the police department in Southlake, the suburb where Skaggs was found dead.
The medical examiner who conducted the autopsy testified there was a "greater probability" that fentanyl, which is significantly more potent than oxycodone, caused Skaggs' death. Dr. Marc Krouse also said there was a "reduced probability" that alcohol and oxycodone caused the death. An expert for the government said it was a near-certainty fentanyl led to Skaggs' death.
The family of Tyler Skaggs released a statement following Kay's sentencing.
"We are very grateful to everyone who worked so hard to investigate and prosecute Eric
Kay. Today's sentencing isn't about the number of years the defendant received. The real issue in this case is holding accountable the people who are distributing the deadly drug fentanyl. It is killing tens of thousands of people every year in our country and destroying families along with it. We will continue the fight to hold responsible those who allowed Kay to provide a deadly drug to Tyler. But for their actions, Tyler would still be with us today."
The Angels also issued a statement:
"On behalf of the entire Angels Organization, our compassion goes out to the Skaggs family on this difficult day."
Skaggs, a Woodland Hills native, was selected by the Angels in the 2009 MLB Draft before being traded to the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2010. He was traded back to the Anaheim-based ball club in 2013, where he would remain until his death in 2019.