LA Angels employee Eric Kay gets 22 years prison in overdose death of pitcher Tyler Skaggs
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Former Los Angeles Angels director of communications Eric Kay was sentenced to 22 years in prison on October 11 in connection with the 2019 overdose death of pitcher Tyler Skaggs after being found guilty in August. On one of the two counts, Kay was sentenced to at least 20 years in jail.
The widow, mother and family members of Skaggs as well as one of Kay's sons who testified in favor of Skaggs were all part of the proceedings in court. Kay, 48, reportedly made derogatory statements about Skaggs, his family, the judges and the prosecutors in a phone conversation recorded in prison. Due to his disagreement with the mandatory 20-year minimum, Judge Terry Means admitted that he thought minimum sentences were “excessive.” However, he told Kay that he was given 22 years in jail because the recorded conversation showed a “refusal to accept responsibility and even be remorseful for something you caused,” reported New York Post.
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After Kay was sentenced, a statement from Tyler Skaggs' family was made public. According to Daily Mail, it said: "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 were scheduled to begin a four-game series against the Texas Rangers on July 1, 2019, the day Skaggs was discovered dead in a suburban Dallas hotel room and there was dramatic testimony from both sides in federal court in Fort Worth, just 15 miles away. Kay was found guilty on one count of both drug conspiracy and drug distribution resulting in death. A lethal combination of alcohol, fentanyl and oxycodone was found in Skaggs' system, according to a coroner's report and he had choked to death on his own vomit.
In the trial, five players from the major leagues testified that Kay gave them oxycodone tablets at various times between 2017 and 2019. According to evidence and court records, Kay himself was a drug user.