A former Los Angeles Angels employee was sentenced to 22 years in federal prison Tuesday for providing Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs the drugs that led to his overdose death in Texas in 2019.
Eric Kay, the former Los Angeles Angels communications director, was convicted in February on one count each of drug distribution resulting in death and drug conspiracy after the jury deliberated for just 90 minutes.
The trial took place in a Fort Worth federal court, not far from the Southlake hotel room Skaggs was found in on July 1, 2019, one day before the Angels were set to open a four-game series against the Texas Rangers.
A coroner’s report said Skaggs, 27, had choked to death on his vomit and that a toxic mix of alcohol, fentanyl, and oxycodone was in his system.
Kay, 48, had been facing a minimum of 20 years, which U.S. District Judge Terry R. Means had initially considered to be potentially too much.
However, the judge gave Kay later added an additional two years above the minimum after prosecutors with the justice department presented jailhouse phone calls and emails as evidence in the sentencing hearing on Tuesday.
Kay reportedly made derogatory remarks about Skaggs, his family, prosecutors, and jurors in the jailhouse phone calls and emails after he was convicted in February.
“I hope people realize what a piece of s— he is,” Kay said in a phone call with his mother, according to the DOJ, “I’m here because of Tyler Skaggs. Well, he’s dead. So f— him.”
Kay also ridiculed Skaggs’ family, calling them “white trash” and “dumb.”
“All they see are dollar signs,” Kay continued about Skaggs’ family. “They may get more money with him dead than [when] he was playing because he sucked.”
The phone calls showed Kay’s “refusal to accept responsibility and even be remorseful for something you caused,” said Judge Means, according to the Washington Post.
“That’s disgusting,” Kay responded to the judge. “I don’t know why I said that. I was mad at the world.”
Means recommended Kay serve his sentence in his home state of California. He has been in prison in Fort Worth since the conviction.
The sentencing featured emotional testimony from both sides. Kay sobbed while one of his three sons took the podium and pleaded with the judge for leniency.
Carli Skaggs, the widow, fought back tears while she testified and blamed Kay for her husband’s death.
“Not only am I grieving the loss of my husband,” she said. “I’m grieving the loss of myself.”
“I feel strongly that those who risk the lives of others with killer drugs need to be held accountable,” she continued. “If anything good can come of Tyler’s death and this trial, it will be preventing someone else’s wife from receiving the call I did.”
Skaggs was not the only player that Kay allegedly supplied drugs. Former Angels players Matt Harvey, C.J. Cron, Mike Morin, and Cam Bedrosian all testified in court that they were provided drugs by Kay on various occasions from 2017 to 2019.
The MLB and the MLBPA agreed in December 2019 to start regularly testing players for opioids and cocaine. No violations have been found.
Kay allegedly also used drugs himself, according to testimony and court document. Kay served as the Angels’ public relations contact on many road trips, and the trip to Texas was his first after returning from rehab.
Shortly after Skaggs’ death, the Angels placed Kay on leave, and he never returned to the team.
“We are very grateful to everyone who worked so hard to investigate and prosecute Eric Kay,” the Skaggs family said in a statement. “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.”
