As we near the fifth anniversary of former Los Angeles Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs’ death resulting from consuming fentanyl-laced oxycodone, the man convicted of providing the deadly pills is speaking out from prison for the first time.
Most baseball fans remember the tragedy of Skaggs’ untimely death on July 1, 2019. Most likely, far fewer have given much thought to the fallout, which includes devastated family members, a $100 million lawsuit and a lengthy incarceration.
Eric Kay had grown accustomed to the high life. Both in his role as director of communications for the Angels, which saw him rub shoulders with MLB stars like Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani, and as an addict who abused opioids and supplied them to players.
For the first time since his October 2022 conviction for distribution of a controlled substance resulting in Skaggs’ death and conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute, Kay addressed the situation, opening up to The Athletic’s Sam Blum about his 22-year prison sentence.
Kay spoke with Blum in a series of interviews. Ironically, communicating has become quite difficult for the former communications professional due to the federal prison’s strict rules prohibiting visitors from recording him and limiting phone calls to 15 minutes at a time.
Over multiple weeks, Kay expressed his belief that his prison sentence – a mandatory minimum for the charges in Texas – is unreasonable. Interestingly, the judge overseeing Kay’s trial agreed. When it came time to hand down the sentence, U.S. District Judge Terry Means acknowledged he had been “dreading this day” because the mandatory 20-year sentence was “excessive,” according to the LA Times.
However, Judge Means added two years to the sentence due to derogatory comments Kay made after his conviction when he was caught denigrating Skaggs on the phone, saying, “I hope people realize what a piece of sh-t he is. Well, he’s dead, so f–k ‘em.”
Kay also expressed scorn for Skaggs’ family and their civil suit against the Angles: “All they see are dollar signs … They may get more money with him dead than if he was playing because he sucked.”
Addressing those hateful comments for the first time, Kay told The Athletic, “I’m horribly sorry for what I said in a private moment of weakness … That is awful. There’s no explanation for that. I didn’t mean it. I was looking for anybody to blame and yell at. I would apologize for that. And I would let them know what a special person their son was. We were caught in this maelstrom of addiction.”
He characterized his connection with Skaggs as “a codependent relationship as two people addicted to opioids.”
Kay opens up about tragic death of Angels’ Tyler Skaggs
Last year, Kay lost his appeal, which claimed there was insufficient evidence to support a conviction. In his interview with The Athletic, he maintained that he did not take the drugs to Texas but rather, supplied Skaggs in California – and, he claims he had no idea the oxycodone contained fentanyl.
He also insisted that it can’t be proven beyond a reasonable doubt that the drugs he provided caused Skaggs’ death.
During his trial, the prosecution suggested that Kay was present when Skaggs overdosed in his Southlake, Texas hotel room the night before his Angels started a four-game series in Arlington. For his part, Kay says that, while he did visit Skaggs’ room that evening and noticed “lines of drugs,” he did not partake and returned to his room shortly after arriving.
“(I swear this) on my children: I was not there when Tyler went south. I was in my room,” Kay told The Athletic.
Kay also expressed dissatisfaction with his attorneys in his recent interview. He was offered a plea arrangement prior to going to trial that called for a maximum sentence of 10 years with the possibility of early parole. While he was seriously considering the prosecution’s offer, Kay says his lawyer Michael Molfetta repeatedly called him a “bitch.”
In a recording of the meeting made by Kay’s mother Sandy, Molfetta can be heard saying, “If you decide to plead to this horsesh-t deal, I will not go to Texas, I will not be party to it.”
Kay also regrets following his lawyer’s advice and not taking the stand. “That would have mattered. That would have resonated with (the jury) who were disconnected to our side,” Kay told The Athletic.
Additionally, he was disappointed with his attorneys’ questioning of former MLB pitcher Matt Harvey, who received immunity to testify at Kay’s trial and admitted to “being a cocaine and oxycodone user and occasionally providing Skaggs with oxycodone pills when he played for the Angels in 2019,” according to Alden Gonzalez of ESPN.
Harvey, who was not on the road with the team when Skaggs died, did not face criminal charges. He was, however, suspended 60 games for violating MLB’s drug policy following his testimony at the 2022 trial.
Ultimately, the jury believed the prosecution’s argument and Kay was found guilty. A verdict that Kay does not see as justice.
“I am the linchpin to the whole thing … To the civil suit, to the national story. It relates to the Angels. It relates to the Skaggs family. And it relates to payments. As it relates to advancing careers. I am the person. I have the sex appeal,” he told The Athletic.
Kay is set to be released from prison in 2041. He would be close to 70 years old.
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