Former Angels employee convicted in overdose death of pitcher Tyler Skaggs

A jury has found former Los Angeles Angels employee Eric Kay guilty of providing Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs with the drugs that led to his overdose death, The Associated Press reported. 

Kay, a former public relations employee for the Angels baseball team, was convicted on each count of drug distribution resulting in death and drug conspiracy. 

The jury, made up of ten women and two men, deliberated for no more than three hours following the conclusion of the eight-day trial, according to the AP. 

During the closing arguments, prosecutor Lindsey Beran said the government proved that Kay provided the drugs to Skaggs before his death, adding that the delivery was conducted in Texas, with fentanyl being the cause of death for Skaggs. 

Skaggs, an eight-year MLB veteran, was found dead in his Dallas-area hotel room in July 2019. A coroner’s office report said Skaggs choked on his own vomit and had a fatal mix of alcohol, fentanyl and oxycodone in his system. 

Prosecutors also argued that Kay provided Skaggs counterfeit oxycodone pills that contained fentanyl, the AP reported. 

“We’re obviously disappointed in the verdict. We thought there were many reasons to doubt the government’s case,” one of Kay’s attorneys, Regan Wynn, said in a statement “This is a tragedy all the way around. Eric Kay is getting ready to do minimum 20 years in a federal penitentiary and it goes up from there. And Tyler Skaggs is gone.”

This comes after current and former MLB players Matt Harvey, Mike Morin, Cam Bedrosian, and C.J. Cron testified on Tuesday that Kay provided drugs for them. 

Harvey, a former All-Star pitcher with the New York Mets, also admitted to cocaine use before and during his stint with the Angels, the AP reported. 

“This case is a sober reminder: Fentanyl kills. Anyone who deals fentanyl — whether on the streets or out of a world-famous baseball stadium — puts his or her buyers at risk. No one is immune from this deadly drug,” U.S. Attorney Chad E. Meacham said in a statement after the verdict. 

Kay faces life in prison when he’s scheduled to be sentenced on June 28, according to the AP.