TARRANT COUNTY, Texas — The trial for a former Los Angeles Angels employee accused of providing Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs with the drugs that caused his overdose death is underway.
Eric Prescott Kay faces charges of drug distribution and drug conspiracy in Skaggs’ death in the Dallas area in 2019.
A jury was seated and opening statements began Tuesday in the trial that has been postponed several times.
Federal prosecutors allege Kay, who was the Angels’ director of communications and served as the team’s public relations contact, obtained oxycodone pills from various sources and distributed them to Skaggs and others.
Skaggs, 27, died before the start of a series between the Angels and Texas Rangers. He was found dead in his hotel room in Southlake, Texas, on July 1, 2019.
The Tarrant County Medical Examiner said that Skaggs had a mixture of ethanol, fentanyl and oxycodone in his system at the time of his death.
Kay was indicted by a federal grand jury in October 2020.
On Tuesday, Andrew Heaney, currently with the L.A. Dodgers, took the stand. Heaney, who was with the Angles at the time of Skaggs' death, was close friends the the pitcher. He was the one who alerted the team that he could not reach Skaggs, leading hotel security to find him dead.
In opening statements, prosecutors said "only one person was texting Tyler that night that he was coming to his room, and that was the defendant." But the defense said prosecutors can't prove Kay gave Skaggs the pills the day he died, and that the pitcher had "three white powered lines on his desk."
"Eric drank a beer and then saw Tyler snort the three lines, then Eric left the room," the defense said.
The defense added that other people were supplying Skaggs with drugs, too, and that both men were addicts and helped each other feed their habits.
Prosecutors said they have evidence and other players who will testify that Kay was the supplier. Five major league pitchers are on the government’s witness list for the trial. The filing by federal prosecutors says Boston’s Garrett Richards would testify that Kay once asked him for unused oxycodone pills.
That testimony is scheduled to continue Wednesday.
Richards spent his first eight big league seasons with the Angels. All five pitchers are no longer with the Angels. The others are Andrew Heaney, Cam Bedrosian, Matt Harvey and Blake Parker.
The charges against Kay carry a maximum of a life sentence and 20 years in prison.
In June 2021, Skaggs’ family filed lawsuits in Texas and California charging the Los Angeles Angels and former communications director Time Mead and Kay with negligence.
