Angels Employee Sentenced to 22 Years in Prison Over Death of Pitcher

Eric Kay, a former Los Angeles Angels worker, was sentenced to 22 years in federal jail on Tuesday for having supplied medicine to the pitcher Tyler Skaggs that led to his overdose dying in Texas.

Kay, 48, who was sentenced by U.S. District Choose Terry R. Means in Fort Value, had confronted at the least 20 years in jail after being convicted in February of conspiracy to own with intent to distribute a managed substance and conspiracy to own with intent to distribute a managed substance leading to dying and severe bodily harm.

In keeping with The Related Press, Kay, wearing an orange jumpsuit with handcuffs and leg shackles, didn’t react when the decide learn his sentence. There was additionally no seen response from Skaggs’s widow and his mom or members of Kay’s household.

Skaggs’s household issued a press release following the sentencing.

“We’re very grateful to everybody who labored so onerous to research and prosecute Eric Kay,” the assertion stated. “At present’s sentencing isn’t in regards to the variety of years the defendant acquired. The true concern on this case is holding accountable the people who find themselves distributing the lethal drug fentanyl. It’s killing tens of 1000’s of individuals yearly in our nation and destroying households together with it.

“We’ll proceed the struggle to carry accountable those that allowed Kay to offer a lethal drug to Tyler. However for his or her actions, Tyler would nonetheless be with us right this moment.”

On the sentencing listening to, prosecutors launched a few of Kay’s jailhouse calls and emails into proof in hopes of demonstrating Kay’s lack of regret.

Within the calls and emails, Kay attacked Skaggs’s character, mocked the Skaggs household, demeaned the jury that convicted him and implied your complete continuing was an try by the Skaggs household to get cash in a civil swimsuit.

“All they see are greenback indicators,” Kay stated. “They could get more cash with him lifeless than he was taking part in.”

The trial, which had performed out over two weeks in February, explored drug use amongst Main League Baseball gamers, a number of of whom, when testifying, admitted to buying opioids by means of Kay. Matt Harvey, a former pitcher for the Mets who was a teammate of Skaggs’s with the Angels in 2019, mentioned his personal cocaine use, in addition to his use of opioids. He and others portrayed Kay as a staff worker who was recognized for having the ability to get gamers the medicine they sought, whilst he dealt along with his personal dependancy to drugs.

Skaggs, who, a number of witnesses testified, had an dependancy to the opioid Percocet earlier in his profession, was stated to have despatched teammates to Kay over time so Kay may purchase medicine for them.

Federal prosecutors stated Skaggs’s dying in a lodge room in July 2019 got here because of choking to dying on his vomit because of drugs supplied to him by Kay that appeared like oxycodone however have been truly fentanyl, a extra highly effective opioid. A health worker and several other toxicologists testified that it was the fentanyl in Skaggs’s system that led to his dying.