Ex-Angels staffer goes to trial in August in fatal overdose of pitcher Tyler Skaggs
The federal trial for the former communications director of the Los Angeles Angels, who is accused of drug charges related to the fentanyl overdose death of pitcher Tyler Skaggs in Southlake in 2019, has been set for August in Fort Worth.
The jury trial previously had been set for this month, but defense attorneys for Eric Kay had asked for and were granted an Aug. 16 trial date.
Fort Worth lawyer Wm. Reagan Wynn, who is one of Kay’s attorneys, had asked for an extension because attorneys could not obtain files in February during the severe winter weather in Texas. Prosecutors had produced voluminous files and reports in the case, such as 24,000 pages of law enforcement reports, expert reports, financial records, telephone records and other records obtained via a grand jury subpoena.
Wynn noted that Michael Molfetta of Costa Mesa, California, who also was Kay’s attorney, would be unavailable in July because he serves as a baseball agent scouting and recruiting players.
Kay was indicted by a federal grand jury in October on the federal drug charges linked to Skaggs’ death. Skaggs was found dead in a Southlake hotel in July 2019.
A federal criminal complaint written by DEA agent Geoffrey Lindeberg provided this account of the incident:
Inside of Skaggs’ hotel room, investigators found a number of pills, including a single blue pill with the markings M/30. The pill, which resembled a 30-milligram oxycodone tablet, was tested and it had been laced with fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opiate.
Kay allegedly denied knowing whether Skaggs was a drug user. He also claimed the last time he saw Skaggs was at hotel check-in on June 30, but investigators searched Skaggs’ phone, which revealed text messages on June 30 suggesting that Kay stop by his room with pills later that evening.
Hotel key card records indicated Kay’s room was opened at 11:29 p.m., and Skaggs’ was opened nine minutes later.
Kay allegedly admitted to a colleague that he had visited Skaggs’ room the night he died.
Kay is accused of regularly dealing the M/30 pills dubbed “blue boys” to Skaggs and to others, passing out the pills at the stadium where they worked.
