OC Register: Eric Kay found guilty of causing Tyler Skaggs’ death (sentenced to 22 years in prison)

[AngelsWin.com]

FORT WORTH, Texas — Former Angels employee Eric Kay was convicted Thursday of providing Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs the drugs that led to his overdose death in Texas.

Kay was convicted one count each of drug distribution resulting in death and drug conspiracy. He faces up to life in prison. Sentencing is set for June 28.

Skaggs’ widow, Carli, and his mother, Debbie, hugged as the verdict was announced. Kay took off his jacket and tie and was placed into handcuffs, nodding toward his family and friends in the courtroom.

A 10-woman, two-man jury revealed the verdict in a federal courtroom in downtown Fort Worth, about 15 miles from where the Angels were supposed to open a four-game series against the Texas Rangers on July 1, 2019, the day Skaggs was found dead in a suburban Dallas hotel room.

A coroner’s report said Skaggs, 27, had choked to death on his vomit, and a toxic mix of alcohol, fentanyl and oxycodone was in his system.

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• 4 former Angels testify they received drugs from Eric Kay, who’s accused of providing them to Tyler Skaggs
• Former colleague says Eric Kay saw Tyler Skaggs do drugs the night before his death

The trial included testimony from five major league players who said they received oxycodone pills from Kay at various times from 2017-19, the years Kay was accused of obtaining pills and giving them to players. Kay also used drugs himself, according to testimony and court documents.

More to come on this story.

View the full article

[Lhalo]

7 hours ago, AngelsWin.com said:

A 10-woman, two-man jury revealed the verdict in a federal courtroom in downtown Fort Worth, about 15 miles from where the Angels were supposed to open a four-game series against the Texas Rangers on July 1, 2019, the day Skaggs was found dead in a suburban Dallas hotel room.

JFC

[jsnpritchett]

 

[UndertheHalo]

20 years is fucking wild.  

[ukyah]

just my personal feelings, but i feel he is a scapegoat for the family and the justice system. put a drug addict in prison for 20+ years if you want, he's already destroyed his life anyways, but skaggs death is on skaggs. they're both expected collateral damage of an intentionally created crisis by purdue pharma. those guys will never be punished.

[Blarg]

Kay does have responsibility for his actions of supplying tainted drugs that led to a death. 20 years doesn't sound unreasonable considering Skaggs ended up dead. And, yes, Kay's life is fucked but he fucked it, not the evil pharmaceutical companies. 

[ukyah]

2 minutes ago, Blarg said:

Kay does have responsibility for his actions of supplying tainted drugs that led to a death. 20 years doesn't sound unreasonable considering Skaggs ended up dead. And, yes, Kay's life is fucked but he fucked it, not the evil pharmaceutical companies. 

ok. 

[Second Base]

At the end of the day, you're responsible for your own actions. If you walk the right path, and you're a fortunate man, you might even bare some responsibility for your wife and children. 

But one adult man being fully responsible for another adult man's drug habit? No. That's not the way the world works. Kay should be punished. Getting drug dealers off the streets is a plus, something I wish our CA DA's did more often. 

His punishment isn't for Skaggs' death. Or at least it shouldn't be. His punishment should be for being the scum that deals drugs. I'm fine with the 20 year sentence. 

I suppose that's splitting hairs though. What difference does it make if you're in prison for your friends OD death or if you're there for being a POS dealer? As long as you're there, where you belong.

 

[Lhalo]

1 hour ago, Blarg said:

Kay does have responsibility for his actions of supplying tainted drugs that led to a death. 20 years doesn't sound unreasonable considering Skaggs ended up dead. And, yes, Kay's life is fucked but he fucked it, not the evil pharmaceutical companies. 

Your personal history is clouding your judgement on this matter. Skaggs was an adult who rolled the dice and now he’s dead by his own fault. When you eat a poison berry do you blame the bush?

[Lhalo]

Also 20 years is complete bullshit. I could shoot one of you board members in the face and be out in less than 10. 

[T.G.]

34 minutes ago, Lhalo said:

Also 20 years is complete bullshit. I could shoot one of you board members in the face and be out in less than 10. 

Reported

[ukyah]

all drug users are drug dealers. there's a distinction between a drug smuggler or a large quantity drug dealer making a living off of it and end users moving product around to feed eachother's habits. eric kay is a drug addict, just like skaggs. he would supply skaggs to help fund his own supply. they hook each other up when opportunity arises. they were users helping each other in whatever way they had the opportunity to score. that's just the way it is. putting skaggs death on kay is just a way to comfort yourself. you remove kay and skaggs is still an addict. he's not some nefarious bad guy, he's a drug addict. no more, no less. also, the fentanyl that's in these street drugs isn't being put in there by kay. it's being put in by the smugglers because it's like high fructose corn syrup for drugs. a small amount of fentanyl is way cheaper than a larger amount of heroin or whatever. it's corporate economics that's killing these end users. 

i'm not saying be soft on crime. i'm just calling a spade a spade.

[ukyah]

2 hours ago, Lhalo said:

Also 20 years is complete bullshit. I could shoot one of you board members in the face and be out in less than 10. 

nope.

[tdawg87]

Seems a bit outrageous, honestly. Skaggs killed himself. It's ridiculous that Kay (who is definitely a piece of shit, don't get me wrong) gets essentially charged with murder over Skaggs' death. 

There always has to be something or someone to blame. Sometimes adults make really stupid life choices and sometimes those choices get them hurt or killed. That's Skaggs.

The family was just out for blood and didn't want to face the fact that their son was a drug addict and he's dead because of it. 

[Lou]

5 hours ago, Lhalo said:

Also 20 years is complete bullshit. I could shoot one of you board members in the face and be out in less than 10. 

Are you taking requests?

[Blarg]

9 hours ago, Lhalo said:

Your personal history is clouding your judgement on this matter. Skaggs was an adult who rolled the dice and now he’s dead by his own fault. When you eat a poison berry do you blame the bush?

That is a very stupid analogy. 

Yes, Skaggs was an adult and so was Kay who had an obligation to turn Skaggs problem over to the Union for drug use, not supply him. Kay put into motion the events that lead to Skaggs death. There is no excuse for Kay's actions. 

[Blarg]

4 hours ago, tdawg87 said:

There always has to be something or someone to blame. Sometimes adults make really stupid life choices and sometimes those choices get them hurt or killed. That's Skaggs.

There was an accomplice in this case, it wasn't Skaggs alone. What Kay did supplying Skaggs oxy was a felony to start with and went downhill from there. Fuck that asshole, he screwed up more than Tyler on that pitching staff. They just got lucky and didn't get a bad batch of back alley pills. 

 

[Lhalo]

35 minutes ago, Blarg said:

That is a very stupid analogy. 

Yes, Skaggs was an adult and so was Kay who had an obligation to turn Skaggs problem over to the Union for drug use, not supply him. Kay put into motion the events that lead to Skaggs death. There is no excuse for Kay's actions. 

There’s no excuse for Skaggs actions. Kay didn’t force Skaggs to take drugs. He knew the risks and he killed himself. 

[tdawg87]

29 minutes ago, Blarg said:

There was an accomplice in this case, it wasn't Skaggs alone. What Kay did supplying Skaggs oxy was a felony to start with and went downhill from there. Fuck that asshole, he screwed up more than Tyler on that pitching staff. They just got lucky and didn't get a bad batch of back alley pills. 

 

An accomplice? Really? 

[Blarg]

30 minutes ago, Lhalo said:

There’s no excuse for Skaggs actions. Kay didn’t force Skaggs to take drugs. He knew the risks and he killed himself. 

Kay's job was to keep Skaggs healthy instead of bring him into his own world of addiction. Fuck that asshole, he was dealing with half the pitching staff. He could have killed any one of them with a bad batch. I really don't see how any of you can shrug your shoulders on this and say Kay wasn't responsible. 

[Angels 1961]

So many players knew what was going on. Kay, supplied drugs to other players. Nobody stepped up or nobody cared until it was too late. Kay was convicted, is system flawed? 

[Angels 1961]

People tried to overthrow the government people died and many get off or much lighter sentences

[Lhalo]

2 hours ago, Blarg said:

Kay's job was to keep Skaggs healthy instead of bring him into his own world of addiction. Fuck that asshole, he was dealing with half the pitching staff. He could have killed any one of them with a bad batch. I really don't see how any of you can shrug your shoulders on this and say Kay wasn't responsible. 

Lmao. Skaggs was an innocent victim in your clown world. The dude liked to party and he took drugs which killed him. That’s really all there is to it. If he was just some normal dude off the street nobody would give a flying fuck who his drug dealer was. 

[Jason]

I’m fine with dealers being held accountable but Skaggs was an adult that was able to make his own choices. Saying Kay was responsible for his death is asinine 

[ten ocho recon scout]

1 hour ago, Jason said:

I’m fine with dealers being held accountable but Skaggs was an adult that was able to make his own choices. Saying Kay was responsible for his death is asinine 

I'll add here that Skaggs likely funded Kay's own habits as part of their deal.

As bad as Kay looks in all this, if it worked out vice versa (which was a lot closer than it seems), and say they both OD'd, who would the bad guy be?

And if Kay's family sued the Skaggs family, etc etc