After more than a week of testimony, a jury will begin deliberating Thursday whether a former Los Angeles Angels staffer was responsible for the 2019 death of one of the team’s pitchers, Tyler Skaggs.
Eric Kay, former communications director for the Los Angeles Angels, is facing charges of drug distribution and drug conspiracy after Skaggs was found dead inside his Southlake hotel room on July 1, 2019, after the team traveled from Los Angeles before the start of what was supposed to be a four-game series against the Texas Rangers.
Prosecutors are trying to make their case that Kay provided Skaggs with the drugs that caused his death. Both Kay and Skaggs experienced opioid addictions when Skaggs died, according to testimony. A coroner’s report said Skaggs had choked to death on his vomit with a toxic mix of alcohol and the drugs fentanyl and oxycodone in his system.
On Thursday, prosecutors and Kay’s defense attorneys were allowed 45 minutes each for their closing arguments before the case was handed to the jury. Assistant U.S. Attorney Lindsey Beran said Thursday, the case “is about one person.”
“One person gave Tyler Skaggs pills,” Beran said, referring to Kay.
Beran pointed to phone records and Venmo transactions which were presented as part of the government’s evidence of alleged conspiracy, suggesting Kay had “customers” who were given drugs without prescriptions. Beran also referred to a text message conversation between Kay and Skaggs on June 30, when Kay asked him “how many?” In return, Skaggs answered “Just a few … like five.”
Later that day, a text message conversation between the two included Skaggs telling Kay his room number at the Southlake hotel and to “come up.”
“Evidence shows Eric Kay was his [Skaggs] drug dealer,” Beran said Thursday, reminding the jury witnesses throughout the trial have testified Kay and Skaggs were not friends outside of the team setting. Four major league players testified this week saying they have received oxycodone pills from Kay. Their evidence did not show Skaggs had any other sources for drugs, she added.
Reagan Wynn, one of Kay’s defense attorneys, argued prosecutors were “misrepresenting facts” and that the case had been “reverse engineered.”
“The government is asking you to make a bunch of assumptions,” Wynn told jurors Thursday. “He’s [Kay] guilty because we [prosecutors] say so. That’s it. Nothing to it.”
Wynn has argued there is insufficient evidence tying Kay to Skaggs’ death. He also pointed to the text messages exchanged between Kay and Skaggs on June 30, suggesting it was not proof of a drug deal. Where Skaggs got the pills has not been proven, Wynn said.
“Find evidence that [Kay] gave him [Skaggs] the pills that night,” he said Thursday. “The government is trying to get you to look anywhere but the facts.”
Closing arguments ended before noon Thursday.
