Eric Kay indicted in Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs’ death
A federal grand jury in Texas has indicted former Angels employee Eric Kay on two counts in the overdose death of pitcher Tyler Skaggs.
Returned late Thursday and filed Friday morning in U.S. District Court in Fort Worth the indictment charges Kay with distributing the fentanyl that resulted in Skaggs’ death last year.
“On or about June 30, 2019 ... Eric Prescott Kay, the defendant, did knowingly and intentionally distribute a mixture and substance containing a detectable amount of fentanyl, a Schedule II controlled substance, and the use of said substance resulted in the death and serious bodily injury of (Skaggs),” the indictment said.
It also alleges Kay and unspecified “others” conspired to possess with intent to distribute fentanyl “beginning in or before 2017.”
Kay, who worked in the Angels’ media relations department for 24 years, had been arrested by federal authorities Aug. 7 on a charge of distributing fentanyl. He hadn’t entered a plea.
The deadline to indict Kay was extended twice after the initial charge as both sides discussed a plea bargain.
Skaggs, 27, died in his hotel room July 1, 2019, in Southlake, Texas, before the Angels were scheduled to start a threegame series against the Texas Rangers. The toxicology report by the Tarrant County medical examiner found fentanyl and oxycodone in his system and listed the cause of death as “alcohol, fentanyl and oxycodone intoxication with terminal aspiration of gastric contents.”