Exact cause of Skaggs’ death disputed at trial

Kay’s attorneys try to show fentanyl was not the only reason that Angels pitcher died.

FORT WORTH — Eric Kay’s defense Thursday attempted to discredit the government’s contention that Tyler Skaggs’ ingestion of fentanyl — and nothing else found in his system — was the reason he choked on his vomit and died in a suburban Dallas hotel room in July 2019.

During cross-examination, defense attorney Reagan Wynn asked Dr. Marc Krouse, formerly a Tarrant County medical examiner who conducted Skaggs’ autopsy report, if he could say Skaggs would be alive if he didn’t take fentanyl. Krouse said there is a “greater probability” Skaggs, a 27-year-old Angels pitcher, wouldn’t have died based on the evidence, but “no scientist” could be 100% sure.

According to the autopsy report, which ruled the death as accidental, Skaggs had fentanyl, oxycodone and alcohol in his system when he was found dead in Room 469 of the Hilton Dallas/Southlake Town Square on July 1, 2019, hours before the Angels were scheduled to begin a series against the Texas Rangers.

Krouse was fired last March after an audit discovered he committed significant mistakes on other autopsies — a development Wynn resurfaced to conclude the cross-examination — but he has not been accused of errors while examining Skaggs.

Kay, a former Angels communications director, was charged with two felony counts — providing Skaggs counterfeit pills laced with fentanyl that led to his death and distributing fentanyl and oxycodone since at least 2017. Kay, 47, has pleaded not guilty.

Fentanyl is a lethal synthetic drug that has inflamed the opioid epidemic in the United States in recent years. The drug, estimated to be 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine, was tied to 64% of drug overdose deaths in the country between May 2020 and April 2021, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Kay would face a 20-year minimum sentence if convicted of supplying Skaggs with the drugs that led to his death. The prosecution must convince the jury that not only did Kay provide Skaggs the fatal drugs, but that he gave them to Skaggs in Texas and not in California. The defense conceded Kay was an addict and consumed drugs with the pitcher, but the attorneys say there is no proof Kay gave Skaggs the drugs in Texas.

Federal prosecutors don’t, however, have to prove Kay knew the drugs he was providing were laced with fentanyl.

Skaggs’ phone — the data extracted on it, its chain of custody and whether messages were deleted — also took center stage during the trial Thursday.

Southlake Police Department Cpl. Delaney Green, a detective at the time of Skaggs’ death, testified that Kay initially didn’t tell investigators that he saw Skaggs the night he died — a point Wynn conceded during his opening statement Tuesday. Wynn said Kay lied because he wanted to hide his secret life as a drug addict.

Green said she learned that Kay saw Skaggs only after Adam Chodzko, another Angels communications employee, told the police. Green said Kay then became a person of interest. Text messages between Skaggs and Kay found in Skaggs’ phone and presented Thursday indicated Skaggs invited Kay to his room and Kay agreed to go June 30.