Former Baseball Executive Eric Kay Gets 22-Year Prison Sentence In Connection With Tyler Skaggs’ Death

While former Los Angeles Angels communications director Eric Kay was incarcerated these past seven-plus months following his February conviction on drug charges in connection with former Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs’ overdose death, Kay unleashed a torrent of vitriol in phone calls and email messages.

According to federal prosecutors, Kay, 48, made disparaging remarks about the jurors who decided his fate, belittled Skaggs’ family and “insulted” the late pitcher Skaggs using profanity.

“I hope people realize what a piece of sh*t (Skaggs) is,” Kay told his mother in a recorded jailhouse call, according to a Department of Justice press release. “Well, he’s dead, so f*ck ‘em.”

Kay was sentenced to 22 years in federal prison Tuesday, months after he was convicted by a jury for distributing the lethal drugs that killed Skaggs. The left-handed pitcher was found dead in a Texas hotel room on July 1, 2019. A medical examiner determined that Skaggs had powerful opiates fentanyl (which is synthetic) and oxycodone, as well as ethanol, in his system at the time of his death.

Skaggs was 27.

During Kay’s trial, former Angels players — including pitchers Matt Harvey and Cam Bedrosian — testified that Kay provided them with oxycodone pills. When Kay was first charged in a federal complaint in 2020, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas said if convicted, Kay faced up to 20 years in prison.

But the federal judge who sentenced Kay — Senior U.S. District Judge Terry R. Means — added two years because of the phone call and email evidence introduced in court.

“At Tuesday’s sentencing hearing, prosecutors introduced into evidence jailhouse calls and emails demonstrating the nature of Mr. Kay’s crime and his lack of remorse,” said the DOJ press release. “He also mocked the Skaggs family, calling them “dumb” and “white trash” and suggesting his mother plant negative stories about them in the media… He even demeaned the jurors that convicted him, calling them ‘fat, sloppy, toothless, and unemployed.’”

“All they see are dollar signs,” Kay said of the Skaggs family, according to the DOJ release. “They may get more money with (Tyler Skaggs) dead than he was playing because he sucked.”

Kay’s attorney, Cody Cofer, did not return a message for comment, but according to the Washington Post, Cofer said in court, “The notion that (Kay) is likely to reoffend is just not supported.” One of Kay’s previous attorneys, Reagan Wynn, was suspended from practicing law earlier this year after he “failed to explain the criminal matter” to his client in a separate case, according to a court filing.

Another former Kay attorney, Michael Molfetta, withdrew from the case.

Former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani said he was not surprised that Judge Means tacked on two years to the mandatory minimum sentence for Kay.

“Judges want to hear remorse,” said Rahmani, now the president of West Coast Trial Lawyers. “But those jail calls and emails show Kay’s refusal to accept responsibility. I’m sure Kay’s lawyers 100% told him, ‘Be careful what you say in prison.’ There’s a much lower standard at sentencing hearings. You don’t have to lay that foundation like at trial. But rarely if ever have I seen something like this, coming after someone is convicted. It’s either the behavior of a narcissist or someone stupid, or both.”

Skaggs’ parents and his widow, Carli, have filed wrongful death lawsuits against the Angels organization, Kay, and another former Angels communications executive, Tim Mead. Mead was briefly the president of the Baseball Hall of Fame before resigning from the post in 2021.

“The Skaggs family learned the hard way: One fentanyl pill can kill. That’s why our office is committed to holding to account anyone who deals in illicit opioids, whether they operate in back alleyways or world class stadiums,” U.S. Attorney Chad E. Meacham said after Kay’s sentencing, according to the DOJ press release. “Mr. Skaggs did not deserve to die this way. No one does. We hope this sentence will bring some comfort to his grieving family.”