Prosecutors: Former Angels employee lied after Skaggs' death

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — A former Los Angeles Angels employee on trial over charges of providing Tyler Skaggs the drugs that caused his overdose death lied to police about whether he saw the Angels pitcher the night before he was found dead, a federal prosecutor alleged in opening statements Tuesday.

Eric Prescott Kay's lead defense attorney said his client didn't give Skaggs drugs that night and there was no way to know whether the fentanyl Kay is accused of providing was the cause of Skaggs' death in Texas.

Defense attorney Reagan Wynn told jurors Kay entered Skaggs' hotel room in a Dallas suburb on June 30, 2019, to find the pitcher sitting at a table with lines of powdery substances in front of him. Wynn said Skaggs told Kay a drug Kay didn't recognize was something he had shared with Matt Harvey, who pitched for the Angels that season.

Skaggs, 27, was found dead in his hotel room on July 1, 2019, after the team had traveled from Los Angeles and before the start of what was supposed to be a four-game series against the Texas Rangers. The first game was postponed.

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.

Kay faces charges of drug distribution and drug conspiracy in Skaggs’ death. The trial is expected to last about a week.

Lead prosecutor Lindsey Beran told jurors the evidence would show Kay was the only person who could have provided the drugs that led to Skaggs' death, and characterized him as more concerned about protecting himself than caring about the welfare of Skaggs' family.

“There was only one person that went to Tyler Skaggs' hotel room, and lied to police about it,” Beran said.

Kay was the Angels’ director of communications, and he served as their...

source https://www.chron.com/sports/article/Prosecutors-Former-Angels-employee-lied-after-16842932.php