Ex-Los Angeles Angels employee charged in Texas overdose death of pitcher Tyler Skaggs
A former employee of the Los Angeles Angels has been charged in connection with the fentanyl overdose death of pitcher Tyler Skaggs in Texas in 2019, federal officials said Friday.
Ex-Angels communications director Eric Prescott Kay, 45, is accused of providing fentanyl that led to Skaggs’ overdose last year in Southlake.
Kay, who was arrested in Fort Worth, made his initial court appearance Friday morning before U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeffrey L. Cureton at the Mahon Federal Courthouse.
He is charged with conspiracy to distribute a mixture containing detectable amounts of fentanyl.
If convicted, Kay faces a maximum of 20 years in a federal prison.
“We learned that there was unacceptable behavior inconsistent with our code of conduct, and we took steps to address it,” according to a statement released Friday afternoon by officials with the Angels. “Our investigation also confirmed that no one in management was aware, or informed, of any employees providing opioids to any player, nor that Tyler was using opioids.”
Angels officials said they hired a former federal prosecutor to conduct an independent investigation.
The federal criminal complaint stated that Kay and others “did knowingly and intentionally combine, conspire, confederate, and agree to commit the following offense against the United States to wit: distribution of fentanyl.”
Skaggs, 27, was found dead in July 2019 at the Southlake Town Square Hilton. He died from a mixture of ethanol, fentanyl and oxycodone in his system, according to a ruling by the Tarrant County medical examiner’s office in Fort Worth.
A criminal complaint written by DEA agent Geoffrey Lindeberg provided this account of the incident:
Inside of Skaggs’ hotel room, investigators found a number of pills including a single blue pill with the markings M/30. The pill, which resembled a 30-milligram oxycodone tablet, was tested and it had been laced with fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opiate.
Kay allegedly denied knowing whether Skaggs was a drug user. He also claimed the last time he saw Skaggs was at hotel check-in on June 30, but investigators searched Skaggs’ phone, which revealed text messages on June 30 suggesting that Kay stop by his room with pills later that evening.
Hotel key card records indicated Kay’s room was opened at 11:29 p.m., and Skaggs’ was opened nine minutes later.
Kay allegedly admitted to a colleague that he had visited Skaggs’ room the night he died.
From the investigation, Kay is accused of regularly dealing the M/30 pills dubbed “blue boys” to Skaggs and to others, passing out the pills at the stadium where they worked.
Kay is accused of dealing the drugs from 2017 until July 2019, according to the complaint.
“Tyler Skaggs’ overdose — coming as it did in the midst of an ascendant baseball career — should be a wakeup call: No one is immune from the deadly drug, whether sold as powder or hidden inside of an innocuous-looking tablet,” said U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Erin Nealy Cox in a Friday news release. “Suppressing the spread of fentanyl is a priority for the Department of Justice.”
In 2018, 128 people in the United States died every day after overdosing on opioids, according to the National Institute of Drug Abuse.
“Fentanyl does not discriminate in its potential deadly consequences,” said DEA Special Agent in Charge Eduardo A. Chavez in a news release. “With the prevalence of fentanyl in many of the counterfeit prescription drugs sold on the streets, every pill taken could be your last.”
Chavez said the DEA would continue to identify and investigate those who distributed the drugs.
“The Angels Organization has fully cooperated with Law Enforcement and Major League Baseball,” according to Angels officials. “As we try to heal from the loss of Tyler, we continue to work with authorities as they complete their investigation.”
This story was originally published August 7, 2020 at 3:09 PM with the headline "Ex-Los Angeles Angels employee charged in Texas overdose death of pitcher Tyler Skaggs."
