Judge Gives Reason Behind Lengthy Sentence In Tyler Skaggs Case

Former Los Angeles Angels employee Eric Kay was handed a 22-year prison sentence for supplying Angeles pitcher Tyler Skaggs with drugs that lead to an overdose and his death back in 2019.

Skaggs overdosed on counterfeit oxycodone laced with fentanyl in a Dallas hotel room. Kay was charged in 2020 after it was found that he had given Skaggs the pills.

On Tuesday, a judge gave him a 22-year sentence; two years more than the minimum.

Why the extra two years?

U.S. District Judge Terry R. Means explained that it had to do with a series of calls and emails from prison that Kay made and sent after his conviction back in February.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Judge Means initially thought that the minimum 20-year sentence Kay was facing was excessive. However, the messages that authorities intercepted are what cause the judge to add two additional years.

In the phone calls and messages, Kay referred to the jury as “fat, sloppy, toothless, and unemployed.” and said that Tyler Skaggs was worth more to his family dead than alive, in addition to many other disgusting things.

U.S. Attorney Errin Martin pointed to these messages and calls as evidence of the "real Eric Kay." Martin also noted that it shows Kay is “incapable of taking responsibility for his own actions and likely has been for his entire life.”

Kay worked for the Angels from since 1996 until his arrest. He allegedly supplied oxycodone to Skaggs and several other players.

The Angels drafted Skaggs in 2009, and first pitched for the organization in 2014 after 2 seasons with the Arizona Diamondbacks.

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