What to Know
- Los Angeles Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs died from an opioid overdose in July 2019 at age 27.
- Skaggs was found unresponsive in a suburban Texas hotel room during a team road trip.
- A coroner’s report said Skaggs choked to death on his vomit and a toxic mix of alcohol, fentanyl and oxycodone was found in his system.
- A central figure in the trial was former public relations staffer Eric Kay and his struggles with drug addiction.
- A wrongful death lawsuit filed by the late athlete’s widow, Carli Skaggs, and parents sought $118 million in future earnings damages plus punitive damages.
A settlement was reached Friday in the wrongful death lawsuit filed by family members of Tyler Skaggs against the Los Angeles Angels in the opioid overdose death of the 27-year-old pitcher during a team road trip.
Details of the settlement, announced on the fourth day of jury deliberations, were not available. The agreement involving the MLB team and members of the Skaggs family brings an end to a two-month trial.
Orange County Superior Court Judge H. Shaina Colover dismissed jurors late Friday morning and thanked them for their service.
“That is why this matter was able to be resolved today,” Colover told the panel after the agreement was announced.
In a statement after the settlement was announced, the Skaggs family said they can now focus on healing.
“The Skaggs family has reached a confidential settlement with Angels Baseball that brings to a close a difficult six-year process, allowing our families to focus on healing. We are deeply grateful to the members of this jury, and to our legal team,” the family said. “Their engagement and focus gave us faith, and now we have finality. This trial exposed the truth and we hope Major League Baseball will now do its part in holding the Angels accountable. While nothing can bring Tyler back, we will continue to honor his memory.”
Attorneys for Skaggs’ family and the Angels delivered closing arguments early this week, handing the decision to jurors after about two months of hearing evidence connected to Skaggs’ death July 1, 2019 at age 27 in a Texas hotel room. A coroner’s report said Skaggs choked to death on his vomit and a toxic mix of alcohol, fentanyl and oxycodone was found in his system.
In a statement after the trial, the Angels said, “The death of Tyler Skaggs remains a tragedy, and this trial sheds light on the dangers of opioid use and the devastating effects it can have. Throughout the course of court proceedings, both parties searched for a path to a mutually agreed upon resolution and a confidential settlement has been reached.”
A central figure in the trial was former public relations staffer Eric Kay and his struggles with drug addiction. Attorneys for the family claimed his habit of dispensing of pills to players on the team was the primary cause of Skaggs’ demise.
“We believe Tyler Skaggs should be alive today,” said attorney Daniel Dutko, who represents the parents and widow of Skaggs. “We wanted the truth to come out. The same cannot be said of the Angels.”
He accused team officials of gaslighting the jury and argued that even after repeated problems and drug rehab stints for Kay, the team ignored what he was doing. Dutko argued that team officials tried to make the case that they worked with Major League Baseball on Kay’s drug issues.
“Major League Baseball never knew anything about Eric Kay,” the attorney said during his closing argument. “There is no evidence Major League Baseball was ever involved.”
Kay was convicted in federal court in Texas of providing Skaggs with a counterfeit oxycodone pill laced with fentanyl and sentenced to 22 years in prison. His federal criminal trial in Texas included testimony from five MLB players who said they received oxycodone from Kay at various times from 2017 to 2019, the years he was accused of obtaining pills and giving them to Angels players.
The lawsuit filed by the late athlete’s widow and parents sought $118 million in future earnings damages plus punitive damages.
The jury deliberating behind closed doors this week sent a note Wednesday, asking the judge whether they “get to decide the punitive damage amount.” The judge said she would send a note replying that if they decide there should be punitive damages, they would decide how much at a later time, the Associated Press reported.
During the trial, the team’s attorneys said Skaggs struggled mightily with his own addiction to painkillers over the years and that his death was a result of his mixing alcohol and drugs. They argued the dose of fentanyl was not potent enough to kill the pitcher by itself. The drugs were more potent because Skaggs was snorting them instead of getting them processed by his liver when swallowing a pill, the team’s attorneys contended.
Any activity involving Skaggs and Kay happened on their own time and in the privacy of the player’s hotel room, the team argued.
Angels President John Carpino was the final witness in the trial. Before him, Angels executive Molly Jolly, the team’s chief financial officer, testified in the team’s defense.
Carpino and Jolly said they were unaware of the substance-abuse issues of Skaggs or Kay. Carpino discussed how he was alerted to the news that Kay saw Skaggs snorting drugs in his hotel room while the team was on a road trip July 1, 2019, to play the Texas Rangers.
“I called counsel and asked how do we get a hold of authorities in Texas,” Carpino said.
Team officials met with federal prosecutors, the Drug Enforcement Agency and FBI, but “no charges were ever brought against the team,” he added. “We were never indicted or accused of any wrongdoing. It was strictly
pinned on Eric Kay.”
Carpino said that, in hindsight, he wished he knew of the problems the two were having with their addictions.
Carli Skaggs, the widow of Tyler Skaggs, provided emotional testimony in the civil trial’s sixth week when she talked about how the couple met. The couple, who married in 2018, had just bought a house together and were working with an architect to design a home where they could raise a family before she received a call from the team’s general manager the her husband was found unresponsive in the hotel room.
Carli Skaggs said they smoked marijuana together, but she was not aware of her husband’s other drug use.
The trial also included testimony from Camela Kay, ex-wife of Eric Kay, and Skaggs’ teammate Mike Trout, who said he loved Skaggs like a brother and never saw signs of drug use before his death.
Camela Kay said the Angels failed her then-husband, who worked lengthy hours. She said that during his 2019 hospitalization for a drug overdose, she heard he had pills intended for Skaggs.
After Skaggs’ death, the MLB reached a deal with the players association to start testing for opioids and to refer those who test positive to the treatment board.
Skaggs had been a regular in the Angels’ starting rotation since late 2016 and struggled with injuries repeatedly during that time. He previously played for the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Want more insights? Join Working Title - our career elevating newsletter and get the future of work delivered weekly.
