FORT WORTH, Texas — The death of Los Angeles Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs in 2019 was one of the first in Tarrant County involving fentanyl, and that number continues to increase, toxicologists testified Friday in federal court.
With that, prosecutors continued on Friday to build the case against former Angels communications director Eric Kay, who was indicted on charges of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute a controlled substance and distribution of a controlled substance resulting in death and serious bodily injury.
Kay has pleaded not guilty.
An Angels security guard found Skaggs' body on a bed in a hotel in Southlake on July 1, 2019. Skaggs and his teammates were at the hotel because the team was to play the Texas Rangers that day.
Federal authorities have called Kay the drug dealer for Skaggs, and several teammates of Skaggs' are on the witness list for the trial, which started Tuesday in Fort Worth.
On Friday, several chemists and toxicologists from the Tarrant County Medical Examiner's Office told the federal jury that fentanyl was in Skaggs' system at the time of his death in 2019.
Dr. Richard Fries, chief deputy medical examiner, testified Friday that Skaggs died from a mixed drug overdose, and one of those drugs was fentanyl. He also died from asphyxiation.
"There was no trauma to the body," Fries told the jury.
Skaggs' defense attorneys have argued that fentanyl may not have been the exclusive cause of the baseball player's death
Testimony from officials at the medical examiner's office noted that they had not seen many fentanyl cases in 2019 in Tarrant County, but the death rate was climbing.
Tarrant County records showed as many as 123 deaths connected to fentanyl through November 2021. That was nearly a 30% increase over 2020, according to a KTVT-TV report in December.
The trial continues next week. U.S. District Judge Terry Means is allowing 20 hours of evidence presentation from prosecutors and 15 hours from the defense.
Kay rejected a plea offer in the case, Assistant U.S. Attorney Lindsey Beran told Means at a pretrial conference. She did not describe the terms of the offer.
Kay was charged in July 2020. He is 47 and lives in Orange, Calif.
Inside of Skaggs' hotel room, law enforcement authorities found pills, including one with the marking M/30. The pill, which resembled a 30-milligram oxycodone tablet, was tested, and it had been laced with fentanyl, a synthetic opiate, according to an affidavit written by DEA agent Geoffrey Lindenberg that was filed with the expectation that it would support the criminal complaint in the case.
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This report contains information from Fort Worth Star-Telegram archives.
