Ex-New York Met Matt Harvey was named as a possible drug source for former Los Angeles Angels teammate Tyler Skaggs, according to Eric Kay’s defense attorney on the first day of his trial in connection to Skaggs’s death.
Kay is on trial following an indictment on two counts in the overdose death of Skaggs’s death in 2019. He was charged with distributing the fentanyl that caused the pitcher’s death. The indictment said Kay, former Angels communications director, “knowingly and intentionally [distributed] a mixture and substance containing a detectable amount of fentanyl, a Schedule II controlled substance.”
Reagan Wynn, Kay’s defense attorney, opened on Tuesday by saying Kay saw Skaggs, 27, take three lines of crushed pills on the night he died. Skaggs told Kay the pink substance was Percocet he got from Harvey.
But Percocet was not found in Skaggs’s system. The pink pills were five-milligram oxycodone that was not laced with fentanyl.
Skaggs had fentanyl, oxycodone, and alcohol in his system the night he died by choking on his vomit.
Kay faces a felony charge of causing the opioid-related death and a second felony charge of distributing opioids. According to the prosecution, he distributed opioids to many players and got them from the umpire’s clubhouse attendant. An affidavit stated Skaggs and Kay had text messages on June 30 when the pitcher asked Kay to come to his room and bring pills.
“Eric Kay and Tyler Skaggs were not ‘outside of work’ friends,” according to assistant U.S. attorney Lindsey Beran, per Tyler Quinn of ESPN. “Eric Kay was Tyler Skaggs’s drug dealer. That was their relationship.”
Former All-Star pitcher Harvey will testify as a government witness later this week.
(Photo: Dale Zanine/USA TODAY Sports)
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