One of the people allegedly involved in the death of former Los Angeles Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs is speaking out.
Former Angels director of communications Eric Kaye, making his first media appearance since being sentenced to 22 years in prison in October, Athletic, He spoke about his new reality and his own responsibility in Skaggs’ death.
Notably, Kaye believes his punishment is unduly harsh and seeks to remedy this through a habeas corpus appeal.
“I’m going to fight this,” Kaye told Sam Blum, “and I’m going to keep fighting it until I can’t fight it anymore.”
The former Angels employee added that he “cannot serve this sentence” in prison.
“I can’t be like this,” Kaye said. “If I was like, ‘Look, I deserve this. This time it’s fair,’ that’s a different story. But it’s not. I was convicted on presumptions. I was convicted on false pretenses.”
Skaggs, 27, died of a fentanyl overdose on July 1, 2019, after taking the drugs in the team’s hotel room in Texas.
In February 2022, Kaye was convicted of supplying drugs to Skaggs resulting in his death by asphyxiation and was charged with sale of drugs resulting in death and drug conspiracy.
But Mr Kaye denies this and claims his drugs did not cause Mr Skaggs’ death.
“Kay said earlier this month that he was not carrying pills – a condition of his guilty plea – and that there was no way to prove that his pills caused Skaggs’ death.”
According to the article and police report, Kaye and Skaggs had a “codependent relationship” based on drug trafficking that began in 2015.
Additionally, Kaye, who did not give jurors any information about his whereabouts on July 30, 2019, revealed to Blum that he saw a “line of drugs” in Skaggs’ hotel room the night before his death.
At the same time, Kaye maintained that he had left Skaggs’ room before the pitcher began his overdose.
Kay’s Judgment in October 2022A call Kaye had made to her mother was played, in which she called Skaggs a “son of a bitch” and his family “idiots” and “white trash.”
“All they see is dollar signs,” Kaye said of Skaggs’ family. “He was a terrible player, so they might make more money now that he’s dead than they did when he was still playing.”
Nearly two years later, Kaye apologized for his comments.
“I deeply regret the comments I made out of a personal moment of weakness,” Kaye told Blum. “They were horrible things I said. I have no way of explaining them. I didn’t mean them. I was just looking for someone to blame and yell at.”
During Kay’s trial, other former Angels players were disciplined, including All-Star pitcher Matt Harvey, who was suspended 60 games after admitting to providing opioids to Skaggs.
Despite his dissatisfaction with the guilty verdict, Kaye expressed remorse for his role in Skaggs’ death.
“I regret not contributing to his addiction. He had a lot more reason to live than I did. … ‘What are you doing?’ I should have said, ‘Tyler, what are you doing, dude?'”
