Tyler Skaggs’ widow questioned during testimony about Angel’s pitcher’s potential drug use at own wedding, texts calling him a liar

An attorney for the Los Angeles Angels pressed Tyler Skaggs’ wife and his mother about the pitchers’ illicit drug use and spending habits during testimony in an ongoing wrongful death trial on Monday, Dec 8, as the high-profile case entered what is expected to be the final week of testimony.

Carli Skaggs, Tyler’s widow, was asked repeatedly about her husband’s alleged drug use during his 2018 bachelor party and around the couple’s wedding, as the eighth week of the trial got underway.

According to testimony, someone may have brought cocaine to the bachelor party, which was attended by Tyler Skaggs’ high school friends. Carli said she didn’t know if her husband took any of the cocaine at his bachelor party, or another person’s bachelor party he attended a week prior. But an attorney for the ball club showed a text exchange with a trainer in which Tyler Skaggs referenced having “major sinus stuff” and added “A little too much white girl the last two weekends doesn’t help.” Carli said she had “no idea” if that was a reference to cocaine.

The defense attorney showed jurors a video taken from the wedding showing Tyler Skaggs and his groomsman taking a shot of Fireball Whisky — and Skaggs putting something in his mouth — just before Skaggs walked down the aisle. Carli said she believed it was a breath mint, not a pain pill. She testified that she didn’t know what Tyler was referencing in a text in which he wrote about having “crushed that whole bag” at the wedding and adding “I’m a savage.” In a text message to his groomsmen the day after the wedding, Tyler wrote “I blacked hard the kid is a mess right now.”

An attorney for the team indicated the text indicated Skaggs had blacked out.

In a text to Tyler from 2017, Carli acknowledged writing “You lie so nonchalant it’s crazy,” adding it “scares me sometimes.” In a different text, in 2016, Carli wrote “I promise u I won’t be around much longer.”

During her testimony, Carli said she had been “acting a little crazy” when she wrote those texts.

“I will admit I overreact at times,” Carli testified. “With Tyler it was a maturity thing. He never lied about anything serious.”

“You accused Tyler of living a double life because of all the lying he did in the relationship?” asked Stephen Ladsous, an attorney for the Angels.

“Tyler was somebody who would definitely avoid confrontation,” Carli said. “So if he said something that wasn’t 100 percent accurate it was to avoid confrontation, to protect my feelings and make me happy. It was never anything serious.”

Family members of Tyler Skaggs have acknowledged that he admitted having an issue with Percocets during his time with the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2013, but say they had no idea his use of opioids continued after he was traded to the Angels in 2014. Skaggs died in a Texas hotel room at the start of a team road trip in July 2019. Percot tablets contain oxycodone and acetaminophen.

Testimony on Monday seemed to indicate that Skaggs’ drug use started before 2013. A photo he apparently took in 2012 showed what appeared to be a line of crushed drugs and a snorting straw. And in testimony from a deposition video, Eric Smith, a former pitcher, described using opioids recreationally with Skaggs and another teammate starting in 2011.

Also under questioning, Skaggs’ mother, Debbie Hetman, acknowledged that she kept a close eye on her son’s finances. He spent thousands of dollars on sneakers, she admitted, and at one point bought what the defense attorney referred to as a “tricked out” Porsche from a teammate that was four years old and had more than 100,000 miles on it.

“It was the stupidest purchase of his life,” Hetman said of the car. “It was unimaginable. I was so mad at him.”

Attorneys for the Angels argue that Skaggs kept his drug use a secret, making it impossible for them to get him help and to save his life.

A former Angels communications staffer, Eric Kay, provided Skaggs and other players with illicit opioids, including a pill containing fentanyl that Skaggs snorted prior to his death. Kay is serving a prison sentence for his role in Skaggs death. What the Angels knew, or at least should have known, about Skaggs drug usage or his drug ties to Kay are a key issue in the current civil wrongful death trial.

The defense attorneys have raised repeated concerns with Orange County Superior Court Judge H. Shaina Colover about fitting all their remaining witnesses into the current week. But the judge has repeatedly told jurors that they should expect to begin their deliberations next week.

Testimony continues Tuesday in an Orange County Superior Courtroom in Santa Ana.