The most notable moments from the Tyler Skaggs wrongful death trial against the LA Angels

An Orange County jury was still deliberating Wednesday in the Tyler Skaggs wrongful death case against the Los Angeles Angels, as they sifted through two months of evidence and testimony that provided a rare look at the darker side of professional baseball culture.

Jurors, in deciding whether the Angels bear any responsibility for Skaggs’ death, must grapple with whether Skaggs was a secret drug addict who took advantage of an Angels employee, Eric Kay, and introduced other players to opioids, as argued by the team, or the victim of an unscrupulous ball club staffer who failed to outline the danger of the street drugs he was providing, as the Skaggs family contends.

At the time of his death, Skaggs was a 27-year-old starting pitcher for the Angels. Eric Kay, a longtime team public relations director, was convicted of giving Skaggs a counterfeit pill containing fentanyl that led to the ballplayer’s death.

Jurors, near the start of their second day of deliberations, sent out their first note, asking to review testimony from several experts who spoke about what Skaggs could have earned if not for his untimely death.

Beyond the expert witnesses, jurors will have plenty of testimony to rely on. Some of the most notable moments from the trial included:

Eric Kay’s connections within the Angels organization

Former Angels’ Vice President of Communications Tim Mead and team traveling secretary Tom Taylor, longtime friends and colleagues of Kay who acknowledged Kay’s at-times erratic behavior, but said they attributed it to mental health issues not drug abuse. They recalled Kay having what appeared to be a panic attack in a Yankee Stadium press box in 2013, a family intervention for Kay in 2017 and an apparent overdose by Kay on Easter 2019 that ended with Kay being hospitalized and going to rehab. Both men denied accusations that they had been explicitly warned that Kay was providing drugs to Skaggs.

An Angels HR official acknowledged sending a text referring to Kay having “tweaker vibes” to a former coworker after Kay’s tie to Skaggs death became clear, but denied knowing that he had been abusing drugs during his time working for the team. Another HR official acknowledged that they were unaware that Kay had used his Angels email account to set up drug deals.

Camela Kay, Eric Kay’s ex-wife, described warning her husband’s former co-workers prior to Skaggs’ death that Eric was providing illicit opioid pills to Skaggs. The ex-wife also described a culture of rampant drug use on team road trips, in testimony that drew forceful pushback from Angels attorneys.

Angels communication director Adam Chodzko described reporting that Kay, his longtime boss and mentor, had admitted to being in the room with Skaggs’ prior to the pitcher’s death as the hardest thing he had ever done in his life. That admission by Kay led to a criminal investigation that ended with Kay being convicted for his role in Skaggs death and sentenced to more than 20 years in prison.

A team physician acknowledged prescribing more than 600 opioid pills to Kay during a half-decade period from 2009 to 2015.

Current and former player testimony including Mike Trout

Star outfield Mike Trout was the first — and highest profile — Angels player to take the stand, where he recalled offering to help Kay after learning about what Trout believed was Kay’s drug problem. Trout acknowledged that he and other players paid Kay to carry out clubhouse bets including taking a fastball to the leg, eating a bug off the floor and popping a pimple off Trout’s back and eating it.

Former Angels pitcher Mike Morin explained that he and other players who used the illicit opioids provided by Skaggs took the pills as a result of the pressures of staying on a major league roster, to deal with the stress of a professional baseball career and to counter the wear and tear of a lengthy baseball season.

Details of Skaggs’ death

Jonathan Macheca, a Texas police investigator, described the hotel room where Skaggs’ body was found, along with opioid pills hidden in a bottle for anti-inflammatory medication, a snorting straw, a hotel room car with drug residue on it seemingly used to crush up pills and a snorting straw used to ingest the drugs.

Testimony from Skaggs’ family

Those closest to Skaggs — including his wife, mother, father, stepfather and agent — recalled him admitting to having issues with Percocet while playing with the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2013, but said they believed he had dealt with the issue by the time he was traded to the Angels in 2014. But attorneys for the Angels showed numerous text messages from Tyler referencing drugs between 2014 and his death in 2019, including messages around the time of his bachelor party and wedding.

Jurors are not expected to return to continue deliberations until Friday morning.