(NYTimes) – “x Angels toxicology expert offers alternative explanation for Tyler Skaggs’ cause of death”
December 6, 2025
(NYTimes) – “x Angels toxicology expert offers alternative explanation for Tyler Skaggs’ cause of death”
3 comments
More in-depth than the Register –
“SANTA ANA, Calif. — An expert in toxicology hired by the Los Angeles Angels testified on Friday that alcohol and oxycodone played a substantial factor in Tyler Skaggs’ death, and that fentanyl alone would not have killed the former pitcher.
However, on cross-examination by a Skaggs family attorney, the expert, Dr. Shaun Carstairs, admitted that he hadn’t reviewed evidence from Eric Kay’s criminal trial, in which numerous doctors involved in performing Skaggs’ autopsy gave opinions in direct contrast to Carstairs’.
Kay, the ex-Angels communications director, is serving a 22-year federal prison sentence for providing the fentanyl-laced pill that Skaggs ingested, leading to his death on July 1, 2019. The Skaggs family is suing the Angels for wrongful death.
Fentanyl was the “but for” cause of Skaggs’ death, as determined by a jury in Kay’s 2022 criminal trial — meaning that jury found Skaggs would have lived but for the fentanyl he ingested. The judge in this civil trial has ruled that lawyers cannot stray from that established fact, but is allowing the Angels to argue that other substances were “substantial factors” in Skaggs’ death.
It’s a critical issue in this trial, as the jury attempts to determine who is at fault in Skaggs’ death. Kay only provided the fentanyl-laced pill to Skaggs, while the oxycodone pills in Skaggs’ system were provided by teammate Matt Harvey. The alcohol, the Angels say, was consumed by Skaggs on the team’s flight from Long Beach, California to Dallas, Texas.”
Are they really trying to argue that the team employee-supplied drugs wouldn’t have killed him if not for the team-chartered flight alcohol?? I just… huh???????
Bold strategy considering that a jury already found that the prosecution proved beyond a reasonable doubt that the fentanyl laced pill supplied by Kay led to or caused Skagg’s death.
3 comments
More in-depth than the Register –
“SANTA ANA, Calif. — An expert in toxicology hired by the Los Angeles Angels testified on Friday that alcohol and oxycodone played a substantial factor in Tyler Skaggs’ death, and that fentanyl alone would not have killed the former pitcher.
However, on cross-examination by a Skaggs family attorney, the expert, Dr. Shaun Carstairs, admitted that he hadn’t reviewed evidence from Eric Kay’s criminal trial, in which numerous doctors involved in performing Skaggs’ autopsy gave opinions in direct contrast to Carstairs’.
Kay, the ex-Angels communications director, is serving a 22-year federal prison sentence for providing the fentanyl-laced pill that Skaggs ingested, leading to his death on July 1, 2019. The Skaggs family is suing the Angels for wrongful death.
Fentanyl was the “but for” cause of Skaggs’ death, as determined by a jury in Kay’s 2022 criminal trial — meaning that jury found Skaggs would have lived but for the fentanyl he ingested. The judge in this civil trial has ruled that lawyers cannot stray from that established fact, but is allowing the Angels to argue that other substances were “substantial factors” in Skaggs’ death.
It’s a critical issue in this trial, as the jury attempts to determine who is at fault in Skaggs’ death. Kay only provided the fentanyl-laced pill to Skaggs, while the oxycodone pills in Skaggs’ system were provided by teammate Matt Harvey. The alcohol, the Angels say, was consumed by Skaggs on the team’s flight from Long Beach, California to Dallas, Texas.”
Are they really trying to argue that the team employee-supplied drugs wouldn’t have killed him if not for the team-chartered flight alcohol?? I just… huh???????
Bold strategy considering that a jury already found that the prosecution proved beyond a reasonable doubt that the fentanyl laced pill supplied by Kay led to or caused Skagg’s death.