Now, Kay has agreed to answer questions for the first time since his conviction relating to the 2019 drug overdose that killed 27-year-old Angels<\/a> pitcher Tyler Skaggs. Next week marks the fifth anniversary of his death.<\/p>\n In an exclusive interview with The Athletic, Kay said he believes his 22-year sentence to be unjust. He also addressed his incarceration and his relationship with Skaggs, criticized the performance of his attorneys at his trial, and lamented how his conviction shattered his family and led to estrangement.<\/p>\n Kay said his responsibility lies in not aiding in Skaggs\u2019 sobriety. But he does not believe he\u2019s responsible for his death.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel horrible that I didn\u2019t stop contributing to his addiction. He had so much more to live for than me,\u201d Kay said. \u201cI don\u2019t mean that to sound trite. He did. He was just married, now he\u2019s making millions of dollars. He\u2019s basically a front-line starter.<\/p>\n \u201c\u2018What are you doing?\u2019 I should have said that. \u2018Tyler, what are you doing, dude?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Angels players applaud after putting their Tyler Skaggs jerseys on the mound after a combined no-hitter thrown in his honor on July 12, 2019. (John Cordes \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n Kay\u2019s sit-down took place in a colorless void of a room where notebooks and recorders were not allowed. Quotes for this story were taken from several subsequent phone interviews over two weeks. Kay recognized his staggering fall, from orchestrating coverage of the 2002 World Series to being prohibited from being near a microphone.<\/p>\n \u201cI was somebody out in the world,\u201d he said. \u201cI was doing something on a big level. I was making a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n All of that changed on July 1, 2019, the night Skaggs snorted a pill that contained a lethal dose of fentanyl. The left-hander overdosed, choking on his own vomit, and was discovered by hotel employees and team officials the next morning.<\/p>\n \u201cI think about Tyler all the time,\u201d his widow, Carli, said recently in a separate interview. \u201cI think about the family that we\u2019d have. How many kids we\u2019d have. Just what our life would be like right now. All the time, I think about it.\u201d<\/p>\n Less than three years after the tragedy, a jury in Tarrant County, Texas, found Kay guilty of distribution of a controlled substance resulting in death and conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute controlled substances.<\/p>\n Kay \u2014 who has been at Englewood for almost 18 months \u2014 will be nearly 70 years old when he is scheduled for release on Jan. 8, 2041.<\/p>\n In the interview this month, he showed flashes of personal reflection, though just as often he was defiant.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m going to fight this,\u201d Kay said. \u201cAnd I\u2019m continuing to fight until I can\u2019t fight anymore. And once the fight\u2019s gone, that\u2019s what scares me.\u201d<\/p>\n Having lost his initial appeal, Kay is preparing for his habeas corpus appeal, a legal long shot that requires the defendant to prove that a legal error led to the loss of their protected rights.<\/p>\n \u201cI can\u2019t do this time,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m not built for this. If I were to feel like, \u2018You know what, I deserve this. This time is fair.\u2019 That\u2019s a different story. But it\u2019s not. I was convicted on conjecture. I was convicted on falsehoods.\u201d<\/p>\n Carli Skaggs and Tyler\u2019s mother, Debbie Skaggs, both testified for the prosecution in Kay\u2019s trial. Following his conviction, they said it was the \u201cright verdict.\u201d In a recent interview with The Athletic<\/a>, however, Debbie acknowledged, \u201cNo one wins in this situation.\u201d Carli added, \u201cHis family also loses a loved one.\u201d<\/p>\n Before Kay went to trial, he said the government offered him a plea deal. He\u2019d have to serve a maximum of 10 years. It likely would have been at a more comfortable federal prison camp. And there would have been mechanisms in place to shorten his stay.<\/p>\n Going to trial and losing on both counts, as he did, meant a mandatory 20-year bid in a harsher facility.<\/p>\n In the fall of 2021, weeks before his trial was initially scheduled, Kay was strongly considering accepting the plea. On the deadline day for his decision, he met with his attorneys.<\/p>\n Michael Molfetta, his lead lawyer, spent some of the meeting berating and belittling Kay, calling him a \u201cbitch\u201d numerous times, and telling him, \u201cI know what door I\u2019m walking out of\u201d \u2014 contrasting his client\u2019s precarious spot with his own as a way to encourage him to make a decision.<\/p>\n The interaction was recorded by Sandy Kay, Eric\u2019s mother, and provided to The Athletic.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you decide to plead to this horses\u2013t deal, I will not go to Texas, I will not be party to it,\u201d Molfetta said on the recording. \u201cAnd when it\u2019s all over, and you\u2019re sentenced, I will get in front of the media, and I will rail against it. Because I think you\u2019re being f\u2014ed.\u201d<\/p>\n Eric Kay, left, waits to cross the street after exiting federal court during his trial for federal drug distribution and conspiracy charges. (LM Otero \/ Associated Press)<\/p>\n Molfetta did not respond to a request for comment for this article, though\u00a0when he previously spoke with The Athletic<\/a> about this meeting he adamantly disagreed with the assertion that he belittled Kay and threatened to withdraw from the case. Kay does not currently have representation.<\/p>\n His other attorney, Reagan Wynn, was hired by Molfetta. Shortly after the trial, Wynn had his law license suspended in Texas due to an unrelated matter<\/a>. Wynn did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n Beyond these incidents, Kay was upset by his two attorneys\u2019 performance and conduct during the trial. He felt they didn\u2019t adequately cross-examine former pitcher Matt Harvey, who also admitted to being a drug source for Skaggs.<\/p>\n On the night before Kay was set to testify, he and his legal team met to discuss whether he should take the stand. Kay said the meeting devolved into Molfetta arguing with another person present over whether or not he should testify.<\/p>\n Ultimately, Kay did not take the stand, a decision he regrets.<\/p>\n \u201cJust to hear me as a human being, the inflection in my voice,\u201d Kay said. \u201cAs a father, as a brother, as a son. As a person in the community who actually did his best to give his life to the Angels for 20-plus years.<\/p>\n \u201cThat would have mattered. That would have resonated with (the jury) who were disconnected to our side.\u201d<\/p>\n The prosecution ultimately needed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Skaggs would have survived but for the fentanyl in his system. They needed to prove that Kay provided Skaggs with the pills. And they needed to find, by a preponderance of the evidence, that Kay provided Skaggs the drugs in Texas.<\/p>\n Kay said this month that he did not travel with the pills \u2014 a requisite for his conviction. And he said there\u2019s no way to prove if it was his pills that killed Skaggs. He did, however, regularly provide pills to Skaggs and eventually to five other Angels players \u2014 all of whom testified about that at trial.<\/p>\n Kay believes that those who made the pill should also be held accountable. Kay allegedly purchased the pills from a person using the pseudonym \u201cAshley Smith,\u201d whom the prosecution said was a drug dealer who hid their identity. Kay also said his arrest made the case more high-profile because of his direct connection to the Angels and the players who testified.<\/p>\n \u201cI am the linchpin to the whole thing,\u201d he said. \u201cTo the civil suit, to the national story. It relates to the Angels. It relates to the Skaggs family. And it relates to payments. As it relates to advancing careers. I am the person. I have the sex appeal.\u201d<\/p>\n Eric and his son Carter, 22, went back to their hotel as the jury deliberated his fate. They ordered hamburgers for lunch \u2014 with the ominous potential that it could be his last meal as a free man.<\/p>\n The expectation was that it could take a while. Molfetta had raised the hope of a potential hung jury.<\/p>\n Two bites into his meal, Kay got word. The jury had reached a verdict around 90 minutes after they began the process.<\/p>\n Kay turned to Carter and told him he was going to prison.<\/p>\n \u201cI just gave him a hug, and I said, \u2018I\u2019m so sorry, Carter,\u2019\u201d Kay recalled through tears. \u201cThat was one of the hardest moments of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n U.S. Marshals took Kay into custody seconds after the guilty verdict was read. They took his phone and his belt and shackled him in the courtroom. He looked at his sobbing family members and told them what he now realizes was a lie.<\/p>\n \u201cI got this,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n He went into the back of a van that transported him to a jail a short drive from the Fort Worth, Texas, courthouse. His drivers chatted as Kay\u2019s life flashed before him en route to the prison.<\/p>\n That night, he slept on an inch-thick cot and was served what he called inedible \u201ccat food.\u201d He got into the fetal position and sobbed, not sleeping at all the entire night.<\/p>\n Kay is down 90 pounds from the 300-plus-pound version of himself that appeared in court \u2014 largely because he often won\u2019t eat prison food. He has new tattoos lining both arms. And he\u2019s on a five-year Suboxone program in prison to help him remain clean.<\/p>\n He tries to communicate with his family from the inside \u2014 even though some don\u2019t want to speak with him.<\/p>\n Kay made it tough on those around him as his abuse of drugs spanned decades. It started in the late 1990s, around the time he was first hired by the Angels. He\u2019d long battled depression. But he found comfort in Vicodin \u2014 eventually taking as many as 10 a day.<\/p>\n His father, Rick Kay, was a former football player for the Los Angeles Rams, who died in a car accident in 1998. Kay received the news while working at Angel Stadium.<\/p>\n Kay, like his father, became addicted to pain medication. His dad\u2019s death, he said, contributed to his tailspin. It started with Vicodin, then went to Norco. Then oxycodone.<\/p>\n On Easter Sunday of 2019, he was dancing inside his Angel Stadium office. It was not a happy celebration. Kay was high at work. He was shirtless. He was mumbling to himself. He was sweating, his face red and puffy.<\/p>\n The Angels\u2019 traveling secretary, Tom Taylor, then a close friend of Kay\u2019s, confronted him and decided to take him home. They pulled into a CVS en route. There, Kay started doing karate chops in the aisles and acting erratically.<\/p>\n After dropping Kay off at his home, Taylor told Sandy Kay that he believed her son needed help.<\/p>\n \u201cEric is violently ill at this point. He\u2019s throwing up, he\u2019s sweating profusely,\u201d Sandy said. \u201cAnd he\u2019s just defiant. \u2018No, I\u2019m just sick. I\u2019m not on drugs.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Eric Kay with Mike Trout during happier days in 2014. \u201cI was somebody out in the world,\u201d Kay said. \u201cI was doing something on a big level.\u201d (Matt Brown \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n It was during this tumultuous era that Kay says that he and Skaggs were in a codependent relationship as two people addicted to opioids.<\/p>\n The relationship started in 2015, according to Kay\u2019s recollection during a Southlake Police Department interview conducted on Sept. 25, 2019. Notes from the interview were obtained by The Athletic. Kay told those investigators that he approached Skaggs when Kay\u2019s other drug source fell through.<\/p>\n When Kay\u2019s addiction reached its apex, he was on the social media site OfferUp, looking to purchase drugs for himself, Skaggs and, eventually, other Angels players.<\/p>\n \u201cHe would just berate me at times. It was constant at times,\u201d Kay said of Skaggs. \u201cI just wanted to shut him up, to placate him. Because he wasn\u2019t going away.\u201d<\/p>\n Soon after Kay\u2019s CVS episode, he left the Angels to attend an outpatient rehabilitation center. During this time, he said, Skaggs kept reaching out.<\/p>\n After returning to the Angels a month later, the team sent Kay back on the road.<\/p>\n Kay\u2019s version of events is significantly different from what the government argued at his trial. He said he provided Skaggs pills in California, not Texas \u2014 and was unaware they were laced with fentanyl.<\/p>\n The team flew from Long Beach Airport to Dallas on the evening of June 30. Skaggs then texted Kay upon arriving in the hotel room, asking him to come to his room. When Kay arrived, he said he saw lines of drugs. He said he was unsure if they were the drugs he provided earlier that day.<\/p>\n Because Kay had just left rehab and was on Suboxone \u2014 a drug designed to repress the effects of opioids \u2014 he said he declined. Minutes later, Kay said, he left Skaggs\u2019 room, noticing that the pitcher wasn\u2019t interested in hanging if Kay didn\u2019t want to party.<\/p>\n Kay said there was no record of him re-entering his room until the next day because he left his room key in Tyler\u2019s room, and had the door to his own room propped open. He didn\u2019t get a new key until the next morning. The prosecution alluded to Kay possibly being in the room as Skaggs died.<\/p>\n Kay lied to investigators about having any information when initially questioned \u2014 which he said this month was to protect both Skaggs\u2019 legacy and himself.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t like saying this,\u2019\u2019 Kay said, \u201cso you get it and you understand it, that (I swear this) on my children: I was not there when Tyler went south. I was in my room.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d give my right hand today to bring him back or go back to that moment when I could have seen him going into medical decline. I wasn\u2019t there.\u201d<\/p>\n The last time the world heard Kay\u2019s voice, it was from a recorded phone call he made in prison, shortly after his conviction. It was played at his sentencing. \u201cAll they see are dollar signs,\u201d he said on the call<\/a>, referring to Skaggs\u2019 family. \u201cThey may get more money with him dead than if he was playing, because he sucked.\u201d<\/p>\n Judge Terry R. Means cited that comment in adding two years to his sentence, despite also saying the 20-year minimum was excessive<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m horribly sorry for what I said in a private moment of weakness,\u201d Kay said. \u201cThat is awful. There\u2019s no explanation for that. I didn\u2019t mean it. I was looking for anybody to blame and yell at. I would apologize for that. And I would let them know what a special person their son was. We were caught in this maelstrom of addiction.\u201d<\/p>\n The Skaggs family is suing the Angels, arguing that the team knew or should have known about what Kay was doing. Kay said the Angels were not aware. The case is set for trial in April of 2025.<\/p>\n The Kay family said it\u2019s been torn to bits over the last several years.<\/p>\n The day after Kay was indicted, he said his wife of more than two decades, Camela Kay, filed for divorce. She also got a court order requiring Kay to leave their home.<\/p>\n After getting clean, Kay moved into a neighbor\u2019s home so he could still see his children while awaiting trial. Camela did not respond to an interview request.<\/p>\n Eric\u2019s younger brother, Brett Kay, went from being his best friend and idol to no longer speaking with him. It\u2019s been at least a year since their last conversation.<\/p>\n A college baseball standout drafted in the eighth round by the Mets<\/a>, Brett has since gone on to be one of the most successful high school baseball coaches in California. Brett declined comment when reached for an interview, but he has given Eric\u2019s son Carter a job.<\/p>\n \u201cIt broke us. It broke us apart,\u201d said Kelly Miller, Eric\u2019s sister. \u201cIt\u2019s the saddest thing that\u2019s ever happened in my life. It broke my heart and it broke all of our hearts.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cFrom the outset, we knew that we were all going to be collateral damage, that we were innocent victims in this,\u201d Sandy said. \u201cThat we would suffer in our own way.\u201d<\/p>\n Miller and Sandy Kay have dedicated their lives to supporting Kay. They\u2019ve come out to visit him. They deal with the lawyers. They were at every minute of his trial. They\u2019re fighting for mandatory minimum sentence reform.<\/p>\n Miller has helped liaise with people wanting to talk with Kay. She organized a GoFundMe account for his legal bills, as Kay said his life savings were decimated from payments to previous attorneys.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/E1E07356-BB02-4E94-846D-BCB629815A6D-scaled.jpeg\")
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