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On this July 17, 2019, file photograph, a picture and emblem memorializing former Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs is displayed on the outfield wall at Angel Stadium. (AP Picture/Kyusung Gong, File)
By SCHUYLER DIXON | AP Sports activities Author
FORT WORTH, Texas — Former Angels worker Eric Kay, who's accused of offering the opioids that contributed to Tyler Skaggs’ overdose loss of life, instructed a colleague he watched the Angels pitcher do medication the night time earlier than he was discovered useless in a suburban Dallas resort room, in keeping with testimony Monday.
Kay, who faces expenses of drug distribution and drug conspiracy, confided in Adam Chodzko about two weeks after Skaggs’ 2019 loss of life that he was in Skaggs’ room, Chodzko testified at trial.
Kay instructed Chodzko he turned down a suggestion from Skaggs to take medication with him, Chodzko testified. Kay had simply returned to the workforce from a stint in drug rehab and was certainly one of Chodzko’s subordinates on the Angels’ public relations workers on the time.
Kay stated he noticed three traces of medicine on a desk and watched Skaggs snort them earlier than leaving the room, in keeping with Chodzko, who's now the Angels’ director of communications.
One among Kay’s protection attorneys stated in opening arguments that Skaggs wasn’t in medical misery when Kay left his room. And a police detective testified on Monday – the fourth full day of testimony in Kay’s trial – that Kay lied in regards to the final time he noticed Skaggs within the hours after the pitcher was discovered useless.
Skaggs, 27, was discovered useless July 1, 2019, after the workforce had traveled from Lengthy Seashore Airport and earlier than the beginning of what was alleged to be a four-game collection in opposition to the Texas Rangers. A coroner’s report stated Skaggs had choked to loss of life on his vomit, and a poisonous mixture of alcohol, fentanyl and oxycodone had been in his system.
Kay served because the workforce’s public relations contact on many highway journeys, and the journey to Texas was his first since coming back from rehab. Kay was positioned on depart shortly after Skaggs’ loss of life, and by no means returned to the workforce.
Federal prosecutors allege Kay gave Skaggs counterfeit oxycodone capsules that contained fentanyl after the workforce arrived in Texas. The protection says Kay final gave Skaggs medication in California and that there’s no option to know whether or not fentanyl led to his loss of life.
Chris Leanos, who testified Monday underneath immunity and admitted he was a drug supplier, stated he noticed what he presumed to be a drug-related transaction between Skaggs and Kay at one of many Angels’ charity occasions. Leanos testified that he guarded a toilet door after Skaggs went in.
Leanos, who stated he has offered cocaine, MDMA, mushrooms and marijuana for years, testified that he acquired a textual content from Skaggs “per week or two” earlier than the pitcher’s loss of life with a request for oxycodone. Leanos, who stated he had been pals with Skaggs since 2007, stated he rejected the request, that he doesn't promote opioids and that he instructed Skaggs that these capsules could possibly be harmful.
Protection legal professional Michael Molfetta badgered Leanos on cross-examination, questioning how Leanos might say “something you need and never get prosecuted for it.”
After making an attempt to get an estimate from Leanos of what number of drug offers he had executed since 2018, Molfetta requested, “What’s the title and variety of your cocaine provider?” Leanos didn’t should reply as a result of the prosecution’s objection was sustained.
Southlake police Sgt. Jonathan Macheca testified that Kay stated he by no means noticed Skaggs on the night time the workforce checked into the resort. Kay additionally by no means talked about seeing medication or understanding Skaggs used medication, Macheca stated.
Prosecutors detailed a number of communications alleged to be Kay arranging for medication to be dropped at Angel Stadium, and retired DEA agent Michael Ferry stated former Angels pitcher Garrett Richards and Skaggs despatched a whole bunch of dollars to Kay in a number of transactions via Venmo.
Richards is amongst seven former Angels gamers on the witness record. Andrew Heaney, certainly one of Skaggs’ closest pals on the workforce, testified on the primary day of the trial. One other witness is pitcher Matt Harvey, about whom the protection has made a number of solutions of a drug-related relationship between him and Skaggs.
Whereas questioning a former DEA agent, Molfetta requested whether or not the agent was conscious that in 2019, Skaggs despatched Harvey a textual content asking him to place medication in his locker as a result of he needed to pitch “loosey goosey.”
The suggestion that Skaggs pitched in a recreation whereas excessive made its approach into the file throughout Monday’s testimony, however it was extra of a tease of what's to return Tuesday when Harvey is scheduled to testify and is more likely to face loads of questions on his personal historical past of drug use.
Molfetta didn't recommend Monday that Harvey gave Skaggs the medication that contributed to his loss of life. However the protection workforce needs to ascertain that Skaggs obtained opioids from a number of sources for years and might need gotten that July 2019 provide from somebody apart from Kay.
Harvey is anticipated to inform jurors that he did present Skaggs with medication every so often, however not those that contributed to his loss of life. Harvey was on the workforce’s injured record on the time and didn't make the journey to Texas.
Information providers contributed to this story.