10/27/25 11:11:00
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10/27 23:06 CDT Ex-wife of Angels employee to face cross examination in trial
over pitcher's overdose death
Ex-wife of Angels employee to face cross examination in trial over pitcher's
overdose death
By AMY TAXIN
Associated Press
SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) --- The ex-wife of a Los Angeles Angels employee at the
center of the overdose death of one of the team's star pitchers will face more
cross examination Tuesday after testifying she saw players and clubhouse
attendants passing pills and alcohol while partying on the team plane.
Camela Kay told jurors in a Southern California courtroom on Monday she had
traveled on the Angels team plane with her then-husband Eric Kay, who was
convicted of providing drugs that led to the 2019 death of Angels pitcher Tyler
Skaggs. She said she had seen players partying, playing card games, gambling
and drinking.
"They're treated like kings," Camela Kay said of her observations on the plane.
"I had seen them passing out pills or drinking alcohol excessively."
The testimony came in a trial for a wrongful-death lawsuit filed by Skaggs'
family contending the Angels should be held responsible for letting Eric Kay,
then the team's communications director, stay on the job and access players
while he was addicted to and dealing drugs. The Angels have said team officials
did not know Skaggs was taking drugs and that any drug activity involving him
and Eric Kay happened on their own time and in the privacy of the player's
hotel room.
Camela Kay testified she told an Angels employee that her then-husband may have
been intending to sell drugs to Skaggs on at least one occasion. That was based
on information Eric Kay told his sister during a hospital stay for a drug
overdose, she said. Camela Kay said the sister then told her, and she told an
Angels employee.
Defense attorneys for the Angels began their cross examination of Camela Kay on
Monday and questioned her direct knowledge of Eric Kay's interactions with
Skaggs.
Camela Kay said she was concerned that her then-husband had a drug problem
after observing his erratic behavior, and family members mounted an
intervention with him in 2017. The next day, she said, two team officials came
over to speak with him and one of them pulled a series of plastic baggies
containing white pills from the bedroom, which fueled her concerns that Eric
Kay was not only struggling with substance abuse but selling drugs to make
money.
"Him being in the clubhouse with the players, my guess would be he is supplying
to them," she said.
Camela Kay also described how her then-husband was driven home by an Angels
employee after he was dancing in his office, shirtless, at the stadium in 2019.
After he got home, she found a bottle with blue pills inside and called police
to press him to go to the hospital, where doctors diagnosed an overdose
involving six different drugs, she said.
He was hospitalized for three days and then went to rehab, which was
communicated in text messages between Camela Kay and team officials shown to
jurors.
She said her sister-in-law told her after visiting Eric Kay in the hospital
that he told her the pills were for Skaggs. She said she found text messages on
his phone about him getting his "candy" at the stadium and relayed the
information about both to Angels officials.
She said she was concerned about Eric Kay heading on the road with the Angels
after completing a six-week stint in rehab, adding he was still acting erratic
and she suspected he was abusing a drug meant to treat opioid addiction.
After Skaggs' death, Camela Kay filed for divorce, according to Orange County
court records.
The trial comes more than six years after Skaggs, then 27, was found dead in
the suburban Dallas hotel room where he was staying as the Angels were supposed
to open a four-game series against the Texas Rangers. A coroner's report said
Skaggs choked to death on his vomit and a toxic mix of alcohol, fentanyl and
oxycodone was found in his system.
Eric Kay was convicted in 2022 of providing Skaggs with a counterfeit oxycodone
pill laced with fentanyl and sentenced to 22 years in prison. His federal
criminal trial in Texas included testimony from five MLB players who said they
received oxycodone from him at various times from 2017 to 2019, the years he
was accused of obtaining pills and giving them to Angels players.
Skaggs had been a regular in the Angels' starting rotation since late 2016 and
struggled with injuries repeatedly during that time. He previously played for
the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Skaggs' family is seeking $118 million in lost earnings, compensation for pain
and suffering and punitive damages against the team.
After Skaggs' death, the MLB reached a deal with the players association to
start testing for opioids and to refer those who test positive to the treatment
board.
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