SANTA ANA, Calif. — The Los Angeles Angels’ legal defense strategy took a major blow on the first day of their civil trial brought by the family of deceased former pitcher Tyler Skaggs.
Angels attorneys had built the team’s defense around re-litigating the criminal case against their former communications director Eric Kay, who is in federal prison for providing the fentanyl-laced pill that killed Skaggs in 2019. Kay is serving a 22-year sentence.
But Judge H. Shaina Colover sided with lawyers for the Skaggs family, who argued successfully in a motion that Kay’s criminal conviction and its findings should stand as fact when a jury is seated in the coming weeks.
“The conviction, based on applicable law and facts, was final,” Colover said.
Monday marked the first day of this long-anticipated civil trial — nearly five years from when the lawsuit was first filed in Orange County Superior Court in June 2021. Jury selection is not scheduled to begin until Oct. 6, with the next two weeks reserved for arguing motions in front of the judge about what evidence the jury can hear.
