Bold opening: A family’s pursuit of truth in a high-stakes fight with a beloved team reveals a deeper struggle over accountability in sports. Now, here’s the full, uniquely worded version that preserves every key fact and nuance while expanding where helpful.
In a drab courthouse corridor that had grown all too familiar to Carli Skaggs and Debbie Hetman after a three-month trial, a moment of disagreement surfaced. The jury had just begun the third day of deliberations in the wrongful-death civil case against the Los Angeles Angels, brought by Tyler Skaggs’s family. The question wasn’t the underlying facts, but how the case would end: by verdict, or by a settlement that could sidestep a lengthy jury decision.
The Angels moved to raise their settlement offer, hoping to bypass the jury’s deliberations entirely. Yet Tyler’s widow, Carli, and his mother, Debbie, could not reach a quick consensus.
“I said, ‘Debbie, I want a verdict,’” Carli remembered.
“I said, ‘No, we’re taking the deal,’” Debbie replied.
Ultimately, the Skaggs family chose the settlement, bringing the trial to a close before the jury returned with a decision. That choice brought immediate relief, as it avoided the risk of a drawn-out appeal and concluded the case on their terms.
In an interview with The Athletic earlier this month, their first since the litigation wrapped on December 19 and since Tyler’s father Darrell Skaggs died a week after the trial following a long illness, Carli, Debbie, and Darrell’s legacy together were discussed. The three had initiated the suit in June 2021, accusing the Angels of knowing that former Angels communications director Eric Kay was supplying illegal pills to players. Kay is serving 22 years in federal prison.
Tyler Skaggs died July 1, 2019, in a hotel room in Southlake, Texas, after ingesting a fentanyl-laced pill provided by Kay. The Angels have continued to fund Kay’s legal defense.
Although the settlement’s financial terms are confidential, there was no non-disparagement clause, allowing the family to speak candidly about the team and the contentious litigation. They also expressed a desire for Major League Baseball’s commissioner’s office to investigate the Angels’ conduct.
“I think they tried to cover it up,” Debbie stated. “I hope MLB investigates it. I don’t want this to happen to any other player in any organization.”
A league spokesperson told The Athletic that MLB’s legal team obtained the full trial transcript and is reviewing and assessing the information, though they did not specify a timeline for the review.
Debbie emphasized how shocking she found the Angels’ strategies and behavior throughout the saga.
“It’s hard for me to believe that someone within their organization, who was so loved by the community and by the Angels family, would throw Tyler under the bus,” she said. “It’s almost like, ‘We don’t care. … Forget about Tyler.’”
Angels spokesperson Marie Garvey declined to rehash the matter, directing inquiries to the team’s earlier statement at trial’s end. The franchise maintained that Tyler’s death remains a tragedy and that the trial highlighted the dangers of opioid use and its devastating effects.
The trial depicted Kay in a more favorable light, portrayed Skaggs as a reckless user, and cast the plaintiffs as enablers who supposedly knew about the drug use but did little to stop it. The two sides called witnesses repeatedly, with Angels lawyers cross-examining them for hours.
Carli chose her words carefully regarding communications that could have been used against them. She noted how each discovery of texts, including those from her own mother who could have testified, demonstrated how fragile and revealing the process could be.
Her mother spent months outside the courtroom, while Carli and Debbie leaned on their legal team—Leah Graham, Daniel Dutko, and Lara Hollingsworth—for support and strategy.
During trial, Angels attorneys argued that Carli observed signs of a problem Tyler faced, and they contended that Debbie concealed Tyler’s 2013 drug addiction from his surgeon in 2014 to protect his baseball career.
“Whether it’s the truth or not, (the Angels) have a job to persuade the jury,” Carli remarked. “I know my truth, I know what my experience with Tyler was. When I feel like someone’s trying to break me, it only fuels my resolve.”
Debbie agreed that evaluating the evidence—and the Angels’ tactics—was challenging, but she found it difficult to reconcile with Kay’s portrayal as a decent person. “Kay was such a great guy? He was so great?” she asked.
The Skaggs family contended that Tyler wasn’t a drug addict at the time of his death, arguing his use was more recreational and that players relied on illegal pain meds to cope with the physical demands of professional pitching.
A central aim of their case was proving the Angels knew about Kay’s drug abuse and that officials such as former communications director Tim Mead and current traveling secretary Tom Taylor were aware of Kay’s dealings with players.
Despite the public scrutiny and social media discussions that followed, Carli and Debbie remained aware that not everyone would share their viewpoint. Tyler, they stressed, was a grown man who made his own choices, and they acknowledged his personal responsibility for taking the pill. Yet they maintained that he did not knowingly consent to taking fentanyl-laced drugs.
“The fact that (Kay) was peddling pills on the street is terrifying,” Debbie said. “All he had to do was say, ‘No, I can’t get anything,’ and Tyler would still be here.”
The trial’s emotional toll, the repeated testimony, and the ongoing grief from losing her husband made moving on a difficult journey for Carli. She has since become involved as a victims’ rights advocate in the district attorney’s office, though rebuilding a personal life has proven challenging.
Debbie, meanwhile, continues to speak to Tyler in spirit, often through daily conversations with his ashes. She also recalled how Tyler supported a high school softball team she coached and how he would text after every game. During the trial, she asked him for strength to endure the process.
When they think of Tyler, they remember someone kind, someone who treated everyone like a friend for life, never speaking ill of others. Accepting his loss has not been easy, and pursuing the civil case became a full-time emotional project.
“Driving to Orange County, attending depositions, and reading everything—it was exhausting,” Debbie admitted.
Carli added that they didn’t fully realize the emotional burden until after it ended. “Now we can breathe, and we have space to think about other things that bring us joy.”
Both women hope to devote more time and resources to the Tyler Skaggs Foundation, established in 2019, which aims to provide equitable access to sports programs and recreation. Close friends of Tyler—such as Yankees pitcher Max Fried, and others like Lucas Giolito, Andrew Heaney, and Jack Flaherty—have offered support, along with Shohei Ohtani, who donated signed gear. Debbie mentioned she hasn’t yet reached out to Mike Trout, who testified in the trial, but she expects to speak with him—Trout has been responsive in the past.
Looking ahead, Debbie and Carli want more accountability from the Angels and the league, continue their work with the foundation, and heal while seeking a future beyond the tragedy. They have long been the most visible plaintiffs, embodying Tyler’s voice in the years since his death. Darrell Skaggs, Tyler’s father, also participated via Zoom from a hospital room, sharing memories of his son’s kindness and excitement about starting a family with Carli. He died not long after the settlement.
Carli recalled the moment Darrell expressed relief at seeing the case through to its resolution. He had endured serious illness for years, staying alive long enough to witness the outcome he fought for.
In the end, Carli and Debbie feel fortunate that the trial reached its conclusion and that the truth could be heard, even when it was painful. Darrell’s presence—though gone—provided a sense of peace, knowing he could see the case come to a close and share in the final outcome.
Would you like this rewritten version to incorporate more context about the legal strategy, or keep the focus tightly on the personal journeys of Carli, Debbie, and Darrell? Additionally, do you want the closing hook to prompt a direct question to readers about accountability in sports organizations?
