{"id":88121,"date":"2025-12-09T21:05:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T21:05:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/88121\/"},"modified":"2025-12-09T21:05:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T21:05:09","slug":"tyler-skaggs-widow-questioned-during-testimony-about-angels-pitchers-potential-drug-use-at-own-wedding-texts-calling-him-a-liar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/88121\/","title":{"rendered":"Tyler Skaggs\u2019 widow questioned during testimony about Angels pitcher\u2019s potential drug use at own wedding, texts calling him a liar"},"content":{"rendered":"

An attorney for the Los Angeles Angels pressed Tyler Skaggs\u2019 wife and his mother about the pitchers\u2019 illicit drug use and spending habits during testimony in an ongoing wrongful death trial<\/a> on Monday, Dec 8, as the high-profile case entered what is expected to be the final week of testimony.<\/p>\n

Carli Skaggs, Tyler\u2019s widow, was asked repeatedly about her husband\u2019s alleged drug use during his 2018 bachelor party and around the couple\u2019s wedding, as the eighth week of the trial got underway.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to testimony, someone may have brought cocaine to the bachelor party, which was attended by Tyler Skaggs\u2019 high school friends. Carli said she didn\u2019t know if her husband took any of the cocaine at his bachelor party, or another person\u2019s bachelor party he attended a week prior. But an attorney for the ball club showed a text exchange with a trainer in which Tyler Skaggs referenced having \u201cmajor sinus stuff\u201d and added \u201cA little too much white girl the last two weekends doesn\u2019t help.\u201d Carli said she had \u201cno idea\u201d if that was a reference to cocaine.<\/p>\n

The defense attorney showed jurors a video taken from the wedding showing Tyler Skaggs and his groomsman taking a shot of Fireball Whisky \u2014 and Skaggs putting something in his mouth \u2014 just before Skaggs walked down the aisle. Carli said she believed it was a breath mint, not a pain pill. She testified that she didn\u2019t know what Tyler was referencing in a text in which he wrote about having \u201ccrushed that whole bag\u201d at the wedding and adding \u201cI\u2019m a savage.\u201d In a text message to his groomsmen the day after the wedding, Tyler wrote \u201cI blacked hard the kid is a mess right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

An attorney for the team indicated the text indicated Skaggs had blacked out.<\/p>\n

In a text to Tyler from 2017, Carli acknowledged writing \u201cYou lie so nonchalant it\u2019s crazy,\u201d adding it \u201cscares me sometimes.\u201d In a different text, in 2016, Carli wrote \u201cI promise u I won\u2019t be around much longer.\u201d<\/p>\n

During her testimony, Carli said she had been \u201cacting a little crazy\u201d when she wrote those texts.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will admit I overreact at times,\u201d Carli testified. \u201cWith Tyler it was a maturity thing. He never lied about anything serious.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou accused Tyler of living a double life because of all the lying he did in the relationship?\u201d asked Stephen Ladsous, an attorney for the Angels.<\/p>\n

\u201cTyler was somebody who would definitely avoid confrontation,\u201d Carli said. \u201cSo if he said something that wasn\u2019t 100 percent accurate it was to avoid confrontation, to protect my feelings and make me happy. It was never anything serious.\u201d<\/p>\n

Family members of Tyler Skaggs have acknowledged that he admitted having an issue with Percocets during his time with the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2013, but say they had no idea his use of opioids continued after he was traded to the Angels in 2014. Skaggs died in a Texas hotel room at the start of a team road trip in July 2019. Percot tablets contain oxycodone and acetaminophen.<\/p>\n

Testimony on Monday seemed to indicate that Skaggs\u2019 drug use started before 2013. A photo he apparently took in 2012 showed what appeared to be a line of crushed drugs and a snorting straw. And in testimony from a deposition video, Eric Smith, a former pitcher, described using opioids recreationally with Skaggs and another teammate starting in 2011.<\/p>\n

Also under questioning, Skaggs\u2019 mother, Debbie Hetman, acknowledged that she kept a close eye on her son\u2019s finances. He spent thousands of dollars on sneakers, she admitted, and at one point bought what the defense attorney referred to as a \u201ctricked out\u201d Porsche from a teammate that was four years old and had more than 100,000 miles on it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the stupidest purchase of his life,\u201d Hetman said of the car. \u201cIt was unimaginable. I was so mad at him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Attorneys for the Angels argue that Skaggs kept his drug use a secret, making it impossible for them to get him help and to save his life.<\/p>\n

A former Angels communications staffer, Eric Kay, provided Skaggs and other players with illicit opioids, including a pill containing fentanyl that Skaggs snorted prior to his death. Kay is serving a prison sentence for his role in Skaggs death. What the Angels knew, or at least should have known, about Skaggs drug usage or his drug ties to Kay are a key issue in the current civil wrongful death trial.<\/p>\n

The defense attorneys have raised repeated concerns with Orange County Superior Court Judge H. Shaina Colover about fitting all their remaining witnesses into the current week. But the judge has repeatedly told jurors that they should expect to begin their deliberations next week.<\/p>\n

Testimony continues Tuesday in an Orange County Superior Courtroom in Santa Ana.<\/p>\n

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