Medical examiner who reviewed autopsy testifies Tyler Skaggs died of OD caused by fentanyl as defense questions level at time of death

FORT WORTH, Texas — A key question in determining whether former Los Angeles Angels communications director Eric Kay is responsible for the drug-related death of Tyler Skaggs is determining exactly what killed him.

And if the jury ended week one of the U.S. v. Eric Kay confused, it wouldn’t be a surprise. The case against Kay is built on the government’s contention that he gave Skaggs pills laced with fentanyl, and that the fentanyl directly caused Skaggs’ death.

The official ruling by the medical examiner in 2019, however, was that Skaggs did have fentanyl, oxycodone and alcohol in his system, but that he died by asphyxiation after vomiting. That medical examiner, Dr. Marc Krouse, who lost his job last year after several mistakes were found in unrelated cases, testified Thursday that he stood by his ruling that Skaggs’ death was accidental. He said the fentanyl increased the probability of Skaggs’ death, though he couldn’t say for certain it caused it.

On Friday, however, the man who replaced Krouse as deputy chief of the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s office, Dr. Richard Fries, testified that Skaggs died of an overdose caused by the fentanyl.

Prosecutors contend that “but for” the fentanyl, Skaggs would have lived.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Errin Martin asked Fries, “What was the ‘but for’ in this case?”

Fries responded, “In this case I would consider it the fentanyl.”

Fries, who did not conduct the autopsy but reviewed Krouse’s autopsy and the toxicology report, said his conclusion was based in part on the amount of the highly toxic drug found in Skaggs’ body. During cross-examination, however, defense attorney Michael Molfetta questioned Fries about studies that suggested fentanyl levels can rise after someone dies, as the body absorbs more of it.

When Molfetta asked Fries what the level was at the time of Skaggs’ death, Fries said it was impossible to know exactly, that it could have been the same or higher.

In a made-for-TV moment, Molfetta asked Fries…