Fort Worth, Texas - Former Los Angeles Angels communications director Eric Kay was sentenced to 22 years in federal prison Tuesday after being convicted of providing counterfeit oxycodone pills laced with fentanyl that led to the overdose death of pitcher Tyler Skaggs. The decision followed him showing little remorse and slamming Skaggs and his family.

The investigation and trial brought MLB face to face with the country's opioid epidemic and led to the wood-paneled courtroom filled with anger, sadness, and occasional sobs.

Prosecutors alleged Kay provided opioids to Skaggs and at least five other professional baseball players since 2017. Several players testified during the trial about obtaining and using illicit oxycodone pills, called "blues" or "blue boys" because of their color.

US District Judge Terry Means said he had been "dreading this day" because he feels the mandatory minimum of 20 years in federal prison Kay faced is excessive. But the judge added two years to the total because of several disparaging phone calls and emails by Kay that authorities intercepted following his conviction in February.

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The 48-year-old has been incarcerated at the Federal Medical Center in Fort Worth since being convicted, and apparently insulted Skaggs' mother and prosecutors in communications in addition to repeatedly attacking the jurors who heard his case.

"I hope people realize what a piece of s**t he is," Kay reportedly told Skaggs' mother on one call. "Well, he’s dead, so f**k ‘em."

He also said the Skaggs family was "dumb," "white trash," and, "All they see are dollar signs," adding, "They may get more money with him dead than he was playing because he sucked."

He additionally called jurors "fat, sloppy, toothless and unemployed."

Clad in a baggy orange jumpsuit with his hands cuffed and chained around his waist, Kay didn't appear to react to his sentencing as Means cited his "callousness" and "refusal to accept responsibility."

"He facilitated this too," Means said of Skaggs. "He paid the ultimate price for that."

Skaggs was found dead in his hotel room in Southlake, Texas, on July 1, 2019, before the Angels were scheduled to start a series against the Texas Rangers. Kay told police he hadn't seen Skaggs since the team checked into the hotel the night before and didn't know if the 27-year-old used drugs other than marijuana.

But text messages between Skaggs and Kay hours before the pitcher died told a different story.

"Hoe [sic] many?" Kay texted Skaggs on June 30, 2019.

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"Just a few like 5," Skaggs responded.

After the Angels arrived in Texas, Skaggs texted Kay his room number and "Come by."

"K," Kay responded.

Geoffrey Lindenberg, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) special agent who signed the affidavit in support of the criminal complaint against Kay, wrote, "I believe [Skaggs] and Kay were discussing drugs, specifically in this case, blue 30-milligram oxycodone pills."

Lindenberg added: "It was later determined that but for the fentanyl in [Skaggs'] system, [Skaggs] would not have died."

The autopsy found Skaggs died from "alcohol, fentanyl, and oxycodone intoxication" leading to choking on his own vomit.

Kay, who had worked for the Angels since 1996, was arrested and charged in August 2020.

The jury debated less than an hour and a half before finding Kay guilty of giving Skaggs the counterfeit oxycodone pills that resulted in his death and conspiring "to possess with the intent to distribute" oxycodone and fentanyl.

The legal fallout from Skaggs' overdose includes wrongful death lawsuits filed by the pitcher's family in Texas and California that have been consolidated in Orange County Superior Court.

No one else is known to have been charged in connection with Skaggs' death.