The mother and widow of Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs have broken their silence, days after a former team staffer was sentenced to 22 years in prison for supplying the fentanyl-laced pills that led to his death in 2019.<br>On Friday morning, Tyler’s widow Carli Skaggs and his mom Debbie Hetman gave their first televised interview since his death, speaking with . <br>’I couldn’t believe it was true. I mean that day still haunts me,’ Hetman recalled of the day Tyler, 27, was found dead in a Dallas hotel room during an Angels road series in .<br>Carli said that she was driving in her car on July 1, 2019 when she saw a call come in from the Angels general manager, and immediately ‘knew it was bad.’ <br>’I didn’t want to hear what he was going to tell me. I knew my life changed forever in that moment,’ she said. But she said she had ‘not a clue’ that her husband had a drug problem, calling it ‘the last thought that crossed my mind.'<br>The family’s tragedy came to a conclusion of sorts on Tuesday, when former Angels communications director Eric Kay was sentenced to 22 years in prison for providing the drugs that led to Tyler’s fatal overdose. <br> Tyler’s widow Carli Skaggs and his mom Debbie Hetman gave their first televised interview since his 2019 death of a drug overdose involving fentanyl-laced pills<br> Skaggs, 27, was found dead in a Dallas hotel room on July 1, 2019, after choking to death on his vomit with a toxic mix of alcohol and various drugs in his system<br> Former Angels communications director Eric Kay (right) was sentenced to 22 years in prison for providing the drugs that led to Tyler’s fatal overdose<br>’We’re fortunate because we can hold somebody accountable for our son’s death and a lot of people aren’t able to do that right now with this fentanyl crisis,’ said Hetman. <br>’I miss Tyler so much. He was my only son and, you know, I’m not going to be a grandma. I’m not going to be able to hold a grandchild and those things,’ the grieving mother added.<br>Carli revealed that the couple had been planning to try for their first baby after the fatal Texas road trip.<br> RELATED ARTICLES

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‘I distinctly remember four days before he passed away we talked about it and he said, when I get back from Texas,’ the widow recalled.<br>’He would have made an amazing father. He was so great with kids and I wonder sometimes if I’ll ever be as happy as I was. I have a lot of healing to do, you know. I have faith that I’ll get there,’ she said.<br>In court, prosecutors presented evidence of Kay, 48, making derogatory comments about Skaggs, his family, prosecutors and jurors in phone calls and emails after he was convicted in February. <br>Hetman reacted in the interview saying: ‘Through this entire three years, he’s deflected. He’s not taken responsibility. And the fact that he speaks what he spoke about myself, my family, my son, it’s unacceptable.’ <br> Carli revealed that the couple had been planning to try for their first baby after the fatal Texas road trip<br> ‘We’re fortunate because we can hold somebody accountable for our son’s death and a lot of people aren’t able to do that right now with this fentanyl crisis,’ said Hetman<br> Carli Skaggs, left, wife of Tyler Skaggs and his mother Debbie Skaggs are shown with the jersey and photos of the Angels pitcher in Los Angeles in 2020<br>She also slammed Kay over claims that he was in the room as Skaggs overdosed, but failed to render aid.<br>’That haunts me all the time. To think that somebody is in the room and doesn’t render help to your child, to your son. So heartbreaking,’ she said. <br>Carli lamented that she didn’t join her husband on the trip to Dallas. <br>’You know, I always think about if — why didn’t I go to Texas. I wish I was there to save him, but he shouldn’t have needed it,’ she said. <br>At Tuesday’s sentencing hearing, the judge gave Kay two additional years on top of the 20-year minimum for his remarks behind bars disparaging Skaggs and his family.<br>Kay, dressed in an orange jumpsuit with handcuffs and leg shackles, didn’t react when U.S. District Judge Terry R. Means read his sentence. <br>There was emotional testimony from both sides in federal court in Fort Worth, about 15 miles from where the Angels were supposed to open a four-game series against the Texas Rangers on July 1, 2019, the day Skaggs was found dead in a suburban Dallas hotel room. <br> An impromptu memorial is set up on outside Angel Stadium in Anaheim on July 1, 2019 in memory of Angel pitcher Tyler Skaggs who died that day in Texas<br> Kay was convicted on one count each of drug distribution resulting in death and agen slot gacor drug conspiracy.<br>A coroner´s report said Skaggs, 27, had choked to death on his vomit and that a toxic mix of alcohol, fentanyl and oxycodone was in his system.<br>The trial included testimony from five major league players who said they received oxycodone pills from Kay at various times from 2017-19, the years Kay was accused of obtaining pills and giving them to players at Angel Stadium. <br>Kay also used drugs himself, according to testimony and court documents.<br>He had been in prison in Fort Worth, Texas, up until his sentencing, but will likely serve the 22 years in his home state of California. <br>Attorneys for Kay say they plan to appeal his conviction. <br>

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