The mother and widow of Los Angeles 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.

On Friday morning, Tyler's widow Carli Skaggs and his mom Debbie Hetman gave their first televised interview since his death, speaking with . 

'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 Texas.

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.' 

'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.'

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. 

'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. 

'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.

Carli revealed that the couple had been planning to try for their first baby after the fatal Texas road trip.

'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.

'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.

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. 

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.' 

She also slammed Kay over claims that he was in the room as Skaggs overdosed, but failed to render aid.

'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. 

Carli lamented that she didn't join her husband on the trip to Dallas. 

'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. 

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.

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. 

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.