Kenneth Iwamasa was sentenced to three years and five months in prison by U.S. District Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett, ending a criminal case against five people for their roles in the “Friends” star’s overdose death.

On October 28, 2023, Perry was found dead in the jacuzzi of his Los Angeles home after a decades-long battle with substance abuse. His autopsy report ruled that his death was “an accident due to the acute effects of ketamine, with contributing factors including drowning, coronary artery disease, and the effects of buprenorphine.”

According to the Drug Enforcement Administration’s website, Iwamasa was Perry’s live-in assistant and injected her with ketamine, a dissociative anesthetic that “has hallucinogenic properties” and “distorts visual and auditory perception” at his home. At the time of his death, Perry had 3,540 nanograms per milliliter of the drug in his system, the coroner said, adding that “general anesthesia levels typically range from 1,000 to 6,000 ng/ml.”

An investigation into the circumstances surrounding the overdose resulted in the arrest of Iwamasa, addiction counselor Eric Fleming, Ketamine Queen Jasbeen Sangha, Dr. Salvador Plasencia, and Dr. Mark Chavez. All five defendants ultimately pleaded guilty.

Let’s take a look back at the legal actions taken after Perry’s tragic death.

The Department of Justice issued five criminal complaints in August 2024

Martin Estrada, United States Attorney for the Central District of California, said in a press conference on August 15, 2024, that those who participated in Perry’s use of ketamine “knew what they were doing was wrong” and “tried to cover up what they had done.”

“(Ketamine) is a drug that has to be administered by a medical professional, and patients have to be closely monitored. That didn’t happen here,” Estrada said.

In a separate statement at the time, then-U.S. DEA Administrator Ann Milgram said the five defendants “played a significant role in (Perry’s) death by misprescribing, selling, and injecting ketamine.”

“Matthew Perry’s journey began from an unscrupulous doctor who abused his position of trust by taking Perry as a payday, to a street dealer who gave him ketamine in unmarked vials,” Milgram added.

Doctor and assistant charged with conspiring to traffic drugs during Matthew Perry’s ‘final weeks’

After learning that Perry wanted to obtain ketamine in September 2023, California physician Salvador Plasencia contacted Mark Chavez, a doctor who previously ran a ketamine clinic, to obtain the drug for Perry. Investigators said Plasencia texted Chavez about pricing, saying, “I wonder how much this idiot will pay,” and “Let’s find out.”

In late September, Plasencia taught Perry’s live-in assistant, Iwamasa, how to inject ketamine. At certain points over the next six weeks, Perry was receiving up to six to eight shots a day, according to the Justice Department.

Matthew Perry’s stepmother breaks her silence About the “irreparable” pain of family members

Iwamasa and his co-conspirators then began communicating about drug deals through encrypted messaging applications and encrypted language, including referring to bottles of ketamine as “Dr. Pepper,” “cans” and “bots,” according to the indictment.

On October 12, two weeks before Perry died, Perry had an “adverse reaction” to the “high dose of ketamine” Placencia had injected him with, causing his blood pressure to spike and leaving him “frozen” and unable to “speak or move.” Plasencia reportedly told Iwamasa, “Let’s not do it again.”

A subsequent email from Placencia to Iwamasa indicated that Perry planned to take a break from using the drug, but the doctor wrote that he had “left supplies with the nurse” in case Perry wanted to “resume” use while he was away.

Matthew Perry was injected with ketamine three times on the day he died.

Investigators said on the morning of Oct. 28, 2023, Iwamasa gave Perry ketamine shots at 8:30 a.m. and 12:45 p.m., and 40 minutes earlier, Perry asked Iwamasa to prepare the hot tub and “shoot me in the big tub.” While Perry was “in or near the hot tub,” Iwamasa injected him with ketamine using another syringe, marking his third in five hours.

Perry was pronounced dead at 4:17 p.m., just 10 minutes after the Los Angeles Fire Department responded to his Pacific Palisades home. They told USA TODAY in a statement at the time that Perry “died prior to the arrival of first responders.”

Doctor who supplied Matthew Perry with ketamine pleads guilty

The doctor who allegedly provided the ketamine that caused the overdose death of “Friends” star Matthew Perry will plead guilty, according to an agreement filed in court Monday.

Scripps News – June 17, 2025

Investigators ultimately determined that Iwamasa used instructions and a syringe provided by Placencia to administer the fatal dose of ketamine distributed by Eric Fleming, a former director and certified drug addiction counselor. Fleming obtained the drug from Jasveen Sangha, the “queen of ketamine” in North Hollywood.

According to the indictment, Sangha was found to be storing and distributing drugs, including ketamine and methamphetamine, from his home in Los Angeles, and used an encrypted messaging app to instruct Fleming to “delete all of our messages.”

All five people charged in connection with Matthew Perry’s death have pleaded guilty.

Iwamasa initially reached an agreement with prosecutors, pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to cause death by distributing ketamine. He was sentenced to three years and five months in prison, followed by two years of supervised release and a $10,000 fine.

Sangha was sentenced to 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to five felonies, including one count of maintaining a drug-related facility, three counts of distributing ketamine, and one count of distributing ketamine causing death or serious bodily injury. At sentencing, she said: “These were not mistakes, these were terrible decisions.”

Fleming pleaded guilty to one count of distribution of ketamine resulting in death and was sentenced to two years in prison, suspended for three years. After the verdict, he said, “I want to do everything in my power to prevent a tragedy like this from happening again. I don’t want anyone to die from ketamine.”

Placencia pleaded guilty to four counts of distributing ketamine. He was sentenced to two and a half years in prison, suspended for two years, and fined $5,600. In court he said he was “truly sorry” to Perry’s family.

Chavez entered a guilty plea to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine and was sentenced to eight months of home confinement and three years of supervised release. After the verdict, he said: “My heart goes out to the Perry family.”

Contributors: KiMi Robinson, Anthony Robledo, Taijuan Moorman, Jay Stahl, USA TODAY

Backrooms (released May 29) is directed by 20-year-old YouTuber Cain Parsons, who adapted his own wildly popular web series into a film, making him the youngest director in A24’s history. He was a teenager when he got the job, and on the day he pitched his film to an indie studio, his college application deadline was approaching.

“Everything ended up being great and really fun and easy,” he says of the filmmaking process. “But at first you’re like, ‘This can’t happen, this can’t happen, there’s nothing to compare this to. This is very strange. … Everyone would say, ‘This is a child, this is a toddler!'”

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Busch, who passed away last Thursday from what his family said was complications from severe pneumonia that progressed to sepsis, was 24th in points following the final Cup Series race on May 10 at Watkins Glen. Busch finished 17th at Dover a week later in Richard Childress Racing’s No. 8 Chevrolet, but the All-Star race does not count towards his season points total.

Following Busch’s shocking death, his car’s number was renumbered to 33, and Austin Hill raced in his place in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, finishing 27th. Hill will also fill the No. 33 seat this Sunday in Nashville.

NASCAR made the decision to remove Busch from the points standings after talking with RCR about how to “make that impact resonate with people who see his name in the standings,” according to Fox Sports’ Bob Pockras.

Busch is the winningest driver of all time with a total of 234 wins in NASCAR’s top three national touring series. He has 63 wins in the top-level Cup Series, which ranks ninth all-time. He also has 102 wins in the second-class O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, the most ever by a driver, and 69 wins in the Craftsman Truck Series, the most by any driver. Busch won his final truck race at Dover on May 15, driving the No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet. This weekend in Nashville, Busch will be replaced by Raja Carruth who will be driving that truck.

The hospitalization was revealed during an interview with Rita Braver on CBS News Sunday Morning. The media released excerpts from the interview ahead of the broadcast on May 31st.

When asked how worried she was while watching the debate unfold, the former first lady said she was “horrified” by the president’s performance and even thought the president might be having a stroke on national television.

In his own words: Read President Joe Biden’s full statement as he withdraws from the 2024 presidential election

A new study from Fidelity found that Gen Z and Millennials are more likely to have a personal bank account than Gen X and Baby Boomers. The survey of more than 3,000 couples or partners who have been together for three years or more found that 34% of Gen Z and 26% of Millennial couples keep their money in completely separate accounts, compared to 19% of Gen X and 15% of Boomers.

Mixed approaches also seem to be gaining in popularity. About 42% of Millennial couples save money in both individual and joint accounts, compared to about 1 in 3 Gen X and Boomer couples.

Financial experts are alarmed by this trend, believing that separate accounts create confusion, lengthen timelines for achieving common goals, and open the door to financial fraud.

The broadcast journalist and “CBS Morning” host opened up about the breakup of her first marriage in an interview on her podcast “Call Her Daddy” on Wednesday, May 27.

King, 71, was married to attorney William Bumpass from 1982 to 1993, her only marriage to date. The former couple have two children, daughter Kirby and son William Bumpass Jr.

Bumpass is said to have been having an affair with a friend of King’s, which was discovered when she returned home early from a trip. King said Bumpass caught him off guard when he returned and told him he couldn’t go into the bedroom. Moments later, the newscaster said she found her friend with a towel over her head.

King added that she had a nanny focus on the children while she dealt with the situation.

“I was like, ‘My kids are here. I don’t want anyone to know.’ That was my main thought,” King told host Alex Cooper. “And that wouldn’t happen to me today. I’d be like, ‘Get this person and take her away.'” But you know, I kept thinking, “They’re small, so I don’t want that scene to be.” They know this person. ”

The two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion died after severe pneumonia progressed to sepsis. He had been feeling unwell for several weeks and called for a doctor during the Cup race at Watkins Glen on May 10th. Fox Sports reported that he was battling a sinus cold. A week after winning the Truck Series race at Dover Motor Speedway, he said he had a really bad cough. On May 20, when an ambulance was called, he was sitting on the bathroom floor, coughing up blood and hot to the touch. He passed away on May 21st.

The horse racing world remains in shock. Other than that, many people are asking the same thing. “How could that happen to someone his age?”

USA TODAY spoke with Dr. Ryan Maves, director of critical care medicine and infectious disease physician at Wake Forest University. He was not involved in Bush’s treatment. He was careful to say that everything he provided was based on limited public information.