Death of Matthew Perry – Kenneth Iwamasa received the last of five sentences

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