Matthew Perry’s assistant, who lived with him, was sentenced Tuesday to three years and five months in prison. He gave the “Friends” star three ketamine shots on the day of his death and left him alone in his garden hot tub – on October 28, 2023, Perry was found face down in the water.
The assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, had pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine resulting in death and was the last of five co-defendants to be convicted in the high-profile case. He had requested six months in prison and six months house arrest. Prosecutors recommended the 41-month sentence, saying it reflected both the “life-ending harm” Iwamasa caused and his “significant cooperation” with investigators.
“What you are is the monster that killed him,” Perry’s longtime business manager and estate administrator Lisa Ferguson said in a powerful statement as a victim advocate. She accused Iwamasa of lying to the family, taking photos at Perry’s funeral, demanding three years of severance pay and suing the estate when he didn’t receive the payment he wanted. “Matthew deserved to live. She didn’t.”
Milder sentence than co-defendant
Iwamsa’s sentence was significantly less than the 15-year sentence handed down last month to his co-defendant Jasveen Sangha – the so-called “ketamine queen” who sold the ketamine found in Perry’s blood when he died. The three remaining co-defendants received even shorter sentences.
Erik Fleming, the drug trafficker who acted as a middleman between Sangha, was sentenced to two years in prison earlier this month. Dr. Salvador Plasencia, who admitted supplying Perry with large amounts of ketamine in the weeks before Fleming and Sangha’s involvement, was sentenced to 30 months in prison last December. Dr. Mark Chavez, who helped Plasencia get it, got off with the lightest sentence: eight months of house arrest and three years of probation.
In letters to the court, Perry’s relatives made serious accusations against Iwamasa for lying to the family about the events. They wrote that they had known him for decades and trusted him to take care of the needy actor.
Letters from the family to the court
“Kenny’s most important role – by far – was to be my son’s companion and protector in his battle with addiction,” his mother, Suzanne Morrison, wrote to the judge. “Kenny knew that if he felt under undue pressure, a single phone call to one of the many people close to Matthew would be enough – backup would be on the way and his job would be safe.”
She claimed Iwamasa clung to the family after Perry’s death – possibly to observe what she knew. “He sent me songs, he drew a little map to help me find my way around the cemetery. When he saw a rainbow – one of Matthew’s favorite things – he would call me. He insisted on speaking at Matthew’s funeral. He clung to me and the family as if he was somehow the good guy who wanted to save Matthew,” she wrote.
The grieving mother attacked Iwamasa for arranging multiple sources of ketamine for Perry, injecting her son without medical training and allegedly threatening to file a compensation lawsuit to “extort” a settlement when it became clear he would not receive a “financial payout” from the family. She described Iwamasa as “a man without conscience.”
Performance at the funeral
Perry’s sister Madeline Morrison called Iwamsa’s speech at the funeral shameful. “The person responsible for my brother’s death stood up and spoke to the people who loved him most. It’s like a cruel joke that I’m still struggling with,” she wrote. “He didn’t just take my brother’s life – he poisoned our last memories of saying goodbye.”
In court papers, prosecutors said Iwamasa saw the danger more clearly than anyone else. He was “acutely aware” of Perry’s addiction problems, found him unconscious in his apartment twice that month, watched him “freeze” and lose speech after a large injection by a now-convicted doctor – and destroyed evidence before paramedics arrived. Iwamasa finally admitted his role in the deadly events, prosecutors said, after investigators conducted a search of his home in January 2024.
According to the facts included in his settlement with prosecutors, Iwamasa arranged Perry’s first meeting with Dr. Salvador Plasencia on September 30, 2023 and paid the doctor $4,500 in cash. At the meeting, Plasencia administered two ketamine injections to Perry, showed Iwamasa how to inject the anesthetic, and left behind several syringes and at least one ketamine vial.
Deadly ketamine chain
Iwamasa later ordered more ketamine from Plasencia and referred to the vials in text messages as “cans of Dr. Pepper,” investigators said. Over the next two weeks, he used Perry’s money to purchase at least $55,000 worth of ketamine from Plasencia.
On Oct. 10, 2023, Iwamasa arranged for Plasencia to meet him and Perry in a parking lot near the Long Beach Aquarium, where Plasencia injected Perry with ketamine in the back seat of a car, according to the agreement. A few days later, Plasencia administered a high dose to Perry at Iwamasa’s house in the presence of Iwamasa, causing Perry’s blood pressure to skyrocket and his body to “freeze,” Iwamasa admitted.
As part of the deal, Iwamasa said he later began purchasing ketamine from Fleming. On October 14, 2023, he purchased 25 vials supplied by Sangha for $6,000. He arranged another purchase of 25 vials, which he admitted were delivered on October 24, 2023.
The last day
Iwamasa, who earned $150,000 a year as an assistant, admitted giving Perry about six to eight ketamine shots per day from Oct. 24 to Oct. 27, 2023. On the day of Perry’s death, he injected him with a first dose at about 8:30 a.m. and a second dose at about 12:45 p.m., according to his agreement with prosecutors. About 40 minutes later, Perry asked Iwamasa to turn on the hot tub and “shoot it with the big syringe.” Iwamasa admitted to giving him the shot.
According to his autopsy report, Perry died at the age of 54 from the acute effects of ketamine. He was best known as Chandler Bing in “Friends,” had been to rehab several times and spoke openly about his addiction – primarily to painkillers. In his memoir “Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing,” the actor was brutally honest about the extent of his drug problem, opening the book by saying, “Hi, my name is Matthew, although you may know me by another name. My friends call me Matty. And I should be dead.” He confessed to taking up to 55 Vicodin a day while filming the third season of “Friends.”
