Matthew Perry’s assistant sentenced to 41 months in prison

By Matt Silverstein and Erica Stapleton

LOS ANGELES, May 27 (Reuters) – The personal assistant who injected “Friends” star Matthew Perry with a fatal dose of the hallucinogenic drug ketamine was sentenced to 41 months in federal prison on Wednesday, bringing to a close the prosecution of five people who admitted to playing roles in the actor’s death.

Judge Sherilyn Garnett delivered the sentence for Kenneth Iwamasa, the person who found Perry floating face down and lifeless in a hot tub at his Los Angeles home in October 2023. Federal prosecutors said Iwamasa injected Perry with ketamine at the actor’s request before leaving the residence to run errands. Perry was dead when Iwamasa returned.

    “I am so sorry to all of you,” Iwamasa said in court, turning to face the Perry family. “I’m just so sorry to have done illegal acts I will forever regret. I will take that to my grave.”

Keith Morrison, Perry’s stepfather, was the only family member to speak in court. He said Iwamasa failed to raise the alarm about Perry’s deepening ketamine addiction and chose to keep “living like a king” in the star’s home.

“You kept injecting him with more,” Morrison said, looking directly at Iwamasa. “You could have made the phone call but you were living a pretty dandy life.”

An autopsy report concluded that Perry died from the “acute effects of ketamine,” which combined with other factors in causing him to lose consciousness and drown.

Ketamine, a short-acting but potent anesthetic with hallucinogenic properties, is sometimes prescribed to treat depression and other psychological disorders but has gained popularity as an illicit party drug.     

Iwamasa had pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine resulting in death. As part of a plea agreement, he admitted to repeatedly injecting Perry with ketamine without medical training, including the lethal dose.

Under the deal, Iwamasa provided key evidence against other defendants. His sentence included two years’ supervised release and a $10,000 fine.

“You wanted control, control over Matthew and everything he owned,” Lisa Ferguson, Perry’s business manager and estate executor, said in court. “What you are is the monster who killed him.”

Prosecutors had asked for at least 41 months in federal prison for Iwamasa, who met Perry in 1992 and had been his live-in assistant since 2022. They called him Perry’s “enabler and drug supplier” in court documents filed ahead of the sentencing.

Iwamasa’s lawyer, Alan Eisner, said his client “only did what his boss said.” 

“Kenny will regret forever that he couldn’t step up and say ‘no’ to Mr Perry,” Eisner told reporters, as Iwamasa stood calmly beside him after the sentencing.

Iwamasa repeatedly injected Perry throughout October 2023 with ketamine and at least twice found him unconscious but kept administering the drug, prosecutors said. Another time, he saw Perry “freeze” and lose the ability to speak after receiving a ketamine injection from a doctor.

“Your conduct was reckless, not just on the day of his death, but on the days leading up to his death,” Garnett told Iwamasa.

Before his death at age 54, Perry had acknowledged decades of substance abuse that overlapped with the height of his fame playing the sardonic but charming Chandler Bing on the 1990s hit NBC television comedy “Friends.” 

Two doctors, a drug dealer and a go-between who helped obtain ketamine were previously sentenced in the case. Jasveen Sangha, a dealer dubbed the “Ketamine Queen,” received the longest sentence of 15 years in prison.

(Reporting by Matt Silverstein, Lisa Richwine and Erica Stapleton in Los Angeles; Additional reporting by Andrew Hay in New Mexico; Editing by Mark Porter)