{"id":1009,"date":"2026-05-27T21:33:22","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T21:33:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tucsonmovingreport.com\/?p=1009"},"modified":"2026-05-27T21:33:22","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T21:33:22","slug":"matthew-perrys-assistant-gets-3-years-5-months-in-prison-for-central-role-in-his-ketamine-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tucsonmovingreport.com\/?p=1009","title":{"rendered":"Matthew Perry\u2019s assistant gets 3 years, 5 months in prison for central role in his ketamine death"},"content":{"rendered":"
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LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014\u00a0Matthew Perry\u2019s\u00a0live-in personal assistant, who had a central role in the\u00a0\u201cFriends\u201d star\u2019s\u00a0descent into ketamine addiction and injected him with the fatal dose of the drug, was sentenced Wednesday to three years and five months in prison.<\/p>\n

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Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett handed down the sentence to 60-year-old\u00a0Kenneth Iwamasa\u00a0in federal court in Los Angeles. He was also sentenced to two years of probation and a $10,000 fine.<\/p>\n

It was the fifth and final sentencing in the 2 1\/2-year investigation and prosecution that followed Perry\u2019s death at age 54 on Oct. 28, 2023.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou were privy to his struggle with addiction,\u201d Garnett said before handing down the sentence. \u201cYour conduct was reckless, not just on the day of his death but in the days leading up to his death.\u201d<\/p>\n

The sentence was exactly what prosecutors had sought, though Garnett disagreed on some of the details. She found that Iwamasa did not abuse a position of trust, which could\u2019ve brought more prison time.<\/p>\n

She also told Iwamasa, \u201cthere is no hard evidence that you acted with malicious intent, though some would disagree.\u201d<\/p>\n

Iwamasa was at Perry\u2019s side through the final days of his life, acting as the actor\u2019s enabler, drug messenger and de facto doctor. He was the last person to see Perry alive, and he was the one who found him dead in his Jacuzzi.<\/p>\n

Iwamasa stood at the court\u2019s podium before the sentencing and made the unusual move of looking right at Perry\u2019s family and friends as he spoke into the microphone.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m horribly, horribly sorry, and I offer my condolences to you,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m just so sorry to have done these illegal acts that I will forever regret. I will take that to my grave.\u201d<\/p>\n

Iwamasa wore a charcoal-gray suit, with his long white hair combed back. He had no visible reaction to the sentence. His father and brother sat in the audience with other supporters.<\/p>\n

Iwamasa was the first person to reach a deal with prosecutors, pleading guilty in August of 2024 to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine resulting in death, and became their most important witness.<\/p>\n

Iwamasa\u2019s lawyer, Alan Eisner, argued for a six-month prison term with six months of home confinement, emphasizing he was always acting at the direction of a boss with much more power than he had.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis loyalty to Mr. Perry was paramount,\u201d Eisner told the judge. \u201cHe worshipped Mr. Perry, he looked up to Mr. Perry. All he did was please and accommodate Mr. Perry.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Eisner said Iwamasa was unable to act differently than he did, the judge cut him off and said: \u201cUnwilling. Not unable. He could have said no.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perry\u2019s mother and sisters made it clear in letters to the judge that there is no one they blame for his death more than Iwamasa \u2014 a longtime friend they thought would help the actor maintain sobriety but instead indulged the worst impulses of a lifelong addict.<\/p>\n

Perry\u2019s stepfather, longtime \u201cDateline\u201d journalist Keith Morrison, spoke for his loved ones at the sentencing.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe really felt that he was part of the family,\u201d Morrison said. \u201cWe trusted him implicitly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Morrison acknowledged the power imbalance, but said Iwamasa still had a choice.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou did the injections. You could have made the phone call,\u201d he said. \u201cBut you didn\u2019t. Because you were living a dandy life.\u201d He added, \u201cYou were in control of one of the most famous people in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lisa Ferguson, Perry\u2019s business manager for most of his career and now his estate executor, painted a darker picture, saying Iwamasa deliberately drove out everyone else surrounding Perry, including sober-living companions and medical workers, to shore up his own power and influence. She angrily said he used Perry\u2019s addiction to his own advantage.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat you are is the monster that killed him,\u201d she said. She said he had shown \u201cnot a shred of guilt or remorse\u201d since Perry\u2019s death, and that he ought to \u201crot in prison.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMatthew deserved to live,\u201d she said. \u201cYou don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

Iwamasa looked right at Morrison and Ferguson throughout their remarks from his nearby seat.<\/p>\n

Perry had hired Iwamasa in 2022, and he was paying him $150,000 a year to live at his Los Angeles home and act as his assistant.<\/p>\n

The actor had been taking the surgical anesthetic ketamine legally for depression, an increasingly common off-label use. But he wanted more than his doctor would give him.<\/p>\n

According to Iwamasa\u2019s plea agreement, he bought off-the-books ketamine from another doctor, Salvador Plasencia, who taught him how to inject it.\u00a0Plasencia was sentenced\u00a0to 2 1\/2 years in prison in July.<\/p>\n

Iwamasa also began buying ketamine from Perry acquaintance\u00a0Erik Fleming, who was getting it from a street dealer.\u00a0Fleming was sentenced\u00a0to two years in prison two weeks ago.<\/p>\n

The dealer, Jasveen Sangha, dubbed\u00a0\u201cThe Ketamine Queen,\u201d was sentenced\u00a0to 15 years on April 8.<\/p>\n

The criminal investigation began not long after Iwamasa returned from running errands to find Perry dead.<\/p>\n

The LA County Medical Examiner found that\u00a0ketamine\u00a0was the\u00a0primary cause of death. Drowning was a secondary cause.<\/p>\n

At first, Iwamasa had lied to police, omitting ketamine from the list of medications Perry was using, and saying nothing about his injections. But after investigators served a search warrant in January of 2024, he began coming clean.<\/p>\n

Perry became one of the biggest stars of his generation along with Courteney Cox, Jennifer Aniston, Matt LeBlanc, David Schwimmer and Lisa Kudrow on\u00a0\u201cFriends,\u201d\u00a0NBC\u2019s megahit sitcom that ran from 1994 to 2004.<\/p>\n

Read more Man accused of running retail trafficking enterprises across Arizona sentenced<\/a><\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Matthew Perry’s personal assistant was sentenced to three years and five months in prison for his role in the drug death of the \u201cFriends\u201d star. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1008,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"\nMatthew Perry\u2019s assistant gets 3 years, 5 months in prison for central role in his ketamine death - Tucson Moving Report<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/tucsonmovingreport.com\/?p=1009\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Matthew Perry\u2019s assistant gets 3 years, 5 months in prison for central role in his ketamine death - 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