'We Trusted A Man Without A Conscience:' Matthew Perry's Assistant Sentenced To Prison

LOS ANGELES, CA — The former live-in personal assistant to Matthew Perry was sentenced Wednesday in downtown Los Angeles to three years and five months in federal prison for injecting the "Friends" actor with multiple doses of ketamine before his death in October 2023.

Kenneth Iwamasa, 61, of Toluca Lake — the last of five defendants indicted in the case to be sentenced — pleaded guilty in August 2024 to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine causing death. He was also ordered Wednesday to serve two years of supervised release and pay a $10,000 fine.

In a letter to U.S. District Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett, Perry's mother Suzanne Morrison wrote that as Perry's personal assistant, Iwamasa was meant to be an ally in her son's struggles with addiction.

"Matthew trusted Kenny," Morrison wrote. "We trusted Kenny. Kenny's most important job — by far — was to be my son's companion and guardian in his fight against addiction. We trusted a man without a conscience, and my son paid the price."

But defense attorneys said Iwamasa was ultimately a hired hand doing what his boss told him to do as part of a standard employer-employee relationship.

Iwamasa had "a particular vulnerability to the relationship dynamic which he fell into with the victim. In short, he could not `simply say no.' That inability had tragic consequences," the defense wrote in a court filing.

• See also: Matthew Perry's Personal Items, ‘Friends’ Memorabilia Head To Auction After Actor's Death

Perry, who had long struggled with addiction and wrote about it in a memoir, illegally obtained the powerful dissociative anesthetic from at least two sources. The drug is used medically for anesthesia, depression and pain management and has some hallucinogenic effects.

Iwamasa admitted to working with a Santa Monica doctor, Salvador Plasencia, and an associate, Erik Fleming, to illegally obtain ketamine for Perry. Plasencia contacted fellow doctor Mark Chavez — then a licensed San Diego physician who operated a ketamine clinic — to obtain the drug.

In text messages to Chavez, Plasencia discussed how much to charge Perry for the ketamine, stating, "I wonder how much this moron will pay," records show.

Fleming, for his part, acknowledged acting as a middleman in drug deals between Jasveen Sangha, the admitted North Hollywood dealer dubbed the "Ketamine Queen," and Iwamasa, who injected Perry with the fatal doses on Oct. 28, 2023.

Prosecutors said Plasencia taught Iwamasa how to inject Perry with the drug. Plasencia knew that Iwamasa had never received medical training and knew little, if anything, about administering or treating patients with controlled substances, court papers state.

In the days leading up to Perry's death, Iwamasa injected the actor with more than 25 shots of ketamine, including at least three jabs on the day he died, federal prosecutors said.

On the last day, Perry told Iwamasa, "Shoot me up with a big one," according to papers filed in Los Angeles federal court.

Perry detailed his years-long struggle with addiction in the 2022 memoir "Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing." The "Friends" star, who played the character Chandler Bing in the series from 1994 to 2004, said he went through detox dozens of times.

The actor was found dead Oct. 28, 2023, in a jacuzzi behind his Pacific Palisades home. He was 54. The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner determined the cause of death as the acute effects of ketamine. Contributing factors include drowning, coronary artery disease and the effects of buprenorphine, which is used to treat opioid use disorder, the medical examiner said.

The five defendants were charged in connection with Perry's death in an 18-count indictment handed down in August 2024.

Fleming, 56, of Hawthorne, was sentenced to two years behind bars earlier this month for his guilty plea to conspiracy to distribute ketamine and distribution of ketamine resulting in death.

Sangha, 42, was sentenced last month to 15 years behind bars for supplying the fatal dose that caused Perry's death. She pleaded guilty to maintaining a drug-involved premises, three counts of distribution of ketamine, and distribution of ketamine resulting in death or serious bodily injury.

Plasencia, 44, also known as "Dr. P," pleaded guilty in July 2025 to four counts of distribution of ketamine. He was sentenced in December to two years, six months behind bars for illegally supplying the drug.

Chavez, 55, pleaded guilty in October 2024 to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine. The second of two former doctors convicted in Perry's death, Chavez was handed a sentence of eight months of home confinement and ordered to perform 300 hours of community service.

City News Service