Matthew Perry’s assistant jailed for 41 months for role in actor’s death
Kenneth Iwamasa 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, including lethal doses, without medical training.
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 Wednesday, ending the prosecution of five people who admitted playing a role in the actor’s death.
Judge Sherrilyn Garnett sentenced Kenneth Iwamasa, who found Perry face down and lifeless floating 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 he left home for work. When Iwamasa returned, Perry was dead.
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“I’m so sorry to all of you,” Iwamasa said in court, facing the Perry family. “I am so sorry for doing something illegal that I will always regret it. I will take it to my grave.”
An autopsy report concluded that Perry died from “the acute effects of ketamine”, which, combined with other factors, rendered him unconscious and drowned.
Ketamine, a short-acting but powerful anesthetic with hallucinogenic properties, is sometimes prescribed to treat depression and other psychological disorders, but it has gained popularity as an illegal party drug.
Iwamasa 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, including lethal doses, without medical training.
As part of the deal, he provided key evidence against the other defendants. His sentence included two years of supervised release and a $10,000 fine.
“You wanted control over Matthew and everything he owned,” Perry’s business manager and estate executor Lisa Ferguson said in court. “You are the same monster that killed him.
Prosecutors had sought a minimum of 41 months in federal prison for Iwamasa, who met Perry in 1992 and had been his live-in assistant since 2022. He called him Perry’s “supporter and drug supplier” in court documents filed before his sentencing.
Iwamasa repeatedly injected Perry with ketamine throughout October 2023 and found him unconscious at least twice but continued administering the drug, he said. Another time, he saw Perry “freeze” and lose the ability to speak after receiving a ketamine injection from a doctor.
Before his death at age 54, Perry admitted to decades of substance abuse, having reached the peak of his fame playing the sarcastic but charming Chandler Bing on the hit 1990s NBC television comedy “Friends.”
Earlier, two doctors, a drug dealer and a middleman who helped in obtaining ketamine were sentenced in this case. Dealer Jasveen Sangha, known as the “Ketamine Queen”, received the longest sentence of 15 years in prison.