Matthew Perry’s assistant who injected Friends star with ketamine on day of his death is sentenced

Matthew Perry’s former assistant Kenneth Iwamasa, who ‘repeatedly’ injected the Friends star with ketamine on the day he died, has been sentenced to more than three years in prison.

Perry passed away in October 2023 at the age of 54 after drowning in the hot tub at his Los Angeles home due to a ketamine overdose. The actor’s last request to Iwamasa was ‘hit me with a big one’ before he was given the injection.

Iwamasa, 60, was the first of five people charged in the actor’s death to reach a plea deal with prosecutors in August 2024.

In addition to his 41-month prison sentence, Iwamasa was ordered to pay separate fines of $10,000 and $100 and was sentenced to probation for two years.

He must surrender to authorities by 12:00 on July 17 for his sentence to begin.

Confronted by Perry’s loved ones in court on Wednesday, Iwamasa took the stand to say he was “terribly sorry” for his role in Perry’s death.

Perry died in October 2023 at the age of 54 after drowning in a hot tub after overdosing on ketamine at his Los Angeles home. Picture taken in Los Angeles in April 2023

Perry passed away in October 2023 at the age of 54 after drowning in the hot tub at his Los Angeles home due to a ketamine overdose. The actor’s last request to Iwamasa was ‘hit me with a big one’ before he was given the injection – pictured together in February 2023

He said: ‘I’m so sorry to all of you. I am deeply sorry for committing illegal acts that I will forever regret. I will take it to my grave.

‘I hope I can be a cautionary tale for someone in my position about making better choices.’

Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett said Iwamasa knew about Perry’s struggle with addiction and noted he concealed evidence when sentencing him.

The sentencing marks the end of a more than two-year legal saga in which four members of Perry’s inner circle were convicted for their role in the overdoses.

Before Iwamasa’s sentencing, Perry’s mother, Suzanne Morrison, and her sisters, Caitlin and Madeline, submitted letters criticizing Iwamasa.

Caitlin wrote: ‘I have no sympathy for Kenny Iwamasa,’ adding that when Iwamasa left Perry on the night of his death, he was ‘either running away from something he knew he had done or deliberately abandoned a defenseless person in a dangerous situation.’

Iwamasa had previously appealed for leniency at the sentencing hearing, claiming he ‘simply couldn’t say no’ to the player.

In exchange for pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine causing death, Iwamasa agreed to be a key witness against others charged in the star’s death.

Perry paid Iwamasa $150,000 a year to be his live-in personal assistant, and it was Iwamasa, who had no medical training, who injected the actor with a fatal dose of ketamine on October 28, 2023.

She left the actor to run errands and returned to find Perry dead in the hot tub.

In court documents obtained by TMZ, Iwamasa disputed prosecutors’ claim that Perry could have said “no” when asked for ketamine.

Confronted by Perry’s loved ones in court on Wednesday, Iwamasa took the stand to say he was ‘horribly sorry’ for his role in Perry’s death

Perry’s mother Suzanne Morrison (left) and stepfather Keith Morrison attended court for the sentencing

Morrison had also previously claimed that Iwamasa ‘killed my son’; Perry is seen with her sister Emily and mother Suzanne

The Friends actor was found face down in a hot tub on October 29, 2023, shocking Hollywood deeply. The picture was taken on April 22, 2023, six months before his death

He was also accused of destroying evidence of the late actor’s drug use following his death.

Iwamasa attempted to conceal evidence of Perry’s drug use within an hour of Perry’s death at his home in Pacific Palisades, California, according to a recently reviewed filing by federal prosecutors. TMZ.

After Perry, who played Chandler Bing on the NBC series, was found face down in a hot tub, Iwamasa began destroying hard copies and digital evidence of the actor’s ketamine use, federal authorities said in their latest filing.

Prosecutors said Iwamasa told another person to get rid of evidence from a network of individuals who formed a drug supply chain for the actor’s personal use.

Prosecutors stated in the case file that Iwamasa, a native of Toluca Lake, California, lied multiple times when the investigation into the actor’s death began.

Five people have been arrested in connection with the actor’s death following a federal investigation into how Perry obtained the drugs that killed him. The picture was taken in 2012

According to prosecutors, Iwamasa tried to conceal that he had personally administered several doses of ketamine to Perry in the hours before his death.

The assistant also claimed Perry was responsible for hiding vials of ketamine in the home, prosecutors said in the legal filing.

He informed Erik Fleming, another partner in the network, that he was “cleaning up the crime scene” at his home after the actor’s death, according to prosecutors.

Prosecutors said Iwamasa told Fleming that he destroyed physical evidence, changed Perry’s digital passwords and “deleted everything” from computers while trying to hide evidence that the star had used ketamine.

Perry’s sisters, Caitlin and Madeline Morrison, criticized Iwamasa in statements they submitted to U.S. District Judge Sherilyn Garnett in a court filing reviewed May 20. People.

“It’s hard to put into words the sense of betrayal I felt when I found out what Kenny had done,” Madeline Morrison said. ‘In many ways I felt like my brother had died again.

‘Everything I believed about the day he died, everything Kenny told us was a lie.’

‘The idea that someone my brother considered family would betray him in such an unimaginable way was something I could never have imagined,’ he said.

Madeline said Iwamasa’s behavior following his brother’s death was suspicious.

Madeline said: ‘A few days after Matthew died my sister and I went to choose the clothes in which he would be buried; “This was one of the most surreal and heartbreaking experiences of my life,” he said. ‘I remember how manic and restless Kenny looked.

‘He repeatedly gave his version of events without being asked, as if he were being interviewed rather than mourning the death of a friend.’

He added: ‘He was actually trying to distract us from the truth: He had injected my brother with a lethal dose of ketamine and left him to die in the jacuzzi.’

The sentencing came two weeks after Perry’s drug counselor, Erik Fleming, was sentenced to two years in prison.

An emotional Fleming said: ‘This is truly a nightmare I can’t wake up from. ‘The mistakes I make bother me.’

A judge ordered Fleming, who had been free on bail for nearly two years, to surrender to serve his sentence within 45 days. He was also sentenced to three years probation.

This comes a month after Perry turned in drug dealer Jasveen Sangha, the ‘Queen of Ketamine’. 15 years in prison and 3 years probation.

Sangha has pleaded guilty to five federal charges in Perry’s death and has been in federal custody since his arrest in August 2024.

Fleming connected Perry to the Sangha and eventually turned him over to investigators.

‘The Sangha’s actions demonstrate cold callousness and disregard for life,’ prosecutors wrote in a filing. ‘He chose profits over people and his actions caused great pain to the families and loved ones of the victims.’

The sentence comes a month after Perry sentenced ‘Ketamine Queen’ drug dealer Jasveen Sangha to 15 years in prison and three years probation

Earlier this month drug counselor Erik Fleming, 56, was given a two-year prison sentence – image 13 May

Perry played Chandler Bing opposite Jennifer Aniston in the NBC series Friends.

Prosecutors said that within the month of Perry’s death, Sangha and Fleming sold 51 vials of ketamine to the actor, which were then delivered to Perry’s personal assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa.

Perry struggled with addiction for many years; This struggle intensified when he became one of the biggest stars of his generation as Chandler Bing on Friends.

Her rise to fame on the iconic Friends sitcom from 1994 to 2004 alongside Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc and David Schwimmer was overshadowed by personal struggles.

Perry openly admitted that addiction problems often interfered with his work during those years.