Drug counselor who delivered ketamine dose that killed Matthew Perry gets two years | Matthew Perry
The licensed drug abuse counselor who gave Friends star Matthew Perry the doses of ketamine that killed him was sentenced to two years in prison on Wednesday.
Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett imposed the sentence on 56-year-old Erik Fleming in a federal court in Los Angeles.
“This is truly a nightmare I can’t wake up from,” Fleming told the judge before sentencing. “I’m disturbed by the mistakes I’ve made.” He wore a black suit and spoke from the podium in a deep, sombre voice.
Fleming was the fourth defendant convicted of five people who pleaded guilty in cases involving the actor’s death in a hot tub at his Los Angeles home in 2023. Fleming linked Perry to convicted drug dealer Jasveen Sangha, whom prosecutors called the “Queen of Ketamine.” He was sentenced to 15 years in prison last month.
Fleming turned Sangha over as soon as investigators contacted him, and in August 2024, he became the first defendant to plead guilty, admitting to one count of distribution of ketamine resulting in death. This was before arrests in the case were announced, and Wednesday was his first hearing since his role became public knowledge.
Without his cooperation, he would have been sentenced to nearly four years in prison, according to federal sentencing guidelines.
Prosecutors said in a pretrial sentencing brief that Fleming’s exceptional cooperation should have yielded a lighter sentence, but that even if Perry wasn’t one of his regular clients, his role as a drug counselor who “intentionally undertook to sell illegal street drugs to a victim struggling with a public, well-documented drug addiction” should count against him.
Defense attorneys had requested a sentence of three months in prison and nine months in a residential drug treatment facility, stating in their verdict that Fleming “went to extreme lengths to atone for his criminal behavior.”
He told Perry’s family and friends that his great regret “doesn’t compare to the pain I’ve caused.”
Perry was being treated with ketamine for depression; this is off-label use that is becoming increasingly common.
A few weeks before his death, Perry was looking for more medication than he could obtain through doctors and asked a friend to help him obtain more. He was at a treatment facility and introduced Perry to Fleming. He was a former film and television producer whose career was ravaged by addiction. The man got sober and became a drug counselor, but started using drugs again after the death in 2023 of his beloved stepmother, who rescued him from a traumatic childhood, his lawyers said.
Fleming would buy ketamine from the Sangha, mark up the price to make a profit, and deliver it to Perry’s home, where he sold it to the actor’s live-in personal assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa.
“I bought ketamine for Matthew Perry because I wanted the money and thought I was doing a favor for a friend,” Fleming said in his letter to the court. “I never considered the worst possible outcome. This bitter failure will haunt me forever.”
Their deliveries included 25 bottles worth $6,000 four days before Perry’s death.
Iwamasa was scheduled to inject Perry from that party on October 28, 2023, and found the actor dead hours later. A coroner’s report found that Perry died from the acute effects of the surgical anesthetic ketamine, with asphyxiation a secondary cause.
Iwamasa will be the last defendant convicted within two weeks.
Perry, who has died aged 54, became one of the biggest stars of his generation as Chandler Bing on NBC’s culture-changing sitcom Friends, which ran from 1994 to 2004.
The auction of valuable belongings, including friends’ memorabilia, will be donated to the foundation established in his name after his death.
