Matthew Perry was not murdered in the legal sense. The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner ruled his October 28, 2023 death an accident caused by the “acute effects of ketamine,” with drowning, coronary artery disease, and buprenorphine listed as contributing factors.1County of Los Angeles Department of Medical Examiner. Cause and Manner of Death Determined for Matthew Langford Perry But the federal investigation that followed found that Perry did not simply overdose alone. Five people, including two doctors, a street dealer, a middleman, and Perry’s own live-in assistant, were charged with running the supply chain that put a lethal dose of ketamine into his body. All five pleaded guilty. By May 2026, all had been sentenced.2U.S. Department of Justice. Matthew Perry’s Former Live-In Personal Assistant Sentenced to Nearly 3½ Years in Federal Prison
Why the Case Was Not Charged as Murder
The manner of death on the autopsy was accident, not homicide. No defendant was charged with murder. Federal prosecutors in the Central District of California instead built the case around illegal distribution of ketamine, with the most serious count being distribution of ketamine resulting in death.3U.S. Department of Justice. Five Defendants Including Two Doctors Charged in Connection With Actor Matthew Perry’s Fatal Overdose That charge carries a 20-year mandatory minimum and is the federal government’s tool for holding drug suppliers accountable when a customer dies. It punishes the death without requiring proof of intent to kill.
U.S. Attorney E. Martin Estrada described the theory of the prosecution plainly: “Drug dealers selling dangerous substances are gambling with other people’s lives over greed. This case, along with our many other prosecutions of drug-dealers who cause death, send a clear message that we will hold drug-dealers accountable for the deaths they cause.”3U.S. Department of Justice. Five Defendants Including Two Doctors Charged in Connection With Actor Matthew Perry’s Fatal Overdose
How Perry Got the Drug That Killed Him
Perry had been receiving legitimate ketamine infusion therapy at a Los Angeles-area clinic for depression and anxiety and had become addicted. When clinic doctors refused to increase his dosage, he went outside the medical system.4The New York Times. Matthew Perry Ketamine Treatment Two separate channels opened up.
The first ran through doctors. Dr. Salvador Plasencia, called “Dr. P,” sourced vials from Dr. Mark Chavez, who diverted ketamine from his former clinic, wrote fraudulent prescriptions in an ex-patient’s name, and lied to wholesale distributors. Between late September and mid-October 2023, Plasencia sold Perry’s assistant 20 vials and additional tablets for a total of $57,000, well above the roughly $15-per-vial market rate.5U.S. Department of Justice. Former Physician Who Ran Calabasas Clinic Sentenced to 2½ Years in Federal Prison In texts to Chavez, Plasencia wrote: “I wonder how much this moron will pay” and “Lets find out.”6The New York Times. Matthew Perry Salvador Plasencia Sentencing Plasencia also injected Perry personally and trained the assistant to do the same.
The second channel took over in mid-October. Erik Fleming, a licensed addiction counselor who knew Perry, connected the household to Jasveen Sangha, a North Hollywood dealer prosecutors called the “Ketamine Queen.” Sangha had been selling injectable ketamine to wealthy clients since at least 2019.7BBC. Jasveen Sangha Background Over 11 days in October, Fleming and Sangha sold Perry roughly 51 vials. Prosecutors traced the fatal dose to one of them.8The New York Times. Ketamine Queen Sentence Matthew Perry
Kenneth Iwamasa, Perry’s live-in assistant of many years, had no medical training but was injecting Perry six to eight times a day by the final days of his life.9The Guardian. Matthew Perry Death Assistant Sentence On October 28, he gave Perry a morning injection, another around midday, and a third large dose that Perry called “a big one” as the actor got into a hot tub. Iwamasa then left the house. Perry was found unresponsive in his pool around 4:00 p.m.10Los Angeles Times. Matthew Perry Assistant Sentencing Postmortem tests showed ketamine at surgical-anesthesia levels, far above what his last legitimate infusion a week and a half earlier could explain.11PBS NewsHour. Autopsy Report Shows Actor Matthew Perry Died From Effects of Ketamine Afterward, Iwamasa hid the ketamine from investigators, left it off the medication list he handed first responders, destroyed vials and syringes, and later told an accomplice he had “cleaned up the scene” and “deleted everything.”2U.S. Department of Justice. Matthew Perry’s Former Live-In Personal Assistant Sentenced to Nearly 3½ Years in Federal Prison
Who Was Charged and What They Got
All five defendants pleaded guilty. U.S. District Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett handed down every sentence.
Jasveen Sangha received the longest term: 15 years in federal prison, sentenced April 8, 2026. She pleaded guilty to five charges, including distribution of ketamine resulting in death. Her plea also admitted selling ketamine to another man, Cody McLaury, who died of an overdose hours after buying from her in August 2019. When McLaury’s sister texted her that the ketamine had been listed as the cause of death, Sangha responded by Googling “can ketamine be listed as a cause of death” and kept selling.12ABC7 New York. Cody McLaury Ketamine Same Dealer as Matthew Perry After Perry’s death made the news, she messaged Fleming on Signal: “Delete all our messages.” A March 2024 raid on her home recovered 79 vials of ketamine, cocaine, and roughly three pounds of methamphetamine pills.13U.S. Department of Justice. North Hollywood Drug Dealer Who Sold Ketamine That Killed Actor Matthew Perry Sentenced to 15 Years
Dr. Salvador Plasencia was sentenced December 3, 2025 to 30 months in prison and a $5,600 fine after pleading guilty to four counts of distribution of ketamine. He surrendered his medical license in September 2025 and was taken into custody immediately.5U.S. Department of Justice. Former Physician Who Ran Calabasas Clinic Sentenced to 2½ Years in Federal Prison At sentencing he said: “I failed Mr. Perry — I failed him. I failed his family. There is no excuse.”6The New York Times. Matthew Perry Salvador Plasencia Sentencing
Kenneth Iwamasa was sentenced May 27, 2026 to 41 months in federal prison and fined $10,000. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute ketamine resulting in death and admitted to injecting Perry with at least 27 shots in the days before his death.14The New York Times. Matthew Perry Personal Assistant Ketamine
Erik Fleming was sentenced May 13, 2026 to two years in prison and three years of probation. He was the first defendant to plead guilty, in August 2024, and became the government’s key cooperating witness. His attorney said he “handed over the Ketamine Queen on a silver platter” on the day investigators first confronted him. Prosecutors said without that cooperation he likely would have received around four years.15CNN. Matthew Perry Erik Fleming Sentencing
Dr. Mark Chavez received the lightest sentence: eight months of home detention, 300 hours of community service, and three years of supervised release. He pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine and surrendered his medical license in November 2024.16NBC News. Former California Doctor Sentenced in Matthew Perry’s Overdose Death
What Perry’s Family Said
Perry’s family submitted victim impact statements at Iwamasa’s sentencing that framed his conduct in terms far closer to killing than to accident. Iwamasa had known the family for 25 years.
Perry’s sister Madeline Morrison wrote that Iwamasa “had injected my brother with a lethal dose of ketamine and left him in a hot tub to die,” and that Iwamasa’s decision to speak at the funeral was “like a cruel joke.” His sister Caitlin Morrison wrote that she could not know whether the final dose was “only lethal by accident,” but that Iwamasa was “either escaping from something he knew he had done or willfully abandoning a vulnerable person in a dangerous situation.”17People. Matthew Perry Sisters Victim Impact Statements Kenneth Iwamasa Perry’s mother, Suzanne Morrison, called Iwamasa “a man without a conscience” who had aided “illegal drug taking” and then manipulated the grieving family “as if he was somehow the good guy who tried to save Matthew.”18Today. Matthew Perry Mom Suzanne Morrison Victim Letter Kenneth Iwamasa
The legal record classifies what happened to Perry as an accidental overdose caused by a criminal supply chain. The people who fed that chain were prosecuted as drug dealers, not killers, and are now serving federal sentences ranging from home detention to 15 years.