The live-in personal assistant to Matthew Perry has been jailed for three years and five months for his role in the actor’s death.
The 54-year-old Friends star was found unresponsive in a hot tub in his Los Angeles home on October 28, 2023. He was later pronounced dead, with his death being attributed to the acute effects of ketamine, and drowning and coronary artery disease listed as other factors.
Kenneth Iwamasa, 60, was sentenced in a Los Angeles court today (May 27), after being judged to have injected the Friends star with ketamine after working with two doctors to secure $50,000 (£38,000) of the drug in the weeks leading up to his death.
Iwamasa, who had no medical training, pleaded guilty in August 2024 to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine causing death and faced a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison. He was also sentenced to two years of supervised release and ordered to pay a $10,000 (£7,600) fine.
Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett cited Iwamasa’s personal knowledge and experience of Perry’s history of addiction in her sentencing, and also asserted that Iwamasa concealed evidence following Perry’s death.
After sentencing, Iwamasa turned to Perry’s family and said: “I’m so sorry to all of you. I’m just so sorry to have done illegal acts that I will forever regret. I will take it to my grave. I hope I’ll be a cautionary tale to someone who’s in my position to make better choices.”
Perry’s sister Caitlin Morrison wrote to thank the judge and said: “I have no sympathy for Kenny Iwamasa”, adding that when Iwamasa left Perry the night he died, he was “either escaping from something he knew he had done or he was willfully abandoning a vulnerable person in a dangerous situation”.
Iwamasa’s sentencing brings to an end the two-and-a-half-year legal saga over the circumstances surrounding Perry’s death.
Jasveen Sangha, the drug dealer also known as the ‘Ketamine Queen’, was sentenced to 15 years in prison last month, with prosecutors alleging that after learning she had sold the drugs that caused Perry’s death, she “didn’t care and kept selling”.
Rehab counsellor Erik Fleming was also jailed for two years for suppling Perry with ketamine, while Dr. Salvador Plasencia, who also supplied him with ketamine in the weeks before his death was sentenced to 30 months in jail in December. Dr. Mark Chavez was sentences to eight months of home detention and three years of supervised release.
Following news of his passing, Perry’s Friends co-stars Courteney Cox, David Schwimmer, Matt LeBlanc and Lisa Kudrow shared touching individual tributes to the late actor on their respective Instagram pages.
For help, advice or more information regarding addiction in the UK, visit the FRANK website. In the US, visit SAMHSA.
