LOS ANGELES — Matthew Perry’s personal assistant was sentenced Wednesday to three years and five months in federal prison for giving the “Friends” star the ketamine injections that left the actor dead of an overdose in a hot tub back in 2023.
Subscribe to read this story ad-free
Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.
Kenneth Iwamasa was also ordered to pay a $10,000 fine to the U.S. government and told to surrender to the authorities by noon July 17.
Iwamasa, 59, is the last of the five suspects who were charged in connection with Perry’s death Oct. 28, 2023. And during the sentencing, he got an earful from Perry’s stepfather, NBC “Dateline” correspondent Keith Morrison, who scolded him for betraying Perry and their family.
Iwamasa, Keith Morrison said, knew that the actor had been battling drug addiction and had been told explicitly by the family to call them if it seemed like Perry was about to fall off the wagon. But he didn’t do that.
“You could have called someone … you didn’t do that, did you?” he said, his voice cracking, his eyes locked on Iwamasa. “But you didn’t because you were living a pretty damn good life … you were living like a king … that’s the motivation.”
Addressing the judge, Keith Morrison said Iwamasa was an experienced Hollywood assistant who gradually took over Perry’s life, not the deferential employee that his lawyer made him out to be.
“Kenny had been around a long time,” he told the judge. “He was no neophyte.”
The penalty that Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett handed down was much less that what Perry’s half-sister Madeline Morrison has been seeking.
In her victim impact statement, Madeline Morrison wrote that Iwamasa deserved a harsher sentence than Jasveen Sangha, the so-called “Ketamine Queen” who was sentenced in April to 15 years behind bars and three years’ supervised release for supplying the drugs.
“Your honor, you asked counsel a question at the sentencing of Jasveen Sangha about who was more culpable… the drug dealer responsible for supplying the drugs that killed my brother, or the so-called loyal assistant who bought the drugs by any means necessary, injected him with a lethal dose and left him to die,” Madeline Morrison wrote. “I think it’s safe to guess what my answer would be.”
Iwamasa fooled their family, Madeline Morrison wrote.
“Kenny even spoke at Matthew’s funeral,” Madeline Morrison wrote. “The person responsible for my brother’s death stood up and addressed the people who loved him most. That is like a cruel joke I still struggle with. He didn’t just take my brother’s life — he tainted our final memories of saying goodbye.”
Iwamasa pleaded guilty in August 2024 to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine, resulting in the actor’s death. And he admitted repeatedly injecting Perry with ketamine despite having no medical training, including giving him multiple ketamine shots on the day the actor died.
Perry’s mother, Suzanne Morrison, wrote in her impact statement that Iwamasa enabled the addiction that led to her son’s death.
“His number one responsibility was to ensure that Matthew remained what he wanted to be: drug‑free,” Suzanne Morrison wrote. “But instead of protecting Matthew, he aided and abetted illegal drug use, arranged for one source of supply and then another.”
Perry, 54, was pronounced dead after he was found facedown in the water at his home in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles. He was later determined to have died from an accidental overdose of ketamine, which is a hallucinogenic anesthetic that has been used as a treatment for depression.
In the months before his death, Perry had undergone several treatments for anxiety and depression, including ketamine infusion therapy. He later developed a dependence on the treatment and sought additional doses, prosecutors said.
Iwamasa, according to the Justice Department, conspired with Sangha, 41, and three other men to distribute ketamine to Perry illegally.
Eric Fleming, 54, a licensed drug counselor who prosecutors said sold Perry the ketamine that killed him, was sentenced earlier this month to two years in federal prison.
Dr. Salvador Plasencia, 44, who pleaded guilty to selling ketamine to Perry in the months before he overdosed, was sentenced in December to 2½ years in prison.
And Dr. Mark Chavez, 55, was sentenced last year to eight months of home detention and three years of supervised release.
Suzanne Morrison said Perry trusted Iwamasa and they believed he understood the actor’s struggle with addiction.
Yet, despite supposedly serving as “his companion and guardian in his fight against addiction,” Iwamasa enabled him instead, Suzanne Morrison wrote.
“He shot the drugs into Matthew’s body, though he was not in the least qualified,” Suzanne Morrison wrote. “He did it even though anyone could see how obviously dangerous it was. And he did it again and again.”
Iwamasa “insisted” on speaking at Perry’s funeral and portrayed himself as the “good guy who tried to save Matthew,” Suzanne Morrison wrote. He also tried to stay close with his family.
“We trusted a man without a conscience,” Suzanne Morrison wrote, “and my son paid the price.”
Katie Wall reported from Los Angeles, Corky Siemaszko from New York City.