Matthew Perry's former assistant sentenced to 3 years in prison for actor's death

Matthew Perry, 54, was found dead in his Los Angeles home in 2023
Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP
Kenneth Iwamasa, Matthew Perry's personal assistant, was sentenced to three years and five months in prison for the actor's death.
Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett handed down the sentence against Iwamasa, 60, in federal court in Los Angeles on Wednesday (27). He was also sentenced to two years' probation and a $10,000 fine.
This was the fifth and final sentence handed down after two and a half years of investigation and prosecution that followed Perry's death, aged 54, on October 28, 2023.
Iwamasa was by Perry's side in the final days of his life, acting as his accomplice, drug courier and informal doctor. He was the last person to see Perry alive and was the one who found him dead in his jacuzzi.
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Iwamasa was by Perry's side during the last days of his life, acting as his accomplice, drug courier and informal doctor. He was the last person to see Perry alive and was the one who found him dead in his jacuzzi.
Iwamasa was the first person to reach a deal with prosecutors, pleading guilty in August 2024 to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine resulting in death, and became the prosecution's most important witness.
Iwamasa's lawyers asserted in a court document that he was an employee carrying out his employer's orders and that he had a "particular vulnerability" in his relationship with Perry. "In short, he couldn't 'just say no.' This inability had tragic consequences."
Perry's family members, some of whom may testify in court, made it clear in letters to the judge that they blame no one more for his death than Iwamasa - a longtime friend who they believed would help the actor maintain his sobriety, but who instead gave in to the worst impulses of a longtime addict.
"Matthew trusted Kenny. We we trusted Kenny. Kenny's most important job - by far - was to be my son's companion and guardian in his struggle with addiction," wrote Perry's mother, Suzanne Morrison. "We trusted a man without a conscience, and my son paid the price."
Dealer also convicted
Perry hired Iwamasa in 2022 and paid him $150,000 a year to live in his Los Angeles home and work as his assistant.
The actor had been using ketamine, a surgical anesthetic, legally to treat depression. This is an increasingly common unconventional use. But he wanted more than what his doctor prescribed.
According to Iwamasa's plea agreement, he illegally purchased ketamine from another doctor, Salvador Plasencia, who taught him how to inject it. Plasencia was sentenced to two and a half years in prison in July.
Iwamasa also began purchasing ketamine from Erik Fleming, an acquaintance of Perry, who obtained it from a street dealer. Fleming was sentenced to two years in prison two weeks ago.
Ketamine queen sentenced to 15 years in prison for death of Matthew Perry
Montage/g1
The drug dealer, Jasveen Sangha, nicknamed the "Ketamine Queen," was sentenced to 15 years on April 8.
In the final days of Perry's life, Iwamasa injected him six to eight times a day. On October 23, 2023, he injected the 54-year-old actor with a large dose and went shopping. When he returned, he found Perry dead in the jacuzzi. The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner's Office concluded that ketamine was the primary cause of death. Drowning was a secondary cause.
Initially, Iwamasa lied to police, omitting ketamine from the list of medications Perry took and not mentioning anything about his injections. But when investigators served a search warrant in January 2024, he began to confess.
Perry became one of the biggest stars of his generation, alongside Courteney Cox, Jennifer Aniston, Matt LeBlanc, David Schwimmer and Lisa Kudrow, on "Friends," the wildly successful NBC sitcom that aired from 1994 to 2004.

Source: G1