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Matthew Perry’s former personal assistant has admitted that he found the Friends actor "unconscious" on more than one occasion in the weeks before his ketamine-induced death.
Kenneth Iwamasa is one of the five people charged in Perry's death, as it was he who administered the dose of ketamine that killed the actor on October 28. He recently entered a guilty plea for a count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine causing death, Page Six reports.
According to a plea agreement Iwamasa signed, he injected Perry with "significant quantities of ketamine" — he estimated around "6-8 shots per day" — in the final days before the actor's death.
Iwamasa also told investigators that he found Perry unconscious twice in October.
On the day Perry died, Iwamasa reportedly asked for a ketamine injection around 8:30am and then again around 12:45pm.
Approximately 40 minutes after that, Perry allegedly asked his assistant to prepare his jacuzzi and "shoot me up with a big one," meaning another dose of ketamine.
Those are reportedly Perry's final words.
That was Perry's third shot of ketamine that day. Once the actor was sedated, Iwamasa left the house to run errands. When he returned hours later, he found Perry floating facedown in the jacuzzi.
Four other people have been charged in Perry's death: Erik Fleming, Dr Mark Chavez, Dr Salvador Plasencia and Jasveen Sangha — known as the “Ketamine Queen.”
Both doctors have been accused of conspiring with the others to distribute ketamine to Perry.
Plasencia — who was reportedly known colloquially as "Dr P" — saw Perry as a cash cow, the DOJ's indictment suggests, citing text messages he sent to Chavez about a month before the actor’s death. “I wonder how much this moron will pay,” he wrote in one. “Let’s find out,” he wrote in another.
"Matthew Perry’s journey began with unscrupulous doctors who abused their position of trust because they saw him as a payday, to street dealers who gave him ketamine in unmarked vials," the DOJ said in a statement announcing the arrests.
Fleming is a film director and was a friend of Perry's. Investigators believe he obtained the ketamine that killed Perry from another defendant, the "Ketamine Queen" Sangha.
On October 12 last year, Plasencia injected Perry with “a large dose of ketamine” that unexpectedly caused the actor to “freeze up,” and spiked his blood pressure, rattling the doctor, according to the indictment. When Plasencia began having supply issues, Perry’s go-betweens branched out to Sangha, who said she had a “master chef” cooking up ketamine for her, the indictment states. And since Perry bought a lot of her product, Sangha provided him with ketamine lollipops as an “add-on,” the indictment states.
In the days leading up to Perry’s death, Iwamasa administered at least 15 shots of ketamine to him, all of which were supplied by Sangha, according to the indictment. It says Iwamasa gave Perry the final three doses of ketamine purchased from Sangha, using needles provided by Plasencia, on October 28, 2023, the date the actor was found dead in his hot tub.
Later that same day, the indictment says Sangha, 41, messaged Fleming on Signal, writing: “Delete all our messages.”
Sangha's alleged propensity to sling ketamine may have not only contributed to Perry's death, but also to the 2019 death of a personal trainer living in LA.
Iwamasa faces up to 15 years in prison, Fleming as much as 25 years, and Chavez as much as 10 years behind bars, The New York Times reports. Plasencia could be imprisoned for up to 10 years for each ketamine-related count and for up to 20 years for each records falsification count he faces. Sangha could face between 10 years to life in prison if she is convicted on her charges.
