Matthew Perry's assistant gets more than 3 years in prison for central
role in his ketamine death
[May 28, 2026]
By ANDREW DALTON
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Matthew Perry’s live-in personal assistant, who had a
central role in the “Friends” actor’s descent into ketamine addiction
and injected him with a fatal dose of the drug, was sentenced Wednesday
to three years and five months in prison, bringing an end to the legal
saga surrounding the death of one of the biggest TV stars of his
generation.
“You were privy to his struggle with addiction,” said Judge Sherilyn
Peace Garnett, who handed down the sentence to the 60-year-old Kenneth
Iwamasa in federal court in Los Angeles. “Your conduct was reckless, not
just on the day of his death but in the days leading up to his death.”
Iwamasa was the last person sentenced of the five who pleaded guilty in
the investigation and prosecution that followed Perry's death at age 54
on Oct. 28, 2023. The group included corrupt doctors and a major street
dealer, “Ketamine Queen” Jasveen Sangha, whose 15-year sentence was the
only one longer than Iwamasa's.
The assistant was constantly at Perry’s side in his final days, acting
as the actor’s enabler, drug messenger and de facto doctor. He was the
last person to see Perry alive, and he was the one who found him dead in
his Jacuzzi. He would eventually become prosecutors' most important
informant.
How much blame for an assistant to an addict?
Wednesday's nearly three-hour hearing was largely a debate between
lawyers for both sides, the judge and Perry's loved ones over the level
of responsibility that can be put on the employee of a powerful person
when addiction is in the mix.
“His loyalty to Mr. Perry was paramount,” Iwamasa's lawyer, Alan Eisner,
told the judge. “He worshipped Mr. Perry, he looked up to Mr. Perry. All
he did was please and accommodate Mr. Perry.”
Eisner argued for a six-month prison term with six months of home
confinement.
“Mr. Perry was not blameless,” the lawyer said. “Nobody likes to hear
that.”
When Eisner said Iwamasa was unable to act differently than he did, the
judge cut him off and said: “Unwilling. Not unable. He could have said
no.”
Perry’s mother and sisters made it clear in letters to the judge that
there is no one, not even Perry himself, who they blame for his death
more than Iwamasa — a longtime friend they thought would help the actor
maintain sobriety.
Perry’s stepfather, longtime “Dateline” journalist Keith Morrison, spoke
for the family at the sentencing.
“We really felt that he was part of the family,” Morrison said. “We
trusted him implicitly.”
Morrison acknowledged the power imbalance, but said Iwamasa still had a
choice.
“You did the injections. You could have made the phone call,” he said.
“But you didn’t. Because you were living a dandy life.” He added, “You
were in control of one of the most famous people in the world.”
‘The monster that killed him’
Lisa Ferguson, Perry’s business manager for most of his career and now
his estate executor, painted a darker picture, saying Iwamasa
deliberately drove out everyone else surrounding Perry, including
sober-living companions and medical workers, to shore up his own power
and influence. She angrily said he used Perry’s addiction to his own
advantage.
[to top of second column]
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Kenneth Iwamasa, one of five people who pleaded guilty in the
ketamine overdose death of actor Matthew Perry, looks away as his
attorney, Alan Eisner, talks to reporters after Iwamasa's sentencing
in Los Angeles, Wednesday, May 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
 “What you are is the monster that
killed him,” Ferguson said. She said he had shown “not a shred of
guilt or remorse” since Perry’s death, and that he ought to “rot in
prison.”
“Matthew deserved to live,” she said. “You don’t.”
Iwamasa looked right at Morrison and Ferguson throughout their
remarks, and made the unusual move of facing Perry's family and
friends in the audience when he spoke.
“I’m horribly, horribly sorry, and I offer my condolences to you,”
he said. “I’m just so sorry to have done these illegal acts that I
will forever regret.”
Iwamasa wore a charcoal-gray suit, with his long white hair combed
back. He had no visible reaction to the sentence. His father and
brother sat in the audience with other supporters.
Iwamasa comes clean to police, faces the spotlight
Perry had hired Iwamasa in 2022, and he was paying him $150,000 a
year. The broad criminal investigation began not long after Iwamasa
returned from running errands to find Perry dead. The LA County
Medical Examiner found that ketamine was the primary cause of death.
Drowning was a secondary cause.
At first, Iwamasa lied to police and got rid of evidence of ketamine
use. But after investigators served a search warrant on the house in
January of 2024, he began coming clean. By that August he had
pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine
resulting in death.
That came quietly before any Perry-related indictments were
announced, and Wednesday was Iwamasa's first time under the intense
public spotlight surrounding the case. He stood in front of dozens
of cameras outside the courthouse as Eisner spoke for him, saying
that the sentence was excessive and didn't reflect the dynamic
between the two men.
“One person had the power. One person had no power,” the lawyer
said.
Morrison said outside court he was satisfied that the family could
get the sentencing behind them.
But, he added, “It doesn’t change the fact that we’ve lost him, that
he’s dead, and that my wife is broken.”
The sentence was exactly what prosecutors sought, though Garnett
disagreed with them on the details. She found Iwamasa did not abuse
a position of trust, which could’ve brought more prison time, saying
that category was generally reserved for professionals and experts.
She found that he had not benefited financially from the crime,
though acknowledged he did from the relationship with Perry.
She also told Iwamasa, “there is no hard evidence that you acted
with malicious intent, though some would disagree.”
His sentence also included a $10,000 fine and two years of
probation. He was ordered to return to go to prison on July 17.
Perry became a major TV star along with Courteney Cox, Jennifer
Aniston, Matt LeBlanc, David Schwimmer and Lisa Kudrow on “Friends,”
NBC’s megahit sitcom that ran from 1994 to 2004.
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