On Wednesday, federal prosecutors in California recommended a 15-year sentence for the woman who admitted to providing the ketamine that killed “Friends” actor Matthew Perry in 2023.
Prosecutors said Jasveen Sangha — known as the “Ketamine Queen — operated a large-scale drug-trafficking business out of her Hollywood home since 2019. They claimed Sangha, 42, continued to sell methamphetamine and ketamine after Perry’s death and the 2019 death of Cody McLaury, who died hours after Sangha sold him four vials of ketamine.
Last year, Sangha pleaded guilty to maintaining a drug-involved premises, distributing ketamine, and distributing ketamine resulting in death or serious bodily injury. In doing so, she confessed to working with another dealer to sell dozens of vials of ketamine to Perry — including the drugs that killed him at his Pacific Palisades home.
Perry, 54, was found dead in a hot tub in October 2023. An autopsy confirmed the acute effects of ketamine caused his death. While the actor was reportedly undergoing ketamine infusion therapy for anxiety and depression, he was illegally procuring the drug outside of medical settings.
An investigation determined that Perry’s live-in assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, 60, injected him with the fatal dose of ketamine, which came from Sangha.
Iwamasa allegedly told authorities that Perry met Salvador Plasencia, 43, an urgent care doctor, weeks before his death. Iwamasa said Perry paid Plasencia as much as $55,000 for ketamine in the month leading up to his death.
Perry reportedly started purchasing intravenous ketamine in late September 2023. A month later, Perry reportedly reached out to Erik Fleming, 55, an ex-producer and drug counseling worker.
Sangha’s plea deal stated that she worked with Fleming to provide Perry with ketamine. The month of Perry’s death, the pair reportedly sold 51 vials to Iwamasa. Iwamasa injected Perry with three vials of ketamine on the day he died, per the plea deal.
In addition to Sangha, Fleming, Iwamasa, and Plasencia pleaded guilty to playing a role in Perry’s death. Plasencia was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in federal prison in December, three months after he surrendered his medical license. A second doctor who pleaded guilty to supplying ketamine to Perry was sentenced in December to eight months of home confinement.
Sangha will be sentenced in early April. Fleming and Iwamasa’s sentencing hearings are scheduled for late April.
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[Feature Photo: Rich Fury/Invision/AP, File]