Nicole Russo says she felt betrayed after Jasveen Sangha, the woman prosecutors tied to the ketamine that killed Matthew Perry, was sentenced to 15 years in prison on April 8. Russo, who knew Sangha for years as a friend, said she had no idea the woman she called sweet and bubbly was living what she described as a hidden double life.
Russo first met Sangha around 2011 through mutual friends and said they moved in similar circles, crossing paths at festivals because Russo’s family was involved in the music industry and concert business. She said they reconnected shortly before Sangha’s arrest and even shared a glass of wine at Russo’s home, a meeting that now looks very different in hindsight.
Sangha pleaded guilty to selling the ketamine that killed Perry in 2023, closing one chapter in a case that has drawn intense attention because of the actor’s fame and the mechanics of how the drug was supplied. Perry died on Oct. 28, 2023, and Sangha’s sentencing came after investigators and prosecutors spent months building a case around the source of the ketamine.
In an interview for Investigation Discovery’s “Hollywood Demons,” in the episode “Doctor Feelgoods,” Russo said Sangha never discussed drugs around her and never appeared to use them openly when they were together. She said she noticed over the years that Sangha began wearing more expensive clothing, but said nothing about the woman in front of her suggested the role prosecutors later described. has reported that Sangha was known as the “Ketamine Queen,” and Russo said she did not know about that side of Sangha’s life.
That gap between the friend Russo knew and the dealer prosecutors described is what gives the story its force. Russo said she would not have stayed close if she had seen Sangha “all drugged out,” and she said many lives were affected by the hidden conduct she says was kept from her. The sentencing leaves Sangha facing a long prison term, while the episode has turned a private feeling of betrayal into a public account of how a trusted relationship sat beside a fatal drug case.
