Kenneth Iwamasa was sentenced Wednesday to 41 months in prison for helping supply Matthew Perry with ketamine, bringing the first major sentencing in the case tied to the actor’s October 2023 death. The 60-year-old former live-in personal assistant will also serve two years of supervised release, pay a $10,000 fine and report to prison on 17 July.
The sentence comes after Iwamasa pleaded guilty in August 2024 to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine causing death. He was the first of five defendants to reach a plea deal in the case and the last to be sentenced, turning a sprawling investigation into a concrete punishment that Perry’s family and prosecutors had been waiting to see.
Prosecutors said Iwamasa worked with two doctors to provide Perry with more than $50,000 of ketamine in the weeks before Perry was found dead in his backyard hot tub in Los Angeles. He had no medical training, but he injected Perry with ketamine anyway, a role that put him at the center of how the drug reached the star before his death.
Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett said Iwamasa’s knowledge of Perry’s struggle with addiction and his concealment of evidence after Perry died mattered in the sentencing. That left a sharper edge on Wednesday’s hearing, where prosecutors sought a prison term of three years and five months while Garnett imposed 41 months instead.
Before the sentence, Perry’s family members spoke directly to the court. Suzanne Morrison said Iwamasa’s most important job was to be her son’s companion and guardian in his fight against addiction and to make sure Perry stayed drug free. She wrote that, “We trusted a man without a conscience, and my son paid the price,” while Caitlin Morrison said she had no sympathy for Iwamasa and Madeline Morrison told the judge she believed he was more culpable than Jasveen Sangha.
Iwamasa told the court he was “horribly, horribly sorry” and said, “I’m so sorry to all of you. I’m just so sorry to have done illegal acts that I will forever regret. I will take it to my grave.” He also said he hoped to be “a cautionary tale” for someone in his position. The sentence does not end the case, but it closes the chapter involving the man who was closest to Perry when the drug use that helped kill him was unfolding.
