Kenneth Iwamasa, the live-in assistant to actor Matthew Perry, was sentenced Wednesday to 41 months in federal prison for conspiring to distribute ketamine to the actor. United States District Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett also issued Iwamasa a $10,000 fine, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Iwamasa, 61, obtained and repeatedly injected Perry with ketamine, including the fatal dose that ended Perry's life in October 2023. Perry, best known for playing Chandler Bing on the long-running sitcom "Friends," died on Oct. 28, 2023, after an apparent drowning in the hot tub at his Pacific Palisades home. He was 54.
The sentencing came with victim impact statements from Perry's family, published by People magazine. Perry's sister Madeline Morrison wrote that Iwamasa was a man who "left him in a hot tub to die."
"It is difficult to put into words the sense of betrayal I felt when I found out what Kenny had done," Madeline wrote. "In many ways, it felt like my brother died all over again. Everything I believed about the day he died — everything Kenny told us — was a lie."
She added, "The idea that someone my brother considered family could betray him in such an unimaginable way is something I never could have conceived."
Madeline described choosing clothes for her brother's burial as one of the "most surreal and heartbreaking experiences" of her life. She wrote about Iwamasa's behavior in those moments: "I remember how manic and unsettled Kenny seemed. He repeatedly volunteered his version of events without being asked, as if he were being interviewed rather than mourning a friend."
"In reality, he was trying to distract us from the truth: that he had injected my brother with a lethal dose of ketamine and left him in a hot tub to die."
The family also had to process Iwamasa's presence at Perry's funeral. Madeline wrote that "Kenny even spoke at Matthew's funeral," and that "the person responsible for my brother's death stood up and addressed the people who loved him most. That is like a cruel joke I still struggle with. He didn't just take my brother's life — he tainted our final memories of saying goodbye."
Perry's mother, Suzanne, also submitted a statement. "Kenny's most important job — by far — was to be my son's companion and guardian in his fight against addiction. His number-one responsibility — ensure that Matthew remained what he wanted to be: drug free," she wrote. "And when he had killed my son, he kept a sharp eye on me."
According to the plea agreement, Iwamasa procured dozens of vials of ketamine over a span of weeks and performed multiple injections on the day Perry died.
Iwamasa is the fifth and final defendant sentenced in connection with Perry's death. The others include Jasveen Sangha, known in court proceedings as the "Ketamine Queen," along with Dr. Salvador Plasencia, Dr. Mark Chavez, and drug broker Erik Fleming.
