It has been announced that the doctor who gave Matthew Perry ketamine was handed a 30-month sentence in court today.
The actor, most known for his role as Chandler Bing in Friends, died in October 2023, at the age of 54 with an autopsy later revealing that he had been killed by ‘acute effects of ketamine’.
Following an investigation, five people were charged in connection with his death.
This included his live-in assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, Erik Fleming, Dr Salvador Plasencia, Dr Mark Chavez and Jasveen Sangha, who was dubbed the ‘Ketamine Queen’.
In July, Dr Salvador Plasencia pleaded guilty to supplying Perry with ketamine before his death, and on December 3 he appeared in court to be delivered his sentence.
Per the BBC, he was given a 30-month prison sentence following the trial.
The trial took place at the Edward R. Roybal Federal Courthouse in Los Angeles, California, on December 3.
It was also reported that he addressed the court during the nearly two-hour sentencing hearing and cried throughout his remarks.
Perry’s family reportedly requested from the judge that Plasencia be given a lengthy sentence.
The couple called the doctor the ‘most culpable’ and explained that they could not comprehend why he repeatedly supplied Perry with drugs.
He also publicly apologised to the actor’s family for the pain he inflicted, after Perry’s parents called Plasencia and other defendants ‘greedy jackals’ who profited off Perry’s vulnerability.
‘I did not set out to harm anyone, but my decisions during those days betrayed my duty as a physician,’ Plasencia wrote in a letter to the judge last month.
‘I crossed lines that no doctor should ever cross. No one forced me to do this; it was my own poor judgment, and it was wrong.’
43-year-old Plasencia was one of five people charged over Perry’s death, with the doctor admitting to four counts of distribution of ketamine.
The four others charged in the case – which includes another doctor, Plasencia’s assistant two other people who supplied the ketamine dose that killed him – have also pleaded guilty.
They are set to be sentenced in the coming months.
Before the trial, Plasencia faced up to 40 years in prison, as well as a fine that could have been in the millions. He voluntarily surrendered his medical license when he was arrested.
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