A doctor who admitted to distributing ketamine to Matthew Perry weeks before his death was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison on Wednesday, the first sentence among the five people convicted in connection with the “Friends” actor’s 2023 overdose death.
Salvador Plasencia pleaded guilty in July to four counts of distributing ketamine. He is one of two doctors convicted of providing ketamine to Perry before the actor died in October 2023 at the age of 54. The actor was found unconscious in a hot tub at his Los Angeles home, police said. An autopsy report revealed that he died from the acute effects of ketamine.
Plasencia, an urgent care clinic operator in Malibu, was set to go to trial in August in the case before reaching a plea deal. He faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison on each count, prosecutors said.
Salvador Plasencia arrives for his sentencing for supplying ketamine to actor Matthew Perry, at the Edward R. Roybal Federal Courthouse in Los Angeles, California, on December 3, 2025.
Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images
The government recommended a sentence of 36 months in prison, arguing in a pre-sentencing document that Plasencia “sought to exploit Perry’s medical vulnerability for profit.”
“In fact, on the day the defendant met Perry, he disclosed his profit motive and told an accomplice, ‘I wonder how much this sucker is going to pay,’ and ‘let’s find out,'” prosecutors said.
Plasencia’s attorneys requested a sentence of one day credit for time served and three years of supervised release in a pre-sentence filing, arguing that prison time is unnecessary given “the punishment Mr. Plasencia has already experienced and will continue to experience for many years to come.”
“He has already lost his medical license, his clinic and his career,” they wrote. “He has also been brutally attacked in the media and threatened by strangers to the point that his family moved out of state for their safety.”
His attorneys claimed that Plasencia recklessly treated Perry “without adequate knowledge of ketamine therapy and without a full understanding of his patient’s addiction,” and that it was “the biggest mistake of his life.”
They said he accepts the consequences of his actions and is working to find ways to help people without a medical license and one day hopes to start a nonprofit focused on food insecurity.
His lawyers also attempted to differentiate Plasencia from the four other defendants in the case who also pleaded guilty: two dealers who provided the fatal dose of ketamine to Perry, the actor’s personal assistant who administered it, and another doctor who ran a ketamine clinic.
Plasencia, his lawyers said, treated Perry during “a discrete thirteen-day period in the doctor-patient setting for depression.”
“Despite the serious treatment errors he made, Mr. Plasencia was not treating MP at the time of his death and did not provide him with the ketamine that caused his overdose,” they continued.
Matthew Perry’s mother, Suzanne Perry, and stepfather Keith Morrison arrive at Salvador Plasencia’s sentencing hearing at the Edward R. Roybal Federal Courthouse in Los Angeles, California, on December 3, 2025.
Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images
In an emotional victim impact statement, Perry’s mother and stepfather, Suzanne and Keith Morrison, said they believe Plasencia “is among the most culpable of all.”
The doctor, they said in the statement filed before Plasencia’s sentencing, “conspired to break his most important vows, repeatedly sneaking out during the night to secretly meet his victim. For what, a few thousand dollars? So he could feed on our son’s vulnerability…and brag, while doing so, with that telling question: ‘I wonder how much this jerk is paying. Let’s find out.'”
“Some things are very difficult to understand,” they added.
In a victim impact statement to Plasencia, Perry’s father and stepmother, John and Debbie Perry, said: “You do not deserve to hear our feelings. How you devastated our family by contributing to the loss of Matthew, our only son. A warm and loving man who was going to be our rock as we grew older. An uncle to our grandchildren and the mountain their siblings could fall back on.”
They said Perry’s recovery was “counting on you saying NO.”
“Your motives? I can’t imagine. A doctor whose life is dedicated to helping people? What were you thinking?” they said as they asked the court to impose a prison sentence beyond the mandatory sentence “to give him enough time to think about his actions.”
In this Sept. 23, 2012, file photo, actor Matthew Perry speaks onstage during the 64th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards in Los Angeles.
Kevin Winter/Getty Images, FILE
According to Plasencia’s plea agreement, he distributed 20 vials of ketamine, ketamine pills and syringes to Perry and the actor’s assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, between September 30, 2023 and October 12, 2023.
Plasencia “admits that his conduct fell below the appropriate standard of medical care and that the transfers of vials of ketamine to defendant Iwamasa and victim MP were not for a legitimate medical purpose,” his plea agreement said.
Iwamasa, who admitted in court documents to administering ketamine the day Perry died, pleaded guilty in August 2024 to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine causing death, the Justice Department said.
According to Iwamasa’s plea agreement, Perry asked Iwamasa to help him obtain ketamine in September 2023 and provided his assistant with “money, or promised to reimburse him, and instructed him to find sources from which to acquire the drugs.”
One of Plasencia’s patients introduced him to Perry on Sept. 30, 2023, and the unnamed patient referred to the actor as a “‘high-profile individual’ who was seeking ketamine and was willing to pay ‘cash and many thousands’ for ketamine treatment,” according to Plasencia’s plea agreement.
Plasencia contacted his mentor, Mark Chavez, who had previously operated a ketamine clinic, to discuss Perry’s ketamine request and purchased vials of liquid ketamine, ketamine pills and other items from him, according to the agreement.
Chavez pleaded guilty in October 2024 to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine.
When discussing how much to charge Perry, Plasencia said in text messages to Chavez: “I wonder how much this idiot will pay” and “Come on [sic] find out,” the Justice Department said.
Plasencia administered ketamine to Perry at the actor’s home on several occasions and left vials and pills with Iwamasa to administer, according to the plea agreement. In one case, he was paid $12,000 for the visit, according to the agreement.
One of those cases occurred outside the home, when Plasencia administered ketamine to Perry in a parking lot near an aquarium in Long Beach, according to the plea agreement. Upon learning this, Chavez “reprimanded” the other doctor “for ‘dosing people’ in cars and in a public place where children are present,” according to Chavez’s plea agreement.
Plasencia returned to Perry’s home on October 12, 2023 to administer ketamine, during which the actor’s blood pressure spiked, causing him to “freeze,” according to Plasencia’s plea agreement.
“Despite victim MP’s reaction, defendant left additional vials of ketamine for defendant Iwamasa, knowing that defendant Iwamasa would inject victim MP with ketamine,” the agreement said.
After receiving 10 more vials of ketamine through a licensed pharmaceutical company using his DEA license, Plasencia texted Iwamasa on Oct. 27, 2023, according to the plea agreement: “I know you mentioned taking a break. In the meantime, I’ve been stocking up. I’m not sure when they plan to resume, but in case I’m out of town this weekend, I left supplies with one of my “Nurses… I can always tell you the plan.”
Perry died the next day after an overdose of ketamine, which Plasencia had not provided him, according to the plea agreement.
Plasencia “sold vial after vial of ketamine to Mr. Perry, knowing that Perry’s personal assistant was administering the ketamine without proper medical supervision or training,” according to the government’s sentencing record. “Even after the defendant saw Mr. Perry suffer an adverse reaction to a ketamine injection, he still offered to sell more to Perry. While the defendant did not provide the ketamine that killed Mr. Perry on October 28, the defendant’s blatant breaches of trust and abandonment of his oath to ‘do no harm’ undoubtedly contributed to the harm Mr. Perry suffered.”
Following their convictions, both Plasencia and Chávez renounced their medical licenses.
Chavez is scheduled to be sentenced on December 17 and faces up to 10 years in prison.
Iwamasa is scheduled to be sentenced on January 14, 2026 and faces up to 15 years in prison.
Two other defendants in the case, Erik Fleming and Jasveen Sangha, admitted to distributing the ketamine that killed Perry.
Prosecutors said Sangha worked with Fleming to distribute ketamine to Perry and that in October 2023, they sold the actor 51 vials of ketamine, which were provided to Iwamasa.
Fleming pleaded guilty in August 2024 to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine and one count of distribution of ketamine resulting in death. He is scheduled to be sentenced on January 7, 2026, and faces up to 25 years in prison.
Sangha, allegedly known as “The Ketamine Queen,” pleaded guilty in September to one count of maintaining a drug premises, three counts of distribution of ketamine and one count of distribution of ketamine resulting in death or serious bodily injury. He is scheduled to be sentenced on February 25, 2026, and faces a maximum sentence of 65 years in prison.
