LOS ANGELES — More than two years after beloved “Friends” actor Matthew Perry died from an accidental ketamine overdose at his Los Angeles home, the woman who admitted to supplying him with the lethal dose is set to face sentencing Wednesday in federal court.
Jasveen Sangha, 42, marks the third defendant to be sentenced among five people who have all pleaded guilty to charges connected to Perry’s October 2023 death. The 54-year-old actor, who found global fame and cultural icon status playing sarcastic, endearing Chandler Bing on NBC’s hit sitcom “Friends” across its 10-season run from the 1990s to early 2000s, had long struggled publicly with substance addiction. Unlike the other four co-defendants, Sangha’s plea deal requires her to acknowledge her direct role in causing Perry’s death, a distinction that legal experts say makes her likely to receive the harshest sentence of the group by a wide margin.
Federal prosecutors have formally requested that U.S. District Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett hand Sangha a 15-year prison term. In court filings, prosecutors have portrayed Sangha as a so-called “Ketamine Queen” who ran a sophisticated, large-scale drug trafficking operation that catered exclusively to wealthy, high-end clients. The proceeds from her illegal business, prosecutors argue, allowed her to fund a luxury, jet-setting lifestyle that far outpaced what she could earn through legal work.
Sangha’s defense team has pushed back aggressively against the prosecution’s request, arguing that the time she has already served in jail since her August 2024 indictment is sufficient punishment for her crimes. They have challenged the prosecution’s calculation of federal sentencing guidelines, claiming the arithmetic is factually incorrect, and have highlighted mitigating factors including Sangha’s lack of any prior criminal record, her exemplary conduct while incarcerated, and expert assessments that she is extremely unlikely to reoffend or return to drug dealing if released.
Members of Perry’s family are expected to deliver victim impact statements to the court ahead of the sentencing. For context, Perry was found unresponsive and dead in the hot tub at his Los Angeles residence in 2023. An official autopsy from the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner ruled that the primary cause of death was acute ketamine toxicity; the drug, originally developed as a surgical anesthetic, had been prescribed legally to Perry off-label by his regular physician as a treatment for depression, but Perry sought larger doses than his doctor was willing to provide.
That search for additional ketamine first led Perry to Dr. Salvador Plasencia, who pleaded guilty to illegally supplying the actor with the drug and was sentenced to 2.5 years in prison earlier, after prosecutors requested a three-year term. When Perry continued to seek more, he ultimately connected with Sangha, who prosecutors say sold him 25 vials of ketamine — including the batch that contained the fatal dose — for $6,000 in cash just four days before his death.
Two other co-defendants have already been sentenced: a second physician who admitted to supplying Plasencia with the ketamine he sold to Perry received an eight-month home detention sentence. The remaining two defendants — Perry’s personal assistant and a close friend, who both admitted to acting as middlemen to connect Perry with the drug suppliers — are still awaiting their sentencing hearings. Judge Garnett has previously stated that she intends to structure all five sentences to create a cohesive, proportionate outcome for the entire conspiracy.
Sangha’s legal team has laid out a detailed personal backdrop to argue for leniency. A dual U.S.-United Kingdom citizen, she moved to the U.S. from England at age 3 and settled in Southern California with her family as a pre-teen. She holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Irvine, and a master’s degree in business from Hult International Business School in the U.K. Her attorneys note that while she has had difficult personal losses — including the recent deaths of her grandfather and stepfather, two key male influences in her life after she lost contact with her biological father — she remains close to her mother and grandmother, who would provide a stable support system if she is released. While incarcerated, she has maintained complete sobriety, organized and led regular Narcotics Anonymous meetings for other inmates, and has been classified as a model inmate, her team says. All of this, they argue, proves she is an otherwise upstanding, educated citizen who made a one-time, devastating mistake, not a career drug trafficker.
Prosecutors reject that framing, arguing that Sangha’s stable background and education confirm she did not turn to drug dealing out of economic desperation. Instead, they say, she made a conscious, voluntary choice to traffic illegal drugs solely to fund the elite, high-end lifestyle she desired. They also note that even after she pleaded guilty to the charges connected to Perry’s death, Sangha continued to engage in illegal drug dealing, a pattern they say demonstrates a complete lack of remorse for her actions. Sangha also admitted to selling ketamine to a second man, 33-year-old Cody McLaury, who died of an overdose in 2019, a fact prosecutors have emphasized as a demonstration of her ongoing, dangerous criminal activity.