Almost two years after the sudden accidental death of beloved *Friends* star Matthew Perry, the case surrounding his passing is approaching a key milestone, with one of his family members making an impassioned plea for harsh justice against the woman at the center of the drug distribution ring linked to his death.
Perry, who earned global fame for his decades-long portrayal of quick-witted Chandler Bing on the iconic 1990s sitcom, was found unresponsive in the hot tub of his Los Angeles residence in October 2023. A Los Angeles medical examiner later officially ruled his death an accident triggered by the acute toxic effects of ketamine. The actor had openly discussed his decades-long battle with substance addiction, and was using ketamine as part of a clinically supervised treatment program for depression at the time of his death.
Jasveen Sangha, a defendant dubbed the “Ketamine Queen” and a dual US-UK citizen who has been held in federal custody since 2024, is scheduled to be sentenced on Wednesday. She previously pleaded guilty to five federal charges, including one count of distributing ketamine that resulted in death or serious bodily injury. If the judge hands down the full penalty supported by prosecutors, she could spend more than 60 years behind bars.
In a formal victim impact statement submitted to a California federal court on Tuesday, Perry’s stepmother Debbie Perry called for the harshest possible sentence, arguing Sangha’s illegal actions caused irreversible harm that stretches far beyond Perry’s death. “The pain you’ve caused to hundreds maybe thousands is irreversible,” she wrote. “There is no joy… No light in the window. They won’t be back.” She went on to criticize Sangha for leveraging her business acumen to profit from harming vulnerable people instead of building a legitimate career: “You caused this… You who has talent for business enough to make money chose the one way that hurts people.” Closing her statement, she urged the court to impose the maximum penalty to prevent Sangha from destroying more families: “Please give this heartless woman the maximum prison sentence so she won’t be able to hurt other families like ours.”
Sangha has publicly expressed remorse for her role in Perry’s death. In an interview with *The Sun* conducted from her prison cell, she acknowledged full responsibility for her actions, saying: “There are no excuses for what I did. I am deeply sorry for the pain I caused, especially to Matthew’s family.”
Sangha is one of five people convicted of felony charges connected to Perry’s death. The first two convictions came last year: Dr. Salvador Plasencia, who admitted to four counts of ketamine distribution in the weeks leading up to Perry’s death, received a 30-month prison sentence. Dr. Mark Chavez, another co-conspirator, was sentenced to eight months of home detention followed by three years of supervised release. Court documents reveal Chavez sold the ketamine to Plasencia, who then resold it to Perry at a markup of hundreds of percent, charging $2,000 per vial. In a text message uncovered by investigators, Plasencia laughed at Perry’s vulnerability, writing, “I wonder how much this moron will pay.”
Court records outline Sangha’s role in the network: she worked through a middleman named Erik Fleming to supply 51 vials of ketamine to Kenneth Iwamasa, Perry’s personal assistant. On the day of Perry’s death, October 28 2023, Iwamasa administered at least three separate ketamine injections to the star, the combination of which led to his fatal overdose. After the transaction, Sangha instructed Fleming to erase all communication between them to cover up their activity. Iwamasa and Fleming are scheduled to be sentenced for their roles later this month.