Salvador Plasencia, the doctor responsible for supplying Matthew Perry with ketamine before his overdose death, was sentenced to 30 months in prison – the first person to be given prison time for the death of the “Friends” actor.
Plasencia was sentenced Wednesday in a Los Angeles federal court by Judge Sherilyn Peace Garrett after pleading guilty back in June. He was charged with conspiracy to distribute ketamine and other related offenses.
“I failed Mr. Perry,” Plasencia said. “I failed his family. I should have protected him.”
The prosecutors pursued three years in prison for Plasencia – though the maximum sentence for the physician’s four counts of ketamine distribution was 40 years in prison. The defense asked Plasencia be sentenced just to probation.
Text messages reportedly revealed that Plasencia wondered “how much this moron will pay” when providing Perry with ketamine. The judge said that showed a clear mission to “exploit Mr. Perry’s addiction for your own profit.”
Plasencia is the first of the five charged in connection to Perry’s death to receive prison time. The others charged in the “Friends” actor’s death are Dr. Mark Chavez, the actor’s personal assistant Kenneth Iwamasa, Erik Fleming, and Jasveen Sangha – a.k.a. “The Ketamine Queen.”
Chavez entered a guilty plea of one federal count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine and could face up to 10 years in prison. As for Iwamasa, Perry’s assistant pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute ketamine resulting in death earlier this month and faces up to 15 years.
Sangha pled guilty to one count of distributing ketamine that resulted in death, alongside three counts of distributing ketamine and one count of maintaining a drug-involved premises.
Perry was found dead in his hot tub on Oct. 28, 2023. His cause of death was ruled a ketamine overdose with drowning as a factor. He was 54.
