What happened
Kenneth Iwamasa, actor Matthew Perry’s live-in assistant and the person who injected him with a fatal dose of ketamine in 2023, was sentenced to three years and five months in prison on Wednesday. Iwamasa was the last to be sentenced of five people who pleaded guilty in the case, apparently “bringing a yearslong legal saga to a close,” The New York Times said. Only “Ketamine Queen” Jasveen Sangha drew a longer sentence, at 15 years.
Who said what
Iwamasa was Perry’s “enabler, drug messenger and de facto doctor,” The Associated Press said. Wednesday’s hearing was “largely a debate” over the “level of responsibility that can be put on the employee of a powerful person when addiction is in the mix.” Iwamasa’s lawyers asked for six months, but the judge matched the recommendation from prosecutors, who said the assistant “violated his position of trust” but also became their most important informant. “Matthew trusted Kenny. We trusted Kenny,” Perry’s mother, Suzanne Morrison, said in a letter to the court. “Kenny’s most important job — by far — was to be my son’s companion and guardian in his fight against addiction.”
What next?
Iwamasa was ordered to report to prison on July 17. His sentence also included two years of supervised release and a $10,000 fine.