Matthew Perry’s stepdad says he feels sorry for dealer jailed for 15 years after supplying ketamine to star

A Los Angeles woman who illegally sold the ketamine that killed actor Matthew Perry was sentenced Wednesday to 15 years in prison, by far the stiffest sentence yet handed to a person charged in the star’s death.

The woman, Jasveen Sangha, pleaded guilty last year to five federal charges connected with Perry’s overdose: three counts of distribution of ketamine; one count of distribution of ketamine resulting in death or serious bodily injury; and one count of “maintaining a drug-involved premises.”

Sangha, one of five people who pleaded guilty in the case, faced up to 65 years in prison, according to her plea agreement. But the government sought a sentence of 15 years, and Sangha’s lawyers asked for her to be granted supervised release after accounting for her time served.

Prosecutors have emphasised in court documents that customers knew Sangha as the Ketamine Queen. They say she heard of Perry’s interest in ketamine through an acquaintance who was in touch with the actor’s personal assistant. Sangha offered to send a sample to the assistant, who ultimately bought 50 vials on Perry’s behalf.

One of those vials contained the ketamine that killed Perry, prosecutors have said. After Sangha, 42, learned of the actor’s death through news reports, she quickly sought to destroy evidence of her involvement, telling an associate to “delete all our messages,” according to court documents.

When the authorities raided her apartment in March 2024, they said they found cocaine, 79 vials of ketamine and 3 pounds of orange pills containing methamphetamine.

Perry, who played Chandler Bing on the 1990s sitcom “Friends,” publicly struggled with drug and alcohol addiction for decades. He became increasingly reliant on ketamine in the weeks before he was found floating face down in a hot tub at his Los Angeles home on October 28, 2023. He was 54.

The Los Angeles County medical examiner’s office said that his death had been caused by the “acute effects” of ketamine. It added that drowning, coronary artery disease and the effects of an opioid, buprenorphine, had contributed.

Former Drs. Salvador Plasencia and Mark Chavez were each sentenced in the case in December.

Plasencia, who illegally supplied Perry with ketamine in the weeks leading up to his death, was sentenced to 30 months in prison. Chavez, who worked with Plasencia to supply Perry with the drug at a steep price hike, was sentenced to three years of supervised release, including eight months of home detention. Both men surrendered their medical licenses.

Kenneth Iwamasa, Perry’s assistant, and Erik Fleming, the acquaintance who worked to sell Sangha’s ketamine to Perry, are supposed to be sentenced in the coming months.

During Wednesday’s court proceedings, Perry’s stepfather, Keith Morrison, told Sangha: “I feel bad for you. I don’t hate you. You are a drug dealer, and there are lot of drug dealers out there. The fact is you supplied an addict.”

Sangha, who cried during Morrison’s statement, told the court that she would “do better,” adding, “I’ve given myself no other choice.”

Her lawyer, Mark Geragos, told reporters outside the courthouse that he was “bitterly disappointed” with the sentence, arguing that it was unfair for Sangha to receive a longer sentence than others involved in Perry’s death.

Sangha, a dual citizen of the United States and the United Kingdom who lived in the North Hollywood neighborhood of Los Angeles, has been in federal custody since August 2024.

As federal prosecutors laid out their case against the five people they charged, Sangha emerged as a figure of particular intrigue.

On an Instagram account, she advertised herself as a curator of art and events and a jet-setter who routinely hopped between London and Los Angeles. She bolstered that image with photos and videos from pools, dance parties and fancy dinners around the world, appearing with Charlie Sheen, DJ Khaled and Perla Hudson, the former wife of guitarist Slash.

She sought to project an air of exclusivity, calling her supply of ketamine “amazing” and telling Fleming, “Take one and try it and I have more if he likes.”