LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 Matthew Perry\u2019s<\/a> live-in personal assistant, who had a central role in the \u201cFriends\u201d star\u2019s<\/a> descent into ketamine addiction and injected him with the fatal dose of the drug, was sentenced Wednesday to three years and five months in prison.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett handed down the sentence to 60-year-old Kenneth Iwamasa<\/a> in federal court in Los Angeles. He was also sentenced to two years of probation and a $10,000 fine.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n It was the fifth and final sentencing in the 2 1\/2-year investigation and prosecution that followed Perry\u2019s death at age 54 on Oct. 28, 2023.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Iwamasa was at Perry\u2019s side through the final days of his life, acting as the actor\u2019s enabler, drug messenger and de facto doctor. He was the last person to see Perry alive, and he was the one who found him dead in his Jacuzzi.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n He was the first person to reach a deal with prosecutors, pleading guilty in August of 2024 to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine resulting in death, and became their most important witness.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Iwamasa\u2019s lawyers said in a court filing that he was an employee doing his employer\u2019s bidding and had a \u201cparticular vulnerability\u201d in his relationship to Perry. \u201cIn short, he could not \u2018simply say no.\u2019 That inability had tragic consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP\u2019s earlier story follows below.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 The final sentencing in the 2 1\/2-year investigation and prosecution following the drug death of Matthew Perry<\/a> will be of the personal assistant who sat at the center of the entire affair, buying the ketamine that would cause the death of the \u201cFriends\u201d star<\/a> and injecting him with the lethal dose.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Kenneth Iwamasa<\/a>, 60, is set to be sentenced Wednesday in the Los Angeles federal courtroom of Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett, who has sentenced four of his co-defendants<\/a> in the past year. The hearing began with family members of both Perry and Iwamasa in court.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n He was the first of them to reach a deal with prosecutors, pleading guilty in August 2024 to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine resulting in death. Wednesday will be his first court appearance since the case became public knowledge.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Iwamasa became the most important witness for the prosecution. They are asking Garnett to sentence him to three years and five months in prison, significantly less than what he might have faced without cooperating, but still more than all but one of his co-defendants.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Iwamasa\u2019s lawyers said in a court filing that he was an employee doing his employer\u2019s bidding and had a \u201cparticular vulnerability\u201d in his relationship to Perry. \u201cIn short, he could not \u2018simply say no.\u2019 That inability had tragic consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Perry\u2019s family members, some of whom may speak in court, made it clear in letters to the judge that there is no one they blame for his death more than Iwamasa \u2014 a longtime friend they thought would help the actor maintain sobriety but instead indulged the worst impulses of a lifelong addict.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cMathew trusted Kenny. We trusted Kenny. Kenny\u2019s most important job \u2014 by far \u2014 was to be my son\u2019s companion and guardian in his fight against addiction,\u201d wrote Perry\u2019s mother, Suzanne Morrison. \u201cWe trusted a man without a conscience, and my son paid the price.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Perry had hired Iwamasa in 2022, and he was paying him $150,000 a year to live at his Los Angeles home and act as his assistant.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The actor had been taking the surgical anesthetic ketamine legally for depression, an increasingly common off-label use. But he wanted more than his doctor would give him.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n According to Iwamasa\u2019s plea agreement, he bought off-the-books ketamine from another doctor, Salvador Plasencia, who taught him how to inject it. Plasencia was sentenced<\/a> to 2 1\/2 years in prison in July.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Iwamasa also began buying ketamine from Perry acquaintance Erik Fleming<\/a>, who was getting it from a street dealer. Fleming was sentenced<\/a> to two years in prison two weeks ago.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The dealer, Jasveen Sangha, dubbed \u201cThe Ketamine Queen,\u201d was sentenced<\/a> to 15 years on April 8.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n In the final days of Perry\u2019s life, Iwamasa was injecting him six to eight times per day. On Oct. 23, 2023, he shot the 54-year-old actor full of a large dose and left to run errands. He returned to find Perry dead in the Jacuzzi. The LA County Medical Examiner found that ketamine<\/a> was the primary cause of death<\/a>. Drowning was a secondary cause.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n At first, Iwamasa lied to police, omitting ketamine from the list of medications Perry was using, and saying nothing about his injections. But when investigators served a search warrant in January of 2024, he began coming clean.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"Matthew](\"https:\/\/img.huffingtonpost.com\/asset\/6a1741571400007c101ad051.jpeg?cache=LZEPckNeXF&ops=scalefit_720_noupscale&format=webp)
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