A physician who admitted to distributing ketamine to Matthew Perry weeks earlier than he died was sentenced to 30 months in federal jail on Wednesday — the primary to be sentenced among the many 5 individuals convicted in reference to the “Buddies” actor’s 2023 overdose loss of life.
Salvador Plasencia pleaded responsible in July to 4 counts of distribution of ketamine. He’s certainly one of two medical doctors convicted of offering Perry with ketamine earlier than the actor died in October 2023 on the age of 54. The actor was found unresponsive in a jacuzzi at his Los Angeles residence, police stated. An post-mortem report revealed he died from the acute results of ketamine.
Plasencia, 44, who operated an pressing care clinic in Calabasas, had been set to go on trial in August within the case previous to reaching a plea settlement. He confronted a most sentence of 10 years in federal jail for every rely, prosecutors stated.
The previous physician sobbed as he addressed the courtroom earlier than his sentencing.
“I ought to have protected him,” Plasencia stated, saying he failed Perry and the star’s household.
“I’ve to simply accept duty,” he stated.
Salvador Plasencia arrives for his sentencing on costs of supplying ketamine to actor Matthew Perry, on the Edward R. Roybal Federal Courthouse in Los Angeles, California, on December 3, 2025.
Robyn Beck/AFP by way of Getty Pictures
Choose Sherilyn Peace Garnett sentenced him to 30 months in federal jail for every rely, to run concurrently, in addition to two years of supervised launch. She additionally fined him $5,600.
The choose highlighted that Plasencia didn’t give the deadly dose of ketamine, however agreed his actions led to Perry taking place a highway towards his final demise.
Plasencia was instantly remanded to federal custody.
“He was a drug seller in a white coat,” Assistant U.S. Lawyer Ian Yanniello stated in the course of the listening to.
A number of members of Perry’s household addressed the courtroom on Wednesday. Whereas standing subsequent to Perry’s stepfather, Keith Morrison, his mom, Suzanne Morrison, stated softly, on to Plasencia, “I simply need you to see his mom.”
Plasencia’s attorneys stated he accepts the sentence “with humility and deep regret” and maintained he’s “not a villain” however was a compassionate physician who “made severe errors.”
“He hopes that this painful expertise will assist different medical doctors keep away from comparable errors and stop different households from enduring a tragedy like this one,” his attorneys, Karen Goldstein and Debra White, stated in a press release.
The federal government really helpful a sentence of 36 months in jail, arguing in a submitting forward of the sentencing that Plasencia “sought to use Perry’s medical vulnerability for revenue.”
“Certainly, the day defendant met Perry he made his revenue motive recognized, telling a co-conspirator: ‘I’m wondering how a lot this moron pays’ and ‘let’s discover out,'” prosecutors said.
Plasencia’s attorneys requested for a sentence of in the future credit score for time served and three years of supervised launch in a submitting forward of sentencing, arguing that jail time is pointless given “the punishment Mr. Plasencia has already skilled, and can proceed to expertise for a few years to come back.”
“He has already misplaced his medical license, his clinic, and his profession,” they wrote. “He has additionally been viciously attacked within the media and threatened by strangers to the purpose the place his household has moved out of state for his or her security.”
His attorneys said that Plasencia recklessly handled Perry “with out enough information of ketamine remedy and with out a full understanding of his affected person’s habit,” and that it was “the largest mistake of his life.”
They stated he accepts the implications of his actions and is working to search out methods to assist individuals with out a medical license and in the future hopes to begin a nonprofit targeted on meals insecurity.
His attorneys additionally tried to distinguish Plasencia from the 4 different defendants within the case who’ve additionally all pleaded responsible — two sellers who offered the deadly dose of ketamine to Perry, the actor’s private assistant who administered it and one other physician who ran a ketamine clinic.
Plasencia, his attorneys stated, handled Perry for “a discrete thirteen-day interval within the physician-patient context for despair.”
“Regardless of the intense remedy errors he made, Mr. Plasencia was not treating M.P. on the time of his loss of life and he didn’t present him with the ketamine which resulted in his overdose,” they continued.
Matthew Perry’s mom Suzanne Perry and stepfather Keith Morrison arrive for the sentencing listening to for Salvador Plasencia on the Edward R. Roybal Federal Courthouse in Los Angeles, California, on December 3, 2025.
Robyn Beck/AFP by way of Getty Pictures
In an emotional sufferer influence assertion, Perry’s mom and stepfather stated they imagine Plasencia “is among the many most culpable of all.”
The physician, they stated within the assertion filed forward of Plasencia’s sentencing, “conspired to interrupt his most essential vows, repeatedly, sneaked via the night time to satisfy his sufferer in secret. For what, just a few thousand {dollars}? So he may feed on the vulnerability of our son … and crow, as he did so, with that revealing query: ‘I’m wondering how a lot this moron pays. Let’s discover out.'”
“Some issues are very exhausting to grasp,” they added.
In a sufferer influence assertion addressed to Plasencia, Perry’s father and stepmother, John and Debbie Perry, stated, “You don’t deserve to listen to our emotions. The way you devastated our household contributing to the lack of Matthew our solely son. A heat, loving man who was to be our rock as we aged. An uncle to our grandchildren and the mountain his siblings may flip to.”
They stated Perry’s restoration “counted on you saying NO.”
“Your motives? I am unable to think about. A physician whose life is dedicated to serving to individuals? What ever had been you considering?” they stated whereas asking the courtroom handy down a jail time period past the obligatory sentence “to present you loads of time to consider your actions.”
On this Sept. 23, 2012, file picture, actor Matthew Perry speaks onstage in the course of the sixty fourth Annual Primetime Emmy Awards, in Los Angeles.
Kevin Winter/Getty Pictures, FILE
In accordance with Plasencia’s plea settlement, he distributed 20 vials of ketamine, ketamine lozenges and syringes to Perry and the actor’s live-in assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, between Sept. 30, 2023, and Oct. 12, 2023.
Plasencia “admits that his conduct fell under the correct normal of medical care and that transfers of ketamine vials to Defendant Iwamasa and Sufferer M.P. weren’t for a legit medical objective,” his plea settlement said.
Iwamasa, who admitted in courtroom paperwork to administering the ketamine on the day that Perry died, pleaded responsible in August 2024 to 1 rely of conspiracy to distribute ketamine inflicting loss of life, the DOJ stated.
In accordance with Iwamasa’s plea settlement, Perry requested Iwamasa to assist him procure ketamine in September 2023 and offered his assistant with “cash, or promised to reimburse him, and directed him to search out sources from whom to accumulate the medicine.”
One in every of Plasencia’s sufferers launched him to Perry on Sept. 30, 2023, with the unidentified affected person referring to the actor as a “‘excessive profile particular person’ who was looking for ketamine and was prepared to pay ‘money and plenty of hundreds’ for ketamine remedy,'” based on Plasencia’s plea settlement.
Plasencia contacted his mentor, Mark Chavez, who had beforehand operated a ketamine clinic, to debate Perry’s request for ketamine and bought vials of liquid ketamine, ketamine lozenges and different objects from him, based on the settlement.
Chavez pleaded responsible in October 2024 to 1 rely of conspiracy to distribute ketamine.
In discussing how a lot to cost Perry, Plasencia stated in textual content messages to Chavez, “I’m wondering how a lot this moron pays” and “Lets [sic] discover out,” the Division of Justice stated.
Plasencia administered ketamine to Perry on the actor’s residence on a number of events, and left vials and lozenges with Iwamasa to manage, based on the plea settlement. In a single occasion, he was paid $12,000 for such a go to, based on the settlement.
One such occasion occurred outdoors of the house, when Plasencia administered ketamine to Perry in a parking zone close to an aquarium in Lengthy Seashore, based on the plea settlement. Upon studying about that, Chavez “reprimanded” the opposite physician “for ‘dosing individuals’ in automobiles, and in a public place the place kids are current,” Chavez’s plea settlement said.
Plasencia returned to Perry’s residence on Oct. 12, 2023, to manage ketamine, throughout which the actor’s blood stress spiked, inflicting him to “freeze up,” based on Plasencia’s plea settlement.
“However Sufferer M.P.’s response, defendant left extra vials of ketamine with Defendant Iwamasa, figuring out that Defendant Iwamasa would inject the ketamine into Sufferer M.P.,” the settlement said.
After receiving 10 extra vials of ketamine via a licensed pharmaceutical firm utilizing his DEA license, Plasencia texted Iwamasa on Oct. 27, 2023, based on the plea settlement: “I do know you talked about taking a break. I’ve been stocking up on the in the meantime. I’m not certain whenever you guys plan to renew however in case its when im out of city this weekend I’ve left provides with a nurse of mine …I can all the time let her know the plan.”
Perry died the next day after overdosing on ketamine, which Plasencia had not offered, based on the plea settlement.
Plasencia “offered vial after vial of ketamine to Mr. Perry, figuring out that Perry’s private assistant was administering the ketamine with out correct oversight or medical coaching,” the federal government’s sentencing file said. “Even after defendant noticed Mr. Perry undergo an antagonistic response to a ketamine shot, he nonetheless provided to promote Perry extra. Whereas the ketamine that killed Mr. Perry on October 28 was not offered by defendant, defendant’s egregious breaches of belief and abandonment of his oath to ‘do no hurt’ undoubtedly contributed to the hurt that Mr. Perry suffered.”
Following their convictions, each Plasencia and Chavez gave up their medical licenses.
Chavez is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 17 and faces as much as 10 years in jail.
Iwamasa is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 14, 2026, and faces as much as 15 years in jail.
Two different defendants within the case — Erik Fleming and Jasveen Sangha — admitted to distributing the ketamine that killed Perry.
Prosecutors stated Sangha labored with Fleming to distribute ketamine to Perry, and that in October 2023, they offered the actor 51 vials of ketamine, which had been offered to Iwamasa.
Fleming pleaded responsible in August 2024 to 1 rely of conspiracy to distribute ketamine and one rely of distribution of ketamine leading to loss of life. He’s scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 7, 2026, and faces as much as 25 years in jail.
Sangha, allegedly often called “The Ketamine Queen,” pleaded responsible in September to 1 rely of sustaining a drug-involved premises, three counts of distribution of ketamine, and one rely of distribution of ketamine leading to loss of life or severe bodily damage. She is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 25, 2026, and faces a most sentence of 65 years in jail.
ABC Information’ Trevor Ault, Lisa Sivertsen and Alex Stone contributed to this report.
