Matthew Perry attends a screening in 2017 at the Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills, Ca. A drug addiction counselor was sentenced Wednesday in connection with Perry’s death in 2023. File Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI | License Photo
May 13 (UPI) — A licensed drug addiction counselor who sold the ketamine that killed Friends actor Matthew Perry was sentenced to two years in prison on Wednesday in Los Angeles federal court.
Erik Fleming pleaded guilty in 2024 to conspiracy to distribute ketamine and distribution of ketamine resulting in death or serious injury. The sentence includes three years of supervised release and a $200 special assessment fee, The New York Times reported.
Court documents said that Fleming was an acquaintance of Perry’s when he learned that the actor was looking for ketamine, a quick-acting anesthetic that can be misused as a hallucinogenic. Fleming obtained 51 vials of the drug from drug dealer Jasveen Sangha and sold them to Kenneth Iwamasa, Perry’s assistant, who injected Perry with at least three shots of the drug, the Times reported.
The actor, who played Chandler Bing in the sitcom Friends, was later found dead at age 54 on Oct. 28, 2023. The autopsy showed his death was caused by “the acute effects of ketamine” with contributing factors of drowning, coronary artery disease and the effects of buprenorphine, an opioid. Perry had struggled with drug and alcohol addiction for years.
In the court Wednesday, Fleming said he is “haunted” by the mistakes he’s made, NBC News reported.
“If there was a way to bring [Perry] back, I would have done it,” he said. “I’m mortified I played any role in the death of another person, especially someone as beloved as Mr. Perry.”
Fleming was the fourth person to be sentenced in connection with Perry’s death. Sangha, who has been called “the Ketamine Queen,” was sentenced in April to 15 years in prison. Dr. Salvador Plasencia and Dr. Mark Chavez were sentenced in December to 30 months in prison and three years of supervised release, respectively. Iwamasa will be sentenced later in May.
