The drug addiction counselor who delivered fatal doses of ketamine to actor Matthew Perry was sentenced to two years in prison Wednesday over the beloved “Friends” star’s death.
Erik Fleming, 56, had pleaded guilty in connection with Perry’s 2023 overdose death at the actor’s Los Angeles home.
Fleming, a former Hollywood producer and director, introduced Perry to “Ketamine Queen” Jasveen Sangha two weeks before his death.
The actor had been receiving ketamine to treat his depression and sought out more of the drug, meeting Fleming through a friend who was in drug treatment.
Fleming would score ketamine from Sangha, jack up the price and then sell it to Perry’s personal assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, at the actor’s home.
Fleming turned on Sangha and was the first defendant to plead guilty in the case, on one count of distribution of ketamine resulting in death. He is one of five people who pleaded guilty in connection with the actor’s death.
Sangha was sentenced last month to 15 years behind bars for her role in the overdose.
Sangha told the court she took full responsibility for her crimes, adding she had the “rug of life ripped out” from under her.
At Sangha’s April 8 sentencing, Perry’s mother Suzanne and stepfather Keith Morrison appeared in court to address the convicted drug dealer.
“I feel bad for you, Miss Sangha. I don’t hate you … You are a drug dealer,” Morrison told the court, fighting back tears.
He called Perry a brilliant and talented man, adding he should have “had another act.”
Mark Chavez, 55, was hit with eight months of home confinement by a Los Angeles federal judge on December 16 after he admitted in October to supplying 22 vials and nine lozenges of powerful medical anesthesia ketamine to the actor — despite knowing his struggles with drug addiction.
Chavez’s lawyers pleaded for leniency, saying he’s been forced to drive for Uber after giving up his medical license.
The judge also sentenced Chavez to 300 hours of community service and three years of supervised release. “I just want to say my heart goes out to the Perry family,” Chavez said.
In the weeks before Perry’s tragic Oct. 28, 2023 death, Chavez sourced the drugs for pal Dr. Salvador Plasencia, who once asked Chavez of Perry in a text, “how much this moron will pay?”
Plasencia, 43, who was sentenced to 2 1/2 years on December 3 for his role in Perry’s overdose, told Chavez on Sept. 30, 2023, that he had “a famous patient” who “offered to pay a premium” for vials of the drug, prosecutors wrote.
Plasencia told Chavez how he once injected Perry “in the back seat of a car parked at a public parking lot of an aquarium in Long Beach, Calif.,” and Chavez “reprimanded Plasencia” for “dosing him” in a public place where kids were, prosecutors wrote.
Iwamasa is the next and last person expected to be sentenced. He injected Perry with the lethal dose, according to prosecutors, and his facing a maximum of 15 years behind bars.
Iwamasa pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute ketamine causing death, and will learn his fate on June 10.
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