Matthew Perry's stepmother says 'Ketamine Queen' should get maximum sentence

 

A medical examiner ruled Matthew Perry's death was an accident caused by the acute effects of ketamine (Image: getty Images)

The woman who sold the drugs that caused the Friends star's death has been sentenced to the maximum amount by a judge, according to Matthew Perry's stepmother. Debbie Perry stated in a victim impact statement that she submitted on Tuesday to a California court that Jasveen Sangha, also known as Ketamine Queen, had caused damage that was "irreversible." "The pain you've caused to hundreds maybe thousands is irreversible," she wrote.  "Joy is absent... Window light is dim. They won't return. Sangha could face more than six decades in prison when she's sentenced on Wednesday.  She had previously admitted five charges, one of which was for distribution of ketamine that caused death or serious bodily injury. In 2023, actor Perry was discovered unresponsive in his Los Angeles residence's jacuzzi. His death was later declared by medical officials in LA to have been an accident caused by the "acute effects of ketamine".

 The statement from his stepmother continued, "You caused this... You, who are good at business and can make a lot of money, chose the way that hurts people. She added: "Please give this heartless woman the maximum prison sentence so she won't be able to hurt other families like ours."

 Sangha, a dual citizen of the United States and the United Kingdom who has been in federal custody since 2024, is said to have apologized to Perry's family.

READ MORE: Matthew Perry: Friends fame couldn't quell deep demons

Speaking to the Sun, she said: "There are no excuses for what I did.  I sincerely apologize for the harm I caused, particularly to Matthew's family. Perry, best known for playing wise-cracking Chandler Bing in the long-running 1990s US TV sitcom, struggled for decades with substance addiction and had been taking ketamine as part of supervised therapy for depression.

 Five people have been found guilty of contributing to the star's death, and Sangha is one of them. Dr Salvador Plasencia, who admitted four counts of distribution of ketamine in the weeks before Perry's death, was last year sentenced to 30 months in jail.

 Another doctor, Mark Chavez, was eight months of home detention and three years of supervised release.

 Plasencia bought ketamine off Chavez and sold it to Perry for massively inflated prices - $2,000 (£1,500) per vial.  "I wonder how much this moron will pay," Plasencia wrote in one text message, the court heard.

 Sangha sold 51 vials of ketamine to Kenneth Iwamasa, Perry's live-in personal assistant, through an intermediary named Erik Fleming. Iwamasa gave Perry the drugs in multiple injections, including on October 28, 2023, when he gave at least three shots that killed the actor.

Fleming was then instructed to "delete all our messages" by Sangha. Iwamasa is scheduled to be sentenced later this month but his legal team has requested a postponement.

 The sentence for Fleming is set for June.

Source: BBC