Pictured: Matthew Perry's 'loyal and discreet' live-in assistant who 'injected Friends star with fatal ketamine dose'
16 August 2024, 12:45
Matthew Perry's personal assistant has admitted injecting him with the ketamine that killed him, part of a network of criminals that prosecutors believe exploited the vulnerable former Friends star.
Listen to this article
Loading audio...
Kenneth Iwamassa, Perry's live-in assistant, has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute ketamine causing death, after Perry died aged 54 last October.
Prosecutors said Iwamassa admitted injecting Perry with ketamine repeatedly and without medical training, including the fatal dose on October 28.
According to the indictment against him, Iwamassa injected Perry 27 times in the five days leading up to his death.
That includes the last three injections that prosecutors say caused his "death and serious bodily injury."
He later found Perry floating face-down in his hot tub at home in Los Angeles.
Iwamassa, 59, had worked for Perry for nearly 30 years at the time of his death, according to his LinkedIn profile.
He wrote on his page: "I thrive in chaotic situations which call for order. I am discreet, loyal and honor absolute confidentiality," adding: "I love deadlines, contracts, dotting i’s and solving puzzling situations and projects".
Iwamassa is accused of procuring the ketamine that he gave to Perry from a network of drug dealers. Police said on Thursday that four others - including two doctors - had been charged in connection with his death.
According to prosecutors, the tragic story began when Salvador Plasencia, a doctor, learned that Perry wanted ketamine and contacted Mark Chavez, another doctor.
Prosecutors claim the doctors began discussing how much money they could get from Perry, with Plasencia accused of asking in a text: "I wonder how much this moron will pay."
Plasencia is then accused of injecting Perry himself, and also showing Iwamassa how to do it.
Plasencia denied one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine. Chavez pleaded guilty to the same charge.
Later, Iwamassa is said to have contacted an acquaintance of Perry called Erik Fleming to get hold of more ketamine. He is said to have contacted a British-American drug dealer called Jasveen Sangha, widely known as the "Ketamine Queen".
Prosecutors claim she sold the drugs to Perry via Fleming, who coordinated the sales with Iwamassa.
Sangha denied one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine. She also faces other drugs charges after police said they found a huge stash in her house.
Fleming pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine, as well as one count of distribution of ketamine resulting in death.
Perry struggled with addiction for much of his adult life, including some of the period when he starred as Chandler Bing in Friends, which was among the most popular TV shows of all time.
He is said to have paid the dealers $55,000 dollars for ketamine in the two months before his death (around £43,000).
Anne Milgram of the US Drug Enforcement Administriation said that the five people charged were "responsible for the death of Matthew Perry".
She said: "We allege each of the defendants played a key role in his death by falsely prescribing, selling, or injecting the ketamine that caused Matthew Perry’s tragic death.
"Matthew Perry’s journey began with unscrupulous doctors who abused their position of trust because they saw him as a payday, to street dealers who gave him ketamine in unmarked vials."
U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said at a news conference that the defendants "knew what they were doing was wrong."
He added: "They knew what they were doing was risking great danger to Mr. Perry. But they did it anyways.
"In the end, these defendants were more interested in profiting off of Mr. Perry than caring for his well being."
