The court in Los Angeles heard that Matthew Perry’s live-in personal assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, had a central role in the 'Friends' actor’s descent into ketamine addiction and injected him with a fatal dose of the drug.
Kenneth Iwamasa, the live-in personal assistant to Friends star Matthew Perry, has been sentenced to jail for his role in the death of the actor.
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The 60-year-old pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute ketamine causing death. He acted as Perry's drug messenger and admitted personally giving him between six and eight injections of illegal ketamine in the last days of his life.
Iwamasa, a longtime friend, was hired for the $150,000-a-year job because those surrounding Perry trusted him to help with the actor's sobriety. But he ended up being the actor's chief enabler.
Iwamasa was the key figure in sourcing illicit drugs for Perry, working closely with accomplices including Dr Salvador Plasencia, who showed him how to administer injections.
He was the last person to see Perry alive, and he was the one who found him dead in his jacuzzi.
Initially, Iwamasa denied involvement and destroyed evidence, but months later struck a deal with prosecutors and became their star witness.
Trial and trust issues
Wednesday hearing, which lasted nearly three hours, saw lawyers, the judge, and Perry's loved ones locked in debate over the extent to which an employee can be held accountable when serving a powerful figure struggling with addiction.
"His loyalty to Mr. Perry was paramount," argued Iwamasa's lawyer, Alan Eisner, emphasising his client's reverence for Perry. "He worshipped Mr. Perry, he looked up to him. All he did was please and accommodate."
But Lisa Ferguson, Perry's long-time business manager and now his estate executor, was adamant that Iwamasa was to blame. She accused him of deliberately driving out people, including sober-living companions and medical staff, to increase his power and influence over Perry's addiction.
“What you are is the monster that killed him,” Ferguson said. She said he had shown “not a shred of guilt or remorse” since Perry’s death, and that he ought to “rot in prison.”
His conviction effectively ends the wide-ranging prosecution of five people involved in various ways with Perry's overdose which led to his death on 28 October 2023.
