A San Diego doctor who pleaded guilty last year to illegally supplying ketamine to Matthew Perry was sentenced Tuesday to eight months of home confinement for his role in a drug distribution scheme tied to the “Friends” star’s 2023 overdose death.
U.S. District Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett also sentenced Dr. Mark Chavez to three years of supervised release and ordered him to complete 300 hours of community service, the Associated Press reported. Chavez has also surrendered his medical license.
Chavez pleaded guilty last year to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine, admitting that he sold fraudulently obtained ketamine to another physician, Salvador Plasencia, who then provided the drug to Perry in the weeks before the actor’s death. Federal prosecutors said Chavez knew Perry had a history of substance abuse and that the ketamine would be administered without medical supervision.
Perry, 54, was found unresponsive in a jacuzzi at his Los Angeles home in October 2023. Authorities said neither Chavez nor Plasencia supplied the ketamine that directly caused Perry’s death, but both were involved in the broader illegal distribution network.
Plasencia, who also gave up his medical license, was sentenced earlier this month to more than two years in federal prison. Court records show Plasencia admitted to distributing approximately 20 vials of ketamine, along with ketamine lozenges and syringes, to Perry and his live-in assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, between Sept. 30 and Oct. 12, 2023.
Iwamasa pleaded guilty in August 2024 to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine resulting in death. Prosecutors said he administered ketamine to Perry on the day the actor died. Iwamasa is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 14, 2026, and faces up to 15 years in prison.
Two additional defendants, Erik Fleming and Jasveen Sangha, admitted supplying the ketamine that killed Perry. Fleming pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute ketamine and distribution resulting in death and faces up to 25 years in prison. Sangha, alleged by prosecutors to be known as “the Ketamine Queen,” faces up to 65 years in prison. Sentencing hearings are scheduled for both in early 2026.
Perry, who portrayed Chandler Bing on NBC’s “Friends” from 1994 to 2004, had publicly discussed his long struggle with addiction.
