Call for maximum punishment
The stepmother of late Friends actor Matthew Perry has asked a judge of the case to hand the maximum possible prison sentence to the woman who sold the drugs that ultimately killed him.
Jasveen Sangha, known as Ketamine Queen, caused “irreversible” damage, Debbie Perry said in a victim impact statement submitted to a California court on Tuesday.
“The pain you’ve caused to hundreds maybe thousands is irreversible,” she wrote. “There is no joy… No light in the window. They won’t be back.”
Sentencing and charges
Sangha could face more than six decades in prison when she’s sentenced on Wednesday. She previously admitted five charges including one count of distributing ketamine resulting in death or serious bodily injury.
Perry was found unresponsive in the jacuzzi of his Los Angeles home in 2023. His death was later declared by medical officials in LA to have been an accident caused by the “acute effects of ketamine”.
Family statement and apology
His stepmother’s statement continued: “You caused this… You who has talent for business enough to make money chose the one 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 US-UK citizen who has been in federal custody since 2024, has reportedly apologised to Perry’s family.
Speaking to the Sun from prison, she said: “There are no excuses for what I did. I am deeply sorry for the pain I caused, especially to Matthew’s family.”
Background and investigation
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.
Sangha is one of five people to have been convicted for playing a part in the star’s death.
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, got eight months of home detention and three years of supervised release.
Drug supply network
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 worked with an intermediary, Erik Fleming, to sell 51 vials of ketamine to Perry’s personal assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa.
Iwamasa repeatedly injected Perry with the drugs, including on 28 October 2023, when he administered at least three shots that ultimately led to the actor’s death.
Sangha then instructed Fleming to “delete all our messages”.
Iwamasa and Fleming are scheduled to be sentenced later this month.
Source: BBC
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