College roommate, secret lover, best friend, proud\u00a0duck owner \u2014\u00a0Chandler Bing was a well-loved Friend, and one that gave us many laughs over the course of 10 seasons of the hit sitcom.<\/p>\n
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He was the first person to reach a deal with prosecutors, pleading guilty in 2024 to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine resulting in death, and became their most important witness.<\/p>\n
Iwamasa’s lawyer, Alan Eisner, argued for a six-month prison term with six months of home confinement, emphasising that he was always acting at the direction of a boss with far more power than he.<\/p>\n
“His loyalty to Mr Perry was paramount,” Mr Eisner told the judge.<\/p>\n
“He worshipped Mr Perry, he looked up to Mr Perry. All he did was please and accommodate Mr Perry.”<\/p>\n
When Mr Eisner said Iwamasa was unable to act differently than he did, Judge Garnett cut him off and said, “Unwilling. Not unable. He could have said no.”<\/p>\n
She ultimately found that Iwamasa did not abuse a position of trust, which could have resulted in more prison time.<\/p>\n
“There is no hard evidence that you acted with malicious intent, though some would disagree,” she said.<\/p>\n
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Iwamasa was the live-in assistant of Matthew Perry at the time of the actor’s death. (LinkedIn)<\/p>\n
Iwamasa stood at the court’s podium before the sentencing and made the unusual move of looking right at Perry’s family and friends as he spoke into the microphone.<\/p>\n
“I’m horribly, horribly sorry, and I offer my condolences to you,” he said.<\/p>\n
“I’m just so sorry to have done these illegal acts that I will forever regret. I will take that to my grave.”<\/p>\n
Iwamasa had no visible reaction to the sentence. His father and brother sat in the audience with other supporters.<\/p>\n
Family felt assistant was ‘part of the family’<\/p>\n
Perry’s family members made it clear in letters to the judge that there is no one they blame for his death more than Iwamasa, a longtime friend they thought would help the actor maintain sobriety, but instead indulged the worst impulses of a lifelong addict.<\/p>\n
Perry’s stepfather, Dateline journalist Keith Morrison, spoke on behalf of his loved ones at the sentencing.<\/p>\n
“We really felt that he was part of the family,” Morrison said. “We trusted him implicitly.”<\/p>\n
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Suzanne Perry (left) blamed the assistant for the star’s death, \u00a0saying he should have helped Perry’s sobriety journey.\u00a0 (Reuters: Mike Blake)<\/p>\n
Morrison acknowledged the power imbalance, but said Iwamasa still had a choice.<\/p>\n
“You did the injections. You could have made the phone call,” he said.<\/p>\n
“But you didn’t. Because you were living a dandy life. You were in control of one of the most famous people in the world.”<\/p>\n
Lisa Ferguson, Perry’s estate executor, painted a darker picture, saying Iwamasa deliberately drove out everyone else surrounding Perry to shore up his own power and influence.<\/p>\n
She angrily said he used Perry’s addiction to his own advantage.<\/p>\n
“What you are is the monster that killed him,” she said.<\/p>\n
She said he had shown “not a shred of guilt or remorse” since Perry’s death, and that he ought to “rot in prison”.<\/p>\n
“Matthew deserved to live,” she said. “You don’t.”<\/p>\n
Last case in Perry investigation<\/p>\n
Perry had hired Iwamasa in 2022, and he was paying him $150,000 a year to live at his Los Angeles home and act as his assistant.<\/p>\n
The actor had been taking the surgical anaesthetic ketamine legally for depression, an increasingly common off-label use.<\/p>\n
![\"Erik](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1779918793_561_7ccc9ad500749f3e02661646f0a5b190.jpeg\")
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