LOS ANGELES, CA — One of two physicians charged in “Friends” star Matthew Perry’s death from a ketamine overdose was sentenced Wednesday in downtown Los Angeles to 2 1/2 years behind bars for illegally supplying the anesthetic drug.

Salvador Plasencia, 44, of Santa Monica, was the first of five defendants to be sentenced in Perry’s 2023 death after pleading guilty last summer to four counts of distributing ketamine. The dissociative anesthetic is used as a therapy for depression, but is also abused as a so-called party drug.

Following the hearing, the former doctor was immediately remanded into custody.

All defendants charged in Perry’s death have pleaded guilty. Lead defendant Jasveen Sangha — dubbed the “Ketamine Queen” — will be sentenced Feb. 25.

In a victim impact statement filed with the court, Perry’s mother and stepfather, Suzanne and “Dateline NBC” correspondent Keith Morrison, directly addressed Plasencia.

“Matthew’s recovery counted on you saying NO,” they wrote. “Your motives? I can’t imagine. A doctor whose life is devoted to helping people?”

Dr. Salvador Plasencia leaves federal court on Wednesday, July 23, 2025 in Los Angeles, after pleading guilty to giving ketamine to Matthew Perry, leading up to the actor’s 2023 overdose death. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)

Plasencia’s attorneys argued for a probationary sentence. Defense attorneys Karen Goldstein and Debra White said after the sentencing hearing that their client — who has surrendered his medical license — regretted his actions concerning Perry.

“He was a good doctor loved by those he treated,” the attorneys said in a statement. “He is not a villain. He is someone who made serious mistakes in his treatment decisions involving the off-label use of ketamine — a drug commonly used for depression that does not have uniform standards. The mistakes he made over the 13 days during which he treated Mr. Perry will stay with him forever.”

The lawyers said Plasencia was not treating Perry at the time of the actor’s death.

According to federal prosecutors, in late September 2023, Plasencia learned that Perry, whose history of depression and drug addiction was well documented, was interested in obtaining ketamine, a general anesthetic whose medical risks require a health care professional to monitor a patient being administered the drug.

After learning about Perry’s interest in ketamine, Plasencia contacted Mark Chavez — a doctor who operated a San Diego-area ketamine clinic at the time — to obtain ketamine to sell to Perry, prosecutors said. Chavez gave up his medical license after pleading guilty, according to the Medical Board of California.

In text messages to Chavez, Plasencia discussed how much to charge Perry for the ketamine, stating, “I wonder how much this moron will pay” and “Let’s find out,” according to prosecutors.

During September and October of 2023, Plasencia distributed ketamine to Perry and Kenneth Iwamasa — the actor’s live-in assistant — “outside the usual course of professional practice and without a legitimate medical purpose” on at least seven occasions, the indictment states.

The indictment also says that Plasencia conspired with Chavez about inventory, price and availability of ketamine to sell to Perry and Iwamasa. Chavez, in turn, sold Plasencia orally administered ketamine lozenges that he obtained after writing a fraudulent prescription in a patient’s name without her knowledge or consent, and lied to wholesale ketamine distributors to buy additional vials of liquid ketamine that Chavez intended to sell to Plasencia for distribution to Perry, according to prosecutors.

Prosecutors said Perry was paying $2,000 per vial of ketamine, while his dealers were paying $12 for each vial.

Perry detailed his years-long struggle with addiction in the 2022 memoir “Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing.” The “Friends” star, who played the character Chandler Bing in the hit series from 1994 to 2004, says he went through detox dozens of times.

Perry was found dead Oct. 28. 2023, in a hot tub behind his Pacific Palisades home of a fatal ketamine overdose. He was 54. The five defendants were charged in August 2024 in connection with the death.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, using Plasencia-provided instructions and syringes, Iwamasa injected Perry with the ketamine that was sold to him by accused dealers Erik Fleming and Sangha, including multiple injections on the day of the actor’s death.

Plasencia sold the ketamine to Iwamasa despite being informed at least one week earlier that Perry’s ketamine addiction was spiraling out of control, according to federal prosecutors.

Chavez, 55, pleaded guilty in October 2024 to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine, and faces up to 10 years in federal prison at his sentencing hearing on Dec. 17.

Fleming, 55, of Hawthorne, pleaded guilty in August 2024 to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine and one count of distribution of ketamine resulting in death. His sentencing hearing is scheduled for Jan. 7, at which time he will face up to 25 years in federal prison.

Iwamasa, 60, of Toluca Lake, pleaded guilty in August 2024 to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine causing death. His sentencing hearing is scheduled for Jan. 14, at which time he will face up to 15 years in federal prison.

Sangha, 42, of North Hollywood, pleaded guilty in September 2025 to one count of maintaining a drug-involved premises, three counts of distribution of ketamine and one count of distribution of ketamine resulting in death or serious bodily injury.

By Fred Shuster, City News Service