{"id":189440,"date":"2026-04-08T11:39:31","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T11:39:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/189440\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T11:39:31","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T11:39:31","slug":"ketamine-queen-set-for-sentencing-in-matthew-perry-overdose-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/189440\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Ketamine Queen’ set for sentencing in Matthew Perry overdose death"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Los Angeles woman who pleaded guilty<\/a> to illegally selling the ketamine that killed \u201cFriends\u201d actor Matthew Perry is set to be sentenced in a federal courtroom Wednesday.<\/p>\n

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Jasveen Sangha, known to her drug customers as the \u201cKetamine Queen,\u201d pleaded guilty last fall to five federal charges<\/a> related to Perry\u2019s 2023 overdose death. She has been in federal custody since her arrest in August 2024.<\/p>\n

In a March 25 court filing, federal prosecutors requested a prison sentence of 180 months, or 15 years, followed by three years\u2019 supervised release. In the 24-page document, U.S. attorneys for the Central District of California called Sangha a \u201cdrug dealer who sold drugs that hurt people.\u201d<\/p>\n

When she learned she had sold the drugs that caused Perry\u2019s death<\/a>, the prosecutors wrote, \u201cshe didn\u2019t care and kept selling.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sangha\u2019s \u201cactions show a cold callousness and disregard for life. She chose profits over people, and her actions have caused immense pain to the victims\u2019 families and loved ones,\u201d the prosecutors added.<\/p>\n

In a 16-page response, Sangha\u2019s defense lawyers insisted she has \u201caccepted responsibility for serious criminal conduct\u201d and asked the court to impose a sentence of time served.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe does not minimize that conduct or the gravity of the consequences charged in this case,\u201d Mark J. Geragos and Alexandra Kazarian wrote in their sentencing memorandum.<\/p>\n

Perry, 54, was found face down in the heated end of his pool at his home in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles on Oct. 28, 2023. He was pronounced dead at the scene.<\/p>\n

The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner\u2019s Office later attributed his death<\/a> to an accidental overdose of ketamine, a hallucinogenic anesthetic that in recent years gained popularity as an off-label, unrelated treatment for depression.<\/p>\n

Perry, best known for playing the sarcastic Chandler Bing on \u201cFriends,\u201d spoke candidly about his struggles with drug and alcohol addiction throughout his adult life. He chronicled some of those experiences in his 2022 memoir \u201cFriends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing.\u201d <\/p>\n

In the Emmy-nominated actor\u2019s final months, he had been undergoing ketamine infusion therapy to treat depression and anxiety. But he sought unsupervised doses, developing a dependence on the drug that prosecutors said was \u201cspiraling out of control.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Sangha worked with a man named Erik Fleming to give ketamine to Perry, the U.S. attorneys behind the case have said, citing her plea agreement. The month Perry died, Sangha and Fleming sold the actor 51 vials of ketamine and provided them to Kenneth Iwamasa, his live-in personal assistant, according to prosecutors.<\/p>\n

Iwamasa repeatedly injected Perry with the ketamine leading up to his fatal overdose, including at least three shots on the day he died, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n

Sangha, who lived in the North Hollywood neighborhood, called Fleming on the encrypted messaging application Signal after having learned from breaking news reports that Perry had died, according to prosecutors. <\/p>\n

\u201cDelete all our messages,\u201d Sangha told Fleming.<\/p>\n

Fleming pleaded guilty in August 2024 to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine and one count of distribution of ketamine resulting in death. Iwamasa pleaded guilty the same month to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine causing death.<\/p>\n

The two men are scheduled to be sentenced later this month.<\/p>\n

Sangha, a dual citizen of the U.S. and the U.K., pleaded guilty 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.<\/p>\n

She admitted to using her home to \u201cstore, package, and distribute narcotics,\u201d including ketamine and methamphetamine, since at least 2019, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n

Sangha has also admitted to selling four vials of ketamine to a victim identified by prosecutors as Cody McLaury in August 2019. McLaury died hours later from a drug overdose.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Los Angeles woman who pleaded guilty to illegally selling the ketamine that killed \u201cFriends\u201d actor Matthew Perry…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":189441,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":{"0":"post-189440","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-queens","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-nyc","11":"tag-queens","12":"tag-queens-headlines","13":"tag-queens-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189440\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/189441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}