{"id":190107,"date":"2026-04-08T21:55:18","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T21:55:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/190107\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T21:55:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T21:55:18","slug":"ketamine-queen-sentenced-to-15-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/190107\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Ketamine Queen’ Sentenced to 15 Years"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe Los Angeles drug dealer dubbed the \u201cKetamine Queen\u201d was sentenced to 15 years in prison on Wednesday for\u00a0supplying the powerful dissociative anesthetic<\/a>\u00a0that killed actor\u00a0Matthew Perry<\/a> in his backyard jacuzzi two and a half years ago.<\/p>\n

\n\tJasveen Sangha had asked for a much more lenient sentence of time served, citing her lack of a prior criminal record and the 20 months she\u2019s already been incarcarated since her August 2024 arrest<\/a>. But the judge agreed with prosecutors that she deserved one year more than the 14 years behind bars that federal probation officials recommended.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI do find you were probably one of the most culpable in the series of defendants before this court,\u201d U.S. District Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett said from the bench. \u201cThis is not a reflection of you being a bad person [but] engaging in illegal conduct. \u2026 You\u2019re going to have to show some epic resilience.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe judge also ordered Sangha to serve three years of supervised release when she gets out and submit to drug testing, mental health treatment, and any requested searches of her personal electronic devices. She declined to allow Sangha to leave custody for a medical procedure and then self-surrender.<\/p>\n

\n\tKeith Morrison, Perry\u2019s stepfather, delivered a victim impact statement describing the sitcom star as a \u201cfunny and brilliant person\u201d who carried \u201ca lot of ghosts.\u201d He said Perry was candid about the pain of his addiction and had returned from the brink multiple times, going on to write an acclaimed play he performed in London\u2019s West End and to publish a best-selling memoir about his decades-long struggle with alcoholism and drug abuse.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s a daily, grinding sadness and sorrow that we all feel. The loss isn\u2019t just to us, it\u2019s to everybody,\u201d he said. \u201cThere was a spark to that man I have never seen anywhere else. He was one of a kind.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMorrison then addressed Sangha directly. \u201cI don\u2019t hate you,\u201d he said, looking over at the defense table, where Sangha was seated in a beige jail jumpsuit with shackles around her ankles. \u201cSometimes Matthew would think of [dealers] as his best friend, sometimes as his worst enemy. But the fact is, you supplied an addict.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n

Matthew Perry\u2019s stepdad, Keith Morrison, spoke after \u201cKetamine Queen\u201d Jasveen Sangha got 15 years in prison. She sold drugs linked to actor\u2019s death<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you don’t feel some sense of shame or sorrow, you’re not even human,\u201d he said before leaving with Perry\u2019s mom Suzanne Morrison pic.twitter.com\/3fWgFw9JIx<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Nancy Dillon (@Nancy__Dillon) April 8, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tAfter the hearing, Morrison said he believed Sangha heard his message. \u201cShe was visibly emotional about it,\u201d he said outside the courthouse in downtown Los Angeles. \u201cYou\u2019d have to have a heart of stone to wake up every morning and make a business out of feeding off the addictions of vulnerable people who are desperate for drugs, and then, when you\u2019re forced to confront what you\u2019ve done, if you don\u2019t feel some sense of shame or sorrow, you\u2019re not even human. And she is clearly human. She is now facing her sentence. I think she\u2019ll do fine in prison.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn her own address to the court, Sangha said she had learned from her \u201cpoor decisions\u201d and wanted to make amends. \u201cI shattered people\u2019s lives,\u201d she said. \u201cI wear my shame like a jacket.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSangha, 42, pleaded guilty to five federal criminal charges<\/a> last September, admitting she supplied a large quantity of ketamine to Perry, including the fatal dose, and that she sold four vials of the drug to another man, Cody McLaury, in August 2019. McLaury died hours later<\/a> from a mixed drug overdose with acute ketamine toxicity.<\/p>\n

\n\tPerry, best known for his role as Chandler Bing on Friends<\/a>, died on Oct. 28, 2023, from the acute effects of ketamine, his autopsy determined<\/a>. He was 54.<\/p>\n

\n\tAccording to her plea agreement, Sangha conspired with middleman Erik Fleming, 55, to sell the ketamine to Perry in October 2023. Sangha admitted she sold 51 vials that were delivered to Perry\u2019s live-in personal assistant at the time, Kenneth Iwamasa. On the day of his death, Perry received at least three intramuscular injections of Sangha\u2019s ketamine from Iwamasa, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n

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\n\tAfter learning that Perry died, Sangha called Fleming on Signal and updated the settings on her encrypted messaging apps to automatically wipe their messages. She also instructed Fleming to \u201cdelete all our messages,\u201d forensic evidence revealed.<\/p>\n

\n\tFleming pleaded guilty on Aug. 8, 2024, to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine and one count of distributing ketamine resulting in death. He is scheduled to be sentenced on April 29. Iwamasa, who was the first to reach a plea agreement with prosecutors, pleaded guilty on Aug. 7, 2024, to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine resulting in death. He admitted that he repeatedly injected Perry despite having no medical training. He is scheduled to be sentenced on April 22.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe sprawling criminal case also nabbed two medical doctors, who pleaded guilty to selling large quantities of liquid ketamine to Perry in the weeks before he started buying from Sangha. Dr. Salvador Plasencia was sentenced to 30 months in prison<\/a> last December, while Dr. Mark Chavez was given eight months of home detention<\/a> and three years of supervised release.<\/p>\n

\n\tLast month, Slash\u2019s ex-wife Perla Hudson wrote a letter to the court, defending Sangha<\/a> as a \u201cselfless\u201d person who deserved mercy. She said their friendship dated back to 2012, and Sangha frequently attended her son\u2019s birthday parties and other family events. \u201cOver the years she has become like a younger sister to me and a beloved \u2018fairy godmother\u2019 to my sons,\u201d Hudson wrote in her letter to the court. \u201cWhen I went through my divorce \u2014 one of the most difficult times of my life \u2014 Jasveen was a constant and loyal friend.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen she pleaded guilty last year, Sangha admitted she packaged her liquid ketamine in unmarked glass vials that did not indicate its strength. Before her sentencing, Sangha\u2019s lawyers contested the quantity of drugs seized from her apartment. They argued that investigators tested only 27 pills out of more than three pounds of suspected methamphetamine.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe court should not attribute the full seizure weight to methamphetamine without evidence showing that the sample reliably supports that conclusion,\u201d her lawyer, Alexandra Kazarian, wrote in a sentencing memo. She said the record didn\u2019t explain how the 27 pills were selected or whether the larger batch was uniform, undermining the \u201cextrapolation\u201d used to calculate Sangha\u2019s sentencing range.<\/p>\n

\n\tKazarian and her co-counsel, Mark Geragos, also challenged the fairness of adding an enhancement to Sangha\u2019s charges for running a drug-involved premises when she already pleaded guilty to operating a stash house. While acknowledging that investigators found drugs, cash, packaging materials, a scale, and transactions tied to the apartment, they argued prosecutors had not proven that drug distribution was a primary use of the residence. The judge overruled the objection on Wednesday, noting that Sangha installed a lockbox outside where she would leave drugs for customers.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cDefendant\u2019s sentencing position tries to rewrite history to paint defendant \u2014 not those who died ingesting her drugs \u2014 as the victim,\u201d Assistant U.S. Attorneys Ian Yanniello and Haoxiaohan Cai wrote to the court. \u201cBut defendant is not a victim. She repeatedly sold dangerous drugs in high volume; she ran a stash house and directed others to help sell her drugs; she obstructed justice to conceal her actions; and she was fully aware that her drug dealing contributed to at least two deaths \u2014 yet kept selling the drugs to others.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\tProsecutors said their decision to test a sample of the thousands of \u201cidentical orange counterfeit\u201d pills recovered from her apartment in March 2024 followed standard nationwide practice. They called it \u201cmeritless\u201d to suggest they were required to test each of the 3,792 pills to support their conclusion that all contained methamphetamine. The judge agreed.<\/p>\n

\n\tProsecutors also argued that Sangha showed a striking lack of remorse during a recorded jail call on Christmas Day 2024. After an unidentified caller said, \u201cWe\u2019re gonna sell those book rights,\u201d Sangha responded, \u201cOh I know, the plan is in, the fucking trademark is going down,\u201d according to a recent filing. Yanniello argued on Wednesday that \u201cwithout a doubt, Ms. Sangha is the most culpable\u201d in the case, adding, \u201cShe chose herself and profit.\u201d<\/p>\n