Matthew Perry asked his assistant to “shoot him up with a big one” on the day of his untimely death last October, new documents reveal.
Authorities have now brought charges against five individuals, including three doctors, so-called Ketamine Queen Jasveen Sangha and Perry’s live-in assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, as part of an investigation that revealed a “broad underground criminal network” in connection with the Friends‘ star’s death from ketamine.
Following a press conference on Thursday, further details of Perry’s final days came to light, including thousands of dollars in illegal ketamine deals over the course of about a month.
Perry had been receiving ketamine treatments from his regular doctor to treat depression, but wanted to access more than the prescription would allow, AP News reported of unsealed federal documents. He and Iwamasa met Dr. Salvador Plasencia on Sept. 30, a doctor who obtained ketamine through another doctor, Mark Chavez. Iwamasa paid Plasencia $4,500 in cash on the same day, and Plasencia showed the assistant how to inject Perry with the drug. Plasencia later told Chavez via text that the experience “felt like a bad movie.”
In the week following, Iwamasa injected Perry with ketamine multiple times, at one point texting Plasencia he had found “the sweet spot” after some practice. He began purchasing vials of the drug from Plasencia, rather than just injection sessions. Iwamasa and Plasencia reportedly met several times, exchanging vials for thousands of dollars in cash.
Later that month, Iwamasa sourced more ketamine from Erik Fleming, an acquaintance of Perry’s who was once a director and producer — Scarlett Johansson and Eva Mendes starred in his 1999 children’s fantasy comedy My Brother the Pig, and he produced the first season of reality show The Surreal Life in 2003.
Fleming then connected Iwamasa to Jasveen Sangha, the so-called Ketamine Queen. Perry and Iwamasa paid $5,500 for 25 vials of her ketamine, which Fleming delivered to Perry’s house. The day before that delivery, Perry and Iwamasa paid Plasencia $21,000 for more of the drug, and Perry seized while receiving an injection. Iwamasa said Plasencia told Perry, “let’s not do that again.”
Around Oct. 20, Perry received his last legal ketamine treatment, and a woman whose name is redacted in the Department of Justice filing told investigators she believed Perry had been sober for 19 months by then.
On Oct. 28, the day of Perry’s death, Iwamasa injected Perry aroud 8:30 a.m., around 12:45 p.m. and one last time around 1:30 p.m. Iwamasa remembered Perry telling him to “shoot me up with a big one” before the final injection. He then left Perry in the hot tub while he went to run errands, and found the actor face down in the water upon his return.
Paramedics reported Perry dead upon their arrival, and a coroner’s report later stated ketamine as the primary cause of death, with drowning second.