Jasveen Sangha Sentenced to 15 Years in Prison Over Death of Actor Matthew Perry

Jasveen Sangha, a 42-year-old American-British woman known in Hollywood circles as the "Ketamine Queen," was sentenced to 15 years in prison by a California court on Wednesday, April 8, 2026, for her role in the 2023 death of actor Matthew Perry. Sangha had pleaded guilty to five federal charges, including the distribution of ketamine resulting in death, which spared her a jury trial and led prosecutors to drop other charges. She had faced a statutory maximum of 65 years in prison. Prosecutors described her as having run a complex drug trafficking operation from her North Hollywood home, serving high-end clients to sustain a luxury lifestyle. During a search of her home, investigators found 80 (vials) — ketamine vials found at Sangha's North Hollywood home of ketamine, along with methamphetamine, cocaine, ecstasy, counterfeit Xanax pills, a money-counting machine, and scales. Sangha has been held in federal custody since August 2024 and is the third defendant sentenced among five individuals who pleaded guilty in connection with Perry's death.

Matthew Perry, born August 19, 1969, and who died October 28, 2023, was an American and Canadian actor best known for playing Chandler Bing on the NBC sitcom Friends, which ran from 1994 to 2004. Perry had spoken publicly for years about his struggles with addiction. In his 2022 memoir, he wrote that he had been mostly sober since 2001, apart from what he described as sixty or seventy little mishaps. He had been taking ketamine in a supervised manner as part of therapy sessions for depression before falling back into addiction in the fall of 2023, according to the investigation. A post-mortem found high levels of ketamine in his system, prompting an investigation that uncovered a network of suppliers, middlemen, and enablers.

According to prosecutors, Sangha worked with middleman Erik Fleming to sell ketamine to Perry's live-in personal assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, who then injected the actor. Court filings state that on October 28, 2023, Iwamasa administered Perry with at least three shots of ketamine, including doses supplied by Sangha. When Sangha learned of Perry's death, prosecutors say she instructed Fleming to delete their messages. Sangha also admitted to selling ketamine in 2019 to another man, Cody McLaury, who died hours later of an overdose. Before the court's decision, Perry's stepmother addressed the judge directly. „Please, impose the maximum sentence on this heartless woman so that she can no longer harm other families like ours.” — Debbie Perry via Agence France-Presse Sangha's lawyers had argued that the time she had already served since her August 2024 indictment should be considered sufficient, citing her lack of prior criminal history and exemplary behavior as an inmate.

Other defendants in the Perry case face sentencing this month Sangha is the only defendant whose plea agreement included an explicit admission of causing Perry's death, making her sentence by far the harshest among those charged. Dr. Salvador Plasencia, who admitted distributing ketamine in the weeks before Perry's death, was sentenced to 30 months in prison in a prior hearing. Another doctor, Mark Chavez, received home confinement and community service. Iwamasa and Fleming are due to be sentenced later in April 2026. The source articles note that Sangha had sold approximately 50 vials of ketamine to Perry for around 11,000 dollars, including the batch that caused his death. She had boasted of being able to fulfill any order, according to investigators, citing connections with a contact described as a "chef" and another described as a "scientist."

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