The woman known among her customers as the "Ketamine Queen" will spend 15 years in federal prison for selling the drugs that killed actor Matthew Perry. Jasveen Sangha received the sentence, plus three years of supervised release, after pleading guilty to five federal charges connected to the Friends star's fatal overdose in October 2023.
Perry, who played Chandler Bing on NBC's hit sitcom from 1994 to 2004, was found unresponsive in a jacuzzi at his Pacific Palisades home on October 28, 2023. He was declared dead at the scene. The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner's Office later determined the cause of death was an accidental ketamine overdose.
Federal prosecutors painted a damning picture of the supply chain that put lethal quantities of the drug in Perry's hands. In a March 25 court filing, attorneys from the Central District of California laid out how Sangha and co-defendant Erik Fleming sold 51 vials of ketamine to Perry in the same month he died. The ketamine was then handed to Kenneth Iwamasa, Perry's personal assistant, who administered it on multiple occasions, including at least three injections on the day Perry died, as the Daily Mail reported.
Fifty-one vials in a single month. At least three injections in a single day. And a dealer who, prosecutors said, knew exactly what she was doing.
A narcotics operation dating back years
Sangha's drug dealing was not a one-time lapse. Federal prosecutors revealed she had been using her residence as a base for storing, packaging, and distributing narcotics, including ketamine and methamphetamine, since at least 2019. That means she ran a drug distribution point from her own home for roughly four years before the supply chain she fed resulted in a man's death.
The charges to which she pleaded guilty reflect that breadth: maintaining a drug-involved property, distributing ketamine on three separate occasions, and distributing the drug in a manner that led to death or serious injury.
Sangha has been in federal custody since her arrest in August 2024. Her conduct after Perry's death underscored what prosecutors described as a pattern of calculated self-interest. When Sangha learned of Perry's death from news reports, she contacted Fleming through the encrypted messaging app Signal and gave a blunt instruction:
"Delete all our messages."
That is not the reflex of someone shocked by an unforeseeable tragedy. It is the reflex of someone who understood her exposure and moved immediately to destroy evidence.
Prosecutors: 'She chose profits over people'
The March 25 sentencing memorandum from federal prosecutors left little ambiguity about how the government viewed Sangha's role. They described her as a "drug dealer who sold drugs that hurt people" and stated flatly that "she didn't care and kept selling."
The filing's sharpest language came in a passage that framed the human cost of her operation. Prosecutors wrote:
"Sangha's actions show a cold callousness and disregard for life. She chose profits over people, and her actions have caused immense pain to the victims' families and loved ones."
Perry's mother, Suzanne Perry, and his stepfather, Keith Morrison, arrived for the sentencing hearing. In 2024, Suzanne Perry shared publicly that she and her son had a meaningful heart-to-heart conversation just before his passing. The family's presence in court served as a reminder that behind the celebrity headlines, a mother lost her child to a preventable chain of decisions made by people who profited from his vulnerability.
Perry had battled addiction for many years and openly acknowledged that his struggles frequently interfered with his work. That candor made him a sympathetic figure to millions. It also, evidently, made him a target for dealers willing to exploit a man fighting a well-known disease.
Co-defendants still awaiting sentencing
Sangha was not the only person swept up in the federal investigation. Erik Fleming admitted in August 2024 to charges of conspiracy to distribute ketamine and distributing the drug in a manner that led to a death. Iwamasa, Perry's personal assistant, the man who actually pushed the plunger, pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges related to ketamine distribution resulting in death.
Both Fleming and Iwamasa were scheduled for sentencing later this month. Their cases will determine how the federal system weighs the roles of the middleman and the person who physically administered the fatal doses against the sentence already handed to the supplier.
High-profile deaths involving drugs and famous names have long captivated public attention, from Hollywood to the halls of political power. Readers who follow cases where celebrity, suspicious circumstances, and law enforcement intersect may recall the renewed push by a retired LAPD detective to reopen the investigation into Marilyn Monroe's 1962 death. The common thread is the gap between a famous person's public image and the private dangers that ultimately prove fatal.
Accountability, finally
The 15-year sentence sends a message that federal prosecutors and courts are willing to treat drug dealers who supply fatal doses as serious offenders, not mere accessories. Sangha ran a years-long narcotics operation out of her home, sold 51 vials of ketamine to a man in the final month of his life, and tried to cover her tracks the moment she realized he was dead.
The justice system moved methodically here. The arrest came in August 2024, nearly ten months after Perry's death. The guilty plea followed. The sentencing memorandum laid out the facts in plain, unsparing language. And the sentence matched the prosecution's recommendation, 15 years.
None of it brings Matthew Perry back. None of it erases the grief his family carried into that courtroom. But it does something that matters: it holds a drug dealer accountable for the foreseeable consequences of her trade.
When someone sells poison for profit and then reaches for the delete button the moment the body is found, 15 years is the system working the way it should.
