LOS ANGELES — A California doctor who helped supply ketamine to actor Matthew Perry will not serve prison time for his role in the overdose death of the “Friends” star.
Dr. Mark Chavez, 55, was sentenced to eight months of home confinement followed by three years of supervised release after pleading guilty to providing ketamine that ultimately reached Perry. The actor died in 2023.
Chavez is the second doctor sentenced in the federal case. Earlier this month Dr. Salvador Plasencia, 44, a former Santa Monica physician, was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison for repeatedly selling ketamine to Perry despite knowing the actor’s long history of addiction. Prosecutors said Plasencia was also aware that Perry’s personal assistant was administering the drug without medical training or supervision.
“Rather than do what was best for Mr. Perry – someone who had struggled with addiction for most of his life – [Plasencia] sought to exploit Perry’s medical vulnerability for profit,” prosecutors argued in a sentencing memorandum. “Indeed, the day [Plasencia] met Perry he made his profit motive known, telling a co-conspirator: ‘I wonder how much this moron will pay’ and ‘let’s find out.’”
Court records show that on the day Plasencia first met Perry, he contacted Chavez, then a licensed San Diego physician. Plasencia drove to Costa Mesa, where he purchased $795 worth of ketamine vials and tablets, along with syringes and gloves, from Chavez.
Plasencia later drove to Perry’s Los Angeles home, injected him with ketamine and left at least one vial with Perry’s personal assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, 60, who paid Plasencia $4,500, according to prosecutors.
In the weeks that followed, Plasencia continued to buy ketamine from Chavez and administered the drug to Perry multiple times at his home and once in the backseat of Perry’s vehicle in a Long Beach parking lot.
As part of his plea agreement, Chavez admitted to selling ketamine to Plasencia, though prosecutors said he did not supply the dose that ultimately killed Perry.
All five people charged in connection with Perry’s death have pleaded guilty. The remaining defendants, Jasveen Sangha, 42, a drug dealer known as the “Ketamine Queen,” intermediary dealer Erik Fleming, 56, and Perry’s former personal assistant, Iwamasa, are scheduled to be sentenced at later dates.
