Erik Fleming pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute ketamine and distribution of ketamine resulting in death in 2024.

Matthew Perry drug counselor sentenced to 2 years behind bars for delivering deadly ketamine dose

Erik Fleming pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute ketamine and distribution of ketamine resulting in death in 2024.

By Wesley Stenzel

Wesley Stenzel

Wesley Stenzel is a news writer at **. He began writing for EW in 2022.

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May 13, 2026 5:09 p.m. ET

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Matthew Perry at SiriusXM Studios in New York in 2022. Credit:

Santiago Felipe/Getty

- Erik Fleming was sentenced to 24 months in prison for his connection to Matthew Perry's death.

- The drug counselor pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute ketamine and distribution of ketamine resulting in death in 2024.

- Fleming was also sentenced to three years supervised release and a $200 fine.

The man who delivered a fatal ketamine dose to Matthew Perry has been sentenced to time in prison.

Erik Fleming, the licensed drug counselor who helped the *Friends* star access ketamine, was sentenced to 24 months in prison on Wednesday for his role in Perry's death. He was also sentenced to three years supervised release and a $200 fine, a spokesperson for the DEA confirmed to **.

Fleming previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute ketamine and distribution of ketamine resulting in death in 2024.

** has reached out to Fleming's attorneys for comment.

*The New York Times *reported that Fleming said he was "profoundly ashamed" of his actions during a court appearance. "I'm still in disbelief," he said. "It's truly a nightmare I can't wake up from."

Tributes and flowers for Perry at the 'Friends' apartment building in Manhattan in 2023.

Jose Perez/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images

Fleming was an acquaintance of Perry's who first met the actor in 2005. He reportedly delivered 51 vials of ketamine to the *17 Again* star's assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, after obtaining them from Jasveen Sangha, the North Hollywood drug dealer also known as the "Ketamine Queen."

Perry was ​​found unresponsive in a hot tub in his home in Los Angeles on Oct. 28, 2023, where authorities pronounced him dead at the scene. He was 54. An autopsy report stated that Perry's cause of death was the acute effects of ketamine, with contributing factors including drowning, coronary artery disease, and effects of buprenorphine (a prescription medication used to treat opioid use disorder).

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Fleming was one of five individuals indicted and charged in connection to Perry's death in 2024. The other people implicated in the case were Sangha, Iwamasa, and two doctors, Mark Chavez and Salvador Plasencia.

In September, Sangha pleaded guilty to five federal charges, including illegally providing the ketamine that led to Perry's death. She was sentenced to 15 years in prison in April.

In October 2024, Chavez, who previously ran a ketamine clinic, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine. He was sentenced to eight months home confinement in December.

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Plasencia, who briefly treated Perry prior to his death, pleaded guilty to four counts of distribution of ketamine in June 2025, though the ketamine he provided was not the dose that killed the actor. He was sentenced to 30 months in prison in December.

Iwamasa pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine causing death. He is scheduled to be sentenced on May 27.

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