A California doctor who supplied ketamine to "Friends" star Matthew Perry has been sentenced to 30 months in prison.
He is the first to be punished for the death of an actor due to an overdose.
Doctor Salvador Plasencia was one of the five defendants in a multi-year federal investigation examining how Perry obtained the dissociative anesthetic through an underground drug trafficking network in Hollywood.
Perry, 54, was found dead in his Los Angeles home in 2023., after years of problems with depression and addiction.
The actor's family asked the judge for a longer sentence, saying the doctor was "most responsible" for Perry's death.
They also described in detail their attempts to understand why he persistently supplied Perija with drugs.
Susan Morrison, Matthew Perry's mother, is one of several family members who spoke in court before Placencia's sentencing.
She talked about text messages in which Plasencia called Perry a "jerk" and wondered how much he would be willing to pay for the drugs.
She was emotional as she addressed the doctor directly.
"There was nothing moronic about my son," said the actor's mother.
The doctor took an oath to protect people and he should have protected my son, she added.
Plasencia also spoke in court and addressed Perry's family, expressing both regret and remorse as his mother wept, sitting right behind him.
Plasencia said he has a two-year-old son.
"I want to raise him properly... and I'm thinking about how to explain this to him," he said.
He apologized to Perry's family.
"I failed myself. There is no excuse. I can't undo what's been done. I know that."
"I should have protected him, like his mother said. I'm so sorry."
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In addition to the prison sentence, the court ordered the Santa Monica doctor to pay a fine of $5.600.
Immediately after the verdict was pronounced, he was sent to federal custody.
Placencia is earlier pleaded guilty on four counts of prescribing ketamine.
Although a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison was threatened, prosecutors sought a sentence of three years.
Four other defendants in the case, including another doctor, the actor's assistant and two people who gave him the dose of ketamine that killed him, also pleaded guilty.
They will be sentenced in the coming months.
Best known for his role as Chandler Bing on the sitcom "Friends," the sitcom star has spoken publicly for years about his struggles with depression and drug addiction.
Before sentencing, Perry's family submitted letters, known as victim impact statements, to the court for its consideration.
"Matthew's recovery depended on you saying NO," his father John and stepmother Debbie wrote in an emotional letter.
"Your motives? We can't even imagine. And you're a doctor whose life is dedicated to helping people?!", they wrote, among other things.
The actor's family said Perry's death had "devastated" them, blaming Plasencia - who Perry's mother and stepfather called a "jackal" - for multiple violations of the Hippocratic Oath.
Perry's mother and stepfather, Keith Morrison, detailed in a victim impact statement how difficult it was to come to terms with the loss.
They said Perry had been struggling for years, trying to recover and hoping for another acting comeback.
"He wanted it, he needed it, he deserved it... the third act. He planned it... and then these jackals showed up."
In an earlier letter to the court, Plasencia apologized and said he took full responsibility for his actions and role in Perry's death.
He explained that his medical clinic was in trouble and despite seeing Perry's "signs of addiction," the offer of "large sums of money was tempting."
Plasencia also wrote that he voluntarily gave up his medical license when he was arrested and that he had renounced the clinic and profession that once defined him.
Ketamine has some hallucinogenic effects and can only be prescribed by a doctor.
The actor was taking legal, prescribed amounts of the drug to treat depression, but then he began to want more than he was given.
The investigation determined that because of this, he began to consult other doctors, including a woman named "Queen of Ketamine", which supplied him with huge quantities of this and other drugs.
She did all this from her home in Los Angeles, which authorities called a "drug den."
Prosecutors say Plasencia injected Perry with ketamine at his home and in the parking lot of an aquarium in Long Beach, about 40 miles south of Los Angeles.
Plasencia taught Perry's assistant, Kenneth Iwamasu, who also pleaded guilty in the case, how to administer the drug.
He also gave him extra vials to keep at the home, according to court documents.
Prosecutors said that between September 30, 2023, and October 12, 2023, Plasencia sold twenty five-milliliter (100 mg/ml) vials of ketamine, ketamine lozenges, and syringes to Perry and his assistant.
They said Plasencia and the other defendants in the case "exploited Perry's addiction problems to enrich themselves."
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