'Ketamine Queen' gets 15 years in prison for selling Matthew Perry the drugs that killed him

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A federal judge on Wednesday handed down a sentence of 15 years in prison to a woman who pleaded guilty to selling “Friends” star Matthew Perry the ketamine that killed him in 2023.

“You’re going to have to show some epic resilience,” Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett said to Jasveen Sangha, echoing the defendant's words earlier in the hearing about her self-improvement.

Citing the unique role she admitted to in Perry’s death and her broader drug-dealing business, the judge gave the 42-year-old a sentence that will almost certainly be more than all four of her co-defendants combined.

Two more will be sentenced later this month. But Wednesday's hearing in a Los Angeles courtroom was in many ways the pinnacle of the 2 1/2-year investigation and prosecution that followed the overdose death of the 54-year-old actor, whose role as Chandler Bing on NBC’s “Friends” in the 1990s and 2000s made him one of the biggest television stars of the era.

Keith Morrison, Perry’s stepfather and correspondent for NBC’s “Dateline,” told the judge that he and Perry’s mother, Suzanne, feel a “daily, grinding sadness and sorrow.”

“There was a spark to that man I have never seen anywhere else,” Morrison said in his familiar and dramatic voice. “He should have had another act. Two more acts.”

Sangha stood at the podium Wednesday just before she was sentenced and told the judge she wears her shame “like a jacket.”

“These were not mistakes. They were horrible decisions,” Sangha said, which “shattered people’s lives and the lives of their family and friends.”

Prosecutors cast her in court filings as a “Ketamine Queen” who had an elaborate drug operation catering to high-end clients to give herself a jet-setting lifestyle.

Fifteen years was the exact sentence prosecutors had asked for. Sangha’s attorneys argued the time she has spent in jail since her August 2024 indictment should be sufficient. They pointed to her lack of prior arrests and exemplary behavior as an inmate, as well as the unlikelihood she would return to a life of drug dealing.

Perry was found dead in the hot tub at his Los Angeles home. The medical examiner ruled that ketamine, typically used as a surgical anesthetic, was the primary cause of death. Drowning was cited as a secondary cause, with coronary artery disease and buprenorphine also cited as factors.

Mark Geragos, Sangha’s attorney, said “pernicious” addiction was truly responsible for Perry’s death, not his client.

“There was nobody who was going to stop Mr. Perry from doing what he was going to do,” Geragos said.

In September, Sangha became the last of five co-defendants to plead guilty, admitting to one count of using her home for drug distribution, three counts of distribution of ketamine, and one count of distribution of ketamine resulting in death.

Geragos denounced the prosecution's use of the moniker “Ketamine Queen,” blaming it on E. Martin Estrada, the U.S. attorney when the case was filed.

"That was not her name, that was his very clever name to draw media attention this case," he said.

Perry had been using the drug through his regular doctor as a legal off-label treatment for depression. But he sought more than the doctor would give him. That at first led him to Dr. Salvador Plasencia, who admitted to illegally selling Perry ketamine and was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison. And, days before his death, it led Perry to Sangha, and a $6,000 cash buy that included the lethal dose.

Another doctor, who admitted to providing Plasencia the ketamine he sold to Perry, was sentenced to eight months of home detention. Perry’s assistant and his friend, who admitted acting as the actor’s middlemen, are awaiting sentencing.

The judge said she was trying to carefully calibrate the sentences for the five defendants. She expressed concern about the balance during the hearing, asking lawyers why Sangha deserved so much more time than Plasencia or Perry's assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, who obtained and injected the drugs at Perry's request and injected them into him.

Geragos seized on this and said the disparity was outrageous.

“The person who supplies the ammunition, they're more culpable than the person who pulls the trigger?” he asked.

But before sentencing, Garnett said the size of Sangha's drug business, the years she spent dealing and her long list of clients clearly made her more culpable. And she said she believed Sangha's criminal history — she has none — was underrepresented.

The judge also cited Sangha's continued dealing after learning through a text message from his sister that one of her customers, 33-year-old Cody McLaury, had died in 2019.

The sister, Kimberly McLaury, spoke in court.

“Had you stopped selling ketamine when I texted you, we wouldn't be here today,” she said.

Perry’s stepmother Debbie Perry told Sangha she had caused pain for “hundreds, maybe thousands” of people.

The judge commended Sangha for the “countless” letters of support she got from family and friends touting her loving decency. Many of them were there in court, sitting on the opposite side from Perry's family.

“There's no joy in this process,” Garnett told the victim's family members. “Maybe at the end of the day you will feel a sense of justice.”

Keith Morrison, husband of Suzanne Morrison, mother of Matthew Perry talks with the media after a federal judge handed down a sentence of 15 years in prison to Ivanna Lisette Ortiz, who pleaded guilty to selling "Friends" star Matthew Perry the ketamine that killed him in a 2023 overdose on Wednesday, April 8, 2026 in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

Craig Rothfeld, Criminalist and Prison Consultant, left, Mark Geragos, Defense Attorney, middle, and Alexandra Kazarian, Defense Attorney hold a news conference after a federal judge handed down a sentence of 15 years in prison to Ivanna Lisette Ortiz, who pleaded guilty to selling "Friends" star Matthew Perry the ketamine that killed him in a 2023 overdose on Wednesday, April 8, 2026 in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

Suzanne Morrison, mother of Matthew Perry, walks into court with her husband Keith Morrison before Jasveen Sangha, who plead guilty to selling Perry a lethal dose of the drug ketamine in the days before his death, appears in court for sentencing on Wednesday, April 8, 2026 in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

Suzanne Morrison, mother of Matthew Perry, walks into court with her husband Keith Morrison before Jasveen Sangha, who plead guilty to selling Perry a lethal dose of the drug ketamine in the days before his death, appears in court for sentencing on Wednesday, April 8, 2026 in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

Suzanne Morrison, mother of Matthew Perry, walks into court with her husband Keith Morrison before Jasveen Sangha, who plead guilty to selling Perry a lethal dose of the drug ketamine in the days before his death, appears in court for sentencing on Wednesday, April 8, 2026 in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

Suzanne Morrison, mother of Matthew Perry, walks into court with her husband Keith Morrison before Jasveen Sangha, who plead guilty to selling Perry a lethal dose of the drug ketamine in the days before his death, appears in court for sentencing on Wednesday, April 8, 2026 in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

FILE - Matthew Perry poses for a portrait in New York on Feb. 17, 2015. (Photo by Brian Ach/Invision/AP, File)

BEIRUT (AP) — Israeli strikes hit busy commercial and residential areas in central Beirut without warning on Wednesday, hours after a ceasefire was announced in the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran. Lebanon said at least 112 people were killed and hundreds were wounded in what was one of the deadliest days in the latest Israel-Hezbollah war.

U.S. President Donald Trump told PBS News Hour that Lebanon was not included in the deal because of the Lebanese militant Hezbollah group. When asked about Israel’s latest strikes, he said, “That’s a separate skirmish.” Israel had said the agreement does not extend to its war with the Iran-backed Hezbollah, although mediator Pakistan said it does.

The fleeting sense of relief among Lebanese after the ceasefire announcement turned into panic with what Israel’s military called its largest coordinated strike in the current war, hitting more than 100 Hezbollah targets within 10 minutes in Beirut, southern Lebanon and the eastern Bekaa Valley.

Black smoke towered over several parts of the seaside capital, where a huge number of people displaced by war have taken shelter. Explosions interrupted the honking of traffic on what had been a bustling, blue-sky afternoon. Ambulances raced toward open flames. Apartment buildings were struck.

Associated Press journalists saw charred bodies in vehicles and on the ground at one of Beirut’s busiest intersections in the central Corniche al Mazraa neighborhood, a mixed commercial and residential area. Using forklifts, rescue workers removed smoldering debris and sifted through ruins for survivors.

There was no sign of Hezbollah launching strikes against Israel in the first couple of hours after the attacks.

In response to the attacks on Lebanon, Iran later Wednesday said it was again halting the movement of oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, the country's state-run media reported.

Central Beirut has been targeted before, but not by so many strikes at once and in the middle of the day. Israel had rarely struck central Beirut since the outbreak of the latest Israel-Hezbollah war on March 2 but has regularly struck southern and eastern Lebanon and Beirut’s southern suburbs.

Lebanon's Minister of Social Affairs, Haneed Sayed, in an interview with The Associated Press condemned Israel’s wide range of strikes, calling it a “very dangerous turning point.”

“These hits are now at the heart of Beirut … Half of the sheltered (internally displaced people) are in Beirut in this area,” she said, adding that she had just driven by areas hit.

She said Lebanon's government is ready to enter into negotiations with Israel for an end to hostilities, an offer that the Lebanese president previously made. Israel has not responded. “There are calls and efforts being made as we speak," Sayed said.

Prime Minister Nawaf Salam in a statement accused Israel of escalating at a moment when Lebanese officials were seeking to negotiate a solution, and of hitting civilian areas in “utter disregard for the principles of international law and international humanitarian law — principles it has, in any case, never respected.”

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun called the Israeli attacks “barbaric.” Lebanon's health ministry said that along with the 112 killed, at least 837 were wounded, warning that this is not the final count.

Israel's military said it had targeted missile launchers, command centers and intelligence infrastructure. It accused Hezbollah fighters of trying to “blend into” non-Shiite Muslim areas beyond their traditional strongholds.

Residents and local officials denied that the buildings hit were military sites.

“Look at these crimes,” said Mohammed Balouza, a member of Beirut’s municipal council, at the scene of a strike in Corniche al Mazraa. An apartment building behind a popular shop selling nuts and dried fruit had been hit. “This is a residential area. There is nothing (military) here.”

As the smoke rose Wednesday, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz warned Hezbollah leader Naim Kassem that “his turn will come.” In 2024, Israel killed Hezbollah's previous leader, Hassan Nasrallah, with an airstrike.

Katz called Wednesday's strikes the largest blow against Hezbollah since the attack that caused pagers used by hundreds of its members to explode almost simultaneously in September 2024.

Before the new strikes, a Hezbollah official told the AP that the group was giving a chance for mediators to secure a ceasefire in Lebanon, but “we have not announced our adherence to the ceasefire since the Israelis are not adhering to it.” He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly.

The Hezbollah official said the group will not accept a return to the pre-March 2 status quo, when Israel carried out near-daily strikes in Lebanon despite a ceasefire being nominally in place since the last full-blown Israel-Hezbollah war ended in November 2024.

“We will not accept for the Israelis to continue behaving as they did before this war with regards to attacks,” he said.

Hezbollah had fired missiles across the border days after the United States and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28, sparking a regional war. Israel responded with widespread bombardment of Lebanon and a ground invasion.

The Israeli military chief of staff, Lt Gen. Eyal Zamir, said the attacks are to protect Israel’s northern residents, who have come under heavy fire.

Since the war started and before Wednesday's attacks, Israeli airstrikes killed more than 1,530 people in Lebanon, including more than 100 women and 130 children. The Israeli military has said it has killed hundreds of Hezbollah fighters. More than 1 million people have been displaced in Lebanon.

Early Wednesday, after the Iran ceasefire was announced and before Israel struck, many displaced people sleeping in tents on the streets of Beirut and the coastal city of Sidon had begun packing their belongings in preparation to return home.

Families at a sprawling displacement camp on Beirut’s waterfront later expressed confusion and despair.

“We can’t take this anymore, sleeping in a tent, not showering, the uncertainty,” said Fadi Zaydan, 35. He and his parents had prepared to head back to the southern city of Nabatieh. Instead, they decided to wait things out in Sidon, a bit closer to home.

Associated Press writer Isabel DeBre and AP journalists Hussein Mallah and Fadi Tawil in Beirut, Michelle Price in Washington and Melanie Lidman in Eilat, Israel, contributed to this report.

A first responder emerges through the smoke at the site of an Israeli airstrike that struck an apartment building in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, April 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

A first responder emerges through the smoke at the site of an Israeli airstrike that struck an apartment building in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, April 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

Firefighters try to put out flames at the site of an Israeli airstrike that struck an apartment building in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, April 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

Smoke rises following several Israeli airstrikes in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, April 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

People gather at the site of an Israeli airstrike that hit an apartment building in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, April 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

First responders work at the site of an Israeli airstrike that struck an apartment building in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, April 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

A woman is assisted at the site of an Israeli airstrike that struck an apartment building in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, April 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike on a building in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, April 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)