Drug counselor who delivered ‘Friends’ star Matthew Perry ketamine that killed him gets 2 years

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A licensed drug addiction counselor who delivered Matthew Perry the doses of ketamine that killed him, and later became a key informant in the investigation, was sentenced Wednesday to two years in prison.

At a federal court in Los Angeles, Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett handed down the sentence to 56-year-old Erik Fleming for his role in the death of the "Friends" star.

"It's truly a nightmare I can't wake up from," Fleming said in a deep, somber voice from the podium before his sentencing. "I'm haunted by the mistakes I made."

The judge ordered Fleming, who has been free on bond, to turn himself in to serve his term in 45 days. He was also sentenced to three years of probation.

Fleming was the fourth defendant sentenced of the five who have pleaded guilty in prosecutions over the actor's 2023 death in the Jacuzzi at his Los Angeles home. Fleming connected Perry to Jasveen Sangha, the convicted drug who prosecutors called "The Ketamine Queen." He delivered drugs from her house to Perry's, and marked them up to make a profit.

Fleming gave up Sangha to investigators the same day they first found him at his sister's house, where he was sleeping on the couch several months after Perry's death. Sangha was sentenced last month to 15 years in prison.

Fleming's attorney Robert Dugdale told the judge he "handed over the Ketamine Queen on a silver platter."

"They didn't have a clue who she was before that day," Dugdale said.

He would likely have gotten about four years in prison if it weren't for his cooperation.

The prosecution said he deserved credit for doing the right thing, but argued that he did so only when confronted and cornered by authorities.

"Mr. Fleming didn't cooperate because he had a benevolent motive, or because he wanted justice for Mr. Perry," Assistant U.S. Attorney Ian Yanniello said. "He wanted to save himself."

The judge also pointed out that Fleming didn't come forward in the months after Perry's death, that he didn't create new evidence by making phone calls to co-conspirators or anything similar, and that investigators might have gotten the same information he gave them simply through the seizure of his phone.

But all agreed that his cooperation sped up and smoothed the investigation.

Prosecutors also said Fleming's job as a drug counselor made him especially morally culpable for selling street drugs to a victim who had a public, well-documented battle with addiction, even if he wasn't acting as counselor to Perry.

Fleming became the first defendant to plead guilty in August 2024, admitting to distribution of ketamine resulting in death. That was before arrests in the case were even announced, and Wednesday was his first court appearance since his role became public knowledge.

Defense lawyers emphasized that he had no criminal record and said he spent only 11 days as a drug dealer, with a single customer. Fleming told the judge it was an act of desperation "in the midst of the worst time of my life."

Fleming told the judge his great remorse "can't compare to the agony I've caused."

Outside the courthouse, he said "my chest and heart hurt every day for the pain I caused not only his family but the millions of people who adore him."

He and his lawyers also highlighted what they called his extraordinary moves toward rehabilitation, spending 20 months sober and helping to establish a sober living home.

Perry had been receiving ketamine treatments for depression - an increasingly common off-label use.

Perry was seeking more of the drug than he could get through doctors and asked a friend to help him get more. She introduced him to Fleming, a former film and television producer whose career had been ravaged by addiction but had since become a drug counselor.

Fleming said he was in the midst of a major relapse brought on by life struggles. He got ketamine from Sangha and took it to Perry's house where he sold it to the actor's live-in personal assistant Kenneth Iwamasa.

His deliveries included 25 vials for $6,000 four days before Perry's death.

Iwamasa would inject Perry from that batch on Oct. 28, 2023, and hours later, he found the actor dead. A medical examiner's report found that Perry died from the acute effects of ketamine, a surgical anesthetic, and drowning was a secondary cause.

The 2 1/2-year investigation and prosecution that resulted should come to a close in two weeks with the sentencing of Iwamasa.

Perry, who died at 54, became one of the biggest stars of his generation as Chandler Bing on "Friends," NBC's culture-changing sitcom that ran from 1994 to 2004.