Federal court in Los Angeles on May 28, 2026 sentenced Kenneth Iwamasa — the live-in assistant of actor Matthew Perry — to 3 years and 5 months in prison for his central role in the death of the "Friends" star. Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett spoke directly to Iwamasa: "Your actions were reckless, not only on the day he died but on the days before that.
Iwamasa, 60, was the last of five defendants to plead guilty in the case. He was paid $150,000 annually by Perry and was the person who administered the final ketamine dose to Perry on October 28, 2023. He was also the one who found Perry dead in his Jacuzzi bathtub. The sentence includes a $10,000 fine and 2 years of probation. Iwamasa was ordered to report to prison on July 17. His sentence is only lower than the 15-year sentence for ketamine trafficking kingpin Jasveen Sangha.
He administered the drug. He could have called. But he didn't — because he was living too comfortable a life.
Analysis
The sentence for Iwamasa establishes a notable legal precedent: where does the criminal liability of a celebrity's personal assistant lie when the employer is an addict?
Defense attorneys argued that Iwamasa was entirely trapped in an imbalanced power relationship — a wealthy and famous employer, an economically dependent assistant. Judge Garnett dismissed this argument with a blunt statement: "Not unable to. Unwilling to." That statement encapsulates the entire case.
However, Garnett also declined to apply the aggravating factor of "abuse of a position of trust" — which is reserved for professionals, doctors, and lawyers — meaning the sentence was lower than the possible maximum. This is a subtle but important distinction: the court recognized Iwamasa as a tool of a broader complicit system, not the mastermind.
The Perry case also exposed a dangerous ecosystem surrounding Hollywood stars: prescription-writing doctors, upscale dealers, assistants willing to do anything to keep their positions. This is not the first time Hollywood has witnessed this pattern — from Michael Jackson to Prince — but this is the first time federal prosecutors have pushed criminal liability down to the level of a personal assistant. That precedent could influence how celebrity overdose deaths are investigated in the future.