A licensed drug addiction counsellor who supplied the ketamine doses that led to the death of Friends actor Matthew Perry has been sentenced to two years in prison.
On Wednesday, Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett delivered the sentence to 56-year-old Erik Fleming in a federal court in Los Angeles.
“It’s truly a nightmare I can’t wake up from,” Fleming told the judge before sentencing.
“I’m haunted by the mistakes I made.”
Dressed in a black suit, Fleming spoke in a deep, somber voice during the hearing.
Fleming became the fourth of five defendants to be sentenced in connection with Perry’s 2023 death, which occurred in the whirlpool at his Los Angeles home.
Investigators said Fleming introduced Perry to Jasveen Sangha, a drug dealer prosecutors referred to as the “Ketamine Queen.” Sangha was sentenced last month to 15 years in prison.
As soon as authorities approached him, Fleming began cooperating with investigators. In August 2024, he became the first defendant in the case to plead guilty, admitting to one count of distributing ketamine resulting in death. At that point, arrests connected to the case had not yet been publicly announced, and Wednesday marked his first public court appearance since details of his involvement became known.
According to federal sentencing guidelines, Fleming could have faced roughly four years in prison if not for his cooperation with prosecutors.
In a sentencing memo filed before the hearing, prosecutors argued that while Fleming’s assistance to investigators justified a reduced sentence, his background as a drug counsellor made his actions especially troubling. They wrote that he “deliberately undertook to sell illegal street drugs to a victim who had a public, well-documented battle with drug addiction,” even though Perry was not one of his regular clients.
Fleming’s defence lawyers requested a lighter sentence of three months in prison followed by nine months in a residential drug treatment facility. In their filing, they said Fleming “has gone to extreme lengths to atone for his criminal conduct.”
Fleming also expressed deep remorse, saying his regret “can’t compare to the agony I’ve caused” Perry’s family and friends.
At the time, Perry had been receiving ketamine treatments for depression, a practice that has become increasingly common as an off-label therapy.
In the weeks leading up to his death, Perry reportedly sought more ketamine than doctors were willing to prescribe and turned to a friend for help obtaining additional supplies.
That friend, who was in a treatment facility, connected Perry with Fleming. Once a film and television producer, Fleming’s career had been damaged by addiction. He later became sober and worked as a drug counsellor, but according to his lawyers, he relapsed after the 2023 death of his stepmother, whom they described as someone who had helped rescue him from a traumatic childhood.
Prosecutors said Fleming purchased ketamine from Sangha, increased the price for profit, and delivered the drug to Perry’s home, where it was sold to Perry’s live-in assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa.
“I procured ketamine for Matthew Perry because I wanted the money and because I thought I was doing a favor for a friend,” Fleming wrote in a letter to the court.
“I never contemplated the worst possible outcome. This grievous failure will haunt me forever.”
One of Fleming’s final deliveries reportedly included 25 vials of ketamine worth $6,000 US, delivered four days before Perry’s death.
Authorities said Iwamasa injected Perry with ketamine from that batch on Oct. 28, 2023. Hours later, he discovered the actor dead. A medical examiner later concluded that Perry died from the acute effects of ketamine, with drowning listed as a secondary cause.
Iwamasa is expected to become the final defendant sentenced in the case when he appears in court in two weeks.
Perry, who died at the age of 54, rose to international fame playing Chandler Bing on the hit NBC sitcom Friends, which aired from 1994 to 2004 and became one of the defining television series of its era.
Following his death, an auction featuring Perry’s personal belongings — including memorabilia connected to Friends — was announced, with proceeds set to support the foundation created in his name.
Harnaik Singh Rathor is the Founder, Publisher, and Editor-in-Chief of StudioX News Canada, Canada's multilingual digital news network serving diaspora communities across 44 languages. With a background in media production, public relations, and multicultural communications, he founded StudioX Film and TV Corporation to bridge the gap between mainstream Canadian media and the country's diverse immigrant communities. He is a member of the Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ), RTDNA Canada, CPRS Vancouver, Unifor, NEPMCC, and the Canada Freelance Union. He holds CAVCO Personnel Number SINH0106. Based in Surrey, British Columbia. | LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harnaiksinghrathor/ | Muck Rack: https://muckrack.com/harnaiksinghrathor | Email: editor@studioxnews.ca
