The man who pleaded guilty to distributing the fatal dose of ketamine to actor Matthew Perry was sentenced to two years in prison in Los Angeles federal court on Wednesday.
Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett handed down the sentence to 56-year-old Erik Fleming in a federal court in Los Angeles, The Associated Press reports.
“It’s truly a nightmare I can’t wake up from,” Fleming told the judge before the sentence. “I’m haunted by the mistakes I made.”
Fleming was working as a drug addiction counsellor when a mutual friend he and the late actor shared told him that Perry was seeking ketamine, according to filings from prosecutors.
Fleming’s lawyers said he was a former television and film producer whose career had been ravaged by substance abuse and that after gaining sobriety, he became a counsellor.
His lawyers allege that he had relapsed when approached about Perry and connected the late actor with Jasveen Sangha — dubbed the “Ketamine Queen” by prosecutors for running an elaborate, high-end drug operation — to buy her product.
Prosecutors said that Fleming delivered 50 vials of Sangha’s ketamine for Perry’s use, marking up the price to make a profit, including 25 vials sold for US$6,000 in cash to the actor four days before his death.
In a presentencing letter to the court, viewed by The Associated Press, Fleming wrote, “I procured ketamine for Matthew Perry because I wanted the money and because I thought I was doing a favor for a friend. I never contemplated the worst possible outcome. This grievous failure will haunt me forever.”
Fleming is the fourth of five defendants sentenced who have pleaded guilty in connection with the 2023 overdose death of the 54-year-old actor.
The sentencing came one month after Sangha, the Los Angeles woman who pleaded guilty to illegally selling Perry the drug that killed him, was sentenced to 15 years in prison and three years’ supervised release.
The 42-year-old Sangha, a dual U.S.-U.K. citizen, is the only one whose plea deal included an acknowledgment of causing Perry’s death. Sangha’s sentence reflects the request of prosecutors to a federal judge in a March 25 filing.
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When Sangha learned she had sold the drugs that caused Perry’s death, “she didn’t care and kept selling,” prosecutors wrote in the filing.
Prosecutors also noted that Sangha’s “actions show that she suspected the drugs she had sold Mr. Perry may have caused his death, so she sought to destroy digital evidence that she and a co-conspirator possessed that would link them to the deadly drug deal.”
Her “actions show a cold callousness and disregard for life. She chose profits over people, and her actions have caused immense pain to the victims’ families and loved ones,” prosecutors said.
“That defendant had the opportunity to stop after realizing the impact of her dealing — but simply chose not to,” the filing added.
Perry’s stepmother described how his family has suffered “irreversible” pain from his death in a victim impact statement.
The statement, filed by prosecutors on April 7 and obtained by Global News, was submitted the day before Sangha’s sentencing.
“The pain you’ve caused to hundreds maybe thousands is irreversible. There is no joy to be found, no light in the window,” Debbie Perry, who is married to Perry’s father, John Bennett Perry, wrote. “They won’t be back. That thought comes through our day everyday.”
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Debbie said there is “no escape,” adding, “You caused this, you who has talent for business, enough to make money, chose the one way that hurts people.”
“How sad for you. How will you ever find joy. Have you ever found joy? How sad for you. How sad for us all. We miss him,” Debbie wrote.
“To the court. Please give this heartless woman the maximum prison sentence so she won’t be able to hurt other families like ours,” Debbie’s letter concluded.
Perry was found dead in a hot tub at his Los Angeles home. The medical examiner ruled that ketamine was the primary cause of death.
The Friends star had been using the drug through his regular doctor as a legal off-label treatment for depression, but he wanted more than the doctor would give him. That at first led him to Dr. Salvador Plasencia, who admitted to illegally selling Perry ketamine. He was sentenced to two and a half years in prison after prosecutors asked for three years.
It also later led Perry to Sangha, who sold him 25 vials of ketamine, including the fatal dose, prosecutors said.
Another doctor, who admitted to providing Plasencia the ketamine he sold to Perry, was sentenced to eight months of home detention. Perry’s live-in personal assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, who admitted to serving as the actor’s middleman, is awaiting sentencing in two weeks.
In September, Sangha pleaded guilty 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. She also admitted to selling drugs to another man, 33-year-old Cody McLaury — who had no connection to Perry — before his overdose death in 2019.
— With files from The Associated Press
© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
