The doctor who supplied “Friends” actor Matthew Perry with ketamine in the months before his fatal overdose was sentenced to 30 months in prison on Wednesday (12/03/2025) in a Los Angeles court in the United States.
Salvador Plasencia, 44, one of the five charged in Perry’s death in October 2023, pleaded guilty in June to four counts related to distributing ketamine.
The doctor, known as Dr. B, appeared before a federal judge in downtown Los Angeles and, according to the Los Angeles Times, turned himself in immediately after the hearing to begin serving his sentence, which includes two years of probation and a $5,600 fine.
Placencia pleaded guilty on July 23 to four counts of distributing ketamine and surrendered his California medical license in September 2025.
On October 28, 2023, Perry was found unconscious in a hot tub at his home in Los Angeles at the age of 54, and an autopsy report revealed that he died from the acute effects of ketamine.
All five defendants accepted plea deals
The US Department of Justice accused five people of belonging to a secret criminal network responsible for distributing large quantities of ketamine, the substance found in the artist’s body at the time of his death, and all five accepted plea deals.
“Serious breaches of trust and abandonment of his oath to do no harm ‘undoubtedly contributed to the harm Mr. Perry suffered,’” prosecutors stated in their sentencing memorandum, cited by the same newspaper, as they requested a minimum sentence of three years.
For its part, the defense requested a three-year prison sentence and probation, claiming that the doctor had already lost his license, his practice, and his professional career.
The actor’s mother refers to the doctor as “one of the most guilty”
In a victim impact statement filed in federal court this week, Perry’s mother and stepfather, Susan and Keith Morrison, wrote that they believed Plascencia was “one of the worst offenders of all time.”
“Matthew’s recovery depends on you saying no,” Susan Perry and Keith Morrison wrote, according to reporters in court.
“Your motives? We can’t imagine them. A doctor who dedicates his life to helping others?” They said.
Under the plea agreement Plasencia signed, he distributed 20 vials of ketamine, ketamine pills and syringes to Perry and assistant actor Kenneth Iwamasa, another offender in the case, in September and October 2023.
The translator, famous for his character, Chandler Bing, spoke publicly about his struggle with addiction in his memoirs, “Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing: A Memoir” (2022).
jc (efe, afp, ap, dpa)