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Dr. Salvador Plasencia, a former physician who pleaded guilty to illegally distributing ketamine to actor Matthew Perry in the weeks leading up to his 2023 overdose death, has been sentenced to 30 months (two and a half years) in federal prison. The sentencing took place in a Los Angeles federal court.
Plasencia, 44, was the first of five defendants to be sentenced in connection with the Friends star’s death. He had pleaded guilty in July to four felony counts of illegal distribution of the prescription anesthetic ketamine and surrendered his medical license in September 2025.
U.S. District Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett also imposed two years of probation and a $5,600 fine. Judge Garnett emphasized during the sentencing that while Plasencia did not supply the fatal dose that killed Perry, his actions directly contributed to the actor’s spiral. “You and others helped Mr. Perry on the road to such an ending by continuing to feed his ketamine addiction,” the judge stated, adding, “You exploited Mr. Perry’s addiction for your own profit.”
According to court filings, Plasencia provided Perry and his assistant with multiple vials, lozenges and syringes of ketamine on several occasions in September and October 2023. Prosecutors noted that Plasencia charged the struggling addict a significantly inflated price for the drug. An autopsy report determined that Perry, 54, died in October 2023 from the acute effects of ketamine, combined with drowning, coronary artery disease and buprenorphine effects.
Before his sentence was read, a tearful Plasencia addressed the court, stating, “I failed Mr. Perry. I failed his family. I should have protected him.” Members of Perry’s family, including his mother and half-sister, delivered emotional victim impact statements, reflecting on the depth of the actor’s addiction and expressing pain over the doctor’s exploitative behavior. Plasencia was immediately remanded into federal custody following the sentencing.
