Matthew Perry's sister has voiced her anger at his former assistant, who she claims repeatedly injected the Friends star with ketamine before his death. Kenneth 'Kenny' Iwamasa, 60, is due to be sentenced today for his role in Perry's death in October 2023.
Assistant's Role in Perry's Death
Iwamasa was paid $150,000 a year to be Perry's live-in personal assistant. Court filings reveal that his role expanded to include drug messenger, addiction enabler, and de facto doctor. On October 28, 2023, Iwamasa injected Perry with doses of ketamine that proved fatal, then left the actor to run errands. He returned to find Perry dead in the Jacuzzi.
Prosecutors are seeking a prison term of three years and five months for Iwamasa, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute ketamine resulting in death. He became the key witness in the case against four co-defendants.
Victim Impact Statements
In a victim impact statement, Perry's sister Madeline Morrison expressed her sense of betrayal. 'He had injected my brother with a lethal dose of ketamine and left him in a hot tub to die,' she said. 'It is difficult to put into words the sense of betrayal I felt when I found out what Kenny had done.'
Perry's younger sister Caitlin Morrison wrote to the judge, 'I have no sympathy for Kenny Iwamasa. I know that when Kenny left the house, he was doing one of two things. He was either escaping from something he knew he had done or he was willfully abandoning a vulnerable person in a dangerous situation.'
Their mother Suzanne Morrison added that the family had trusted Iwamasa for decades. 'Mathew trusted Kenny. We trusted Kenny. Kenny's most important job was to be my son's companion and guardian in his fight against addiction. We trusted a man without a conscience, and my son paid the price.'
Details of the Day of Death
The LA County Medical Examiner determined that ketamine was the primary cause of Perry's death, with drowning as a secondary cause. On the day of his death, Iwamasa gave police a list of medications Perry was taking but omitted ketamine and failed to mention the injections, prosecutors said.
Iwamasa later admitted to giving Perry six to eight injections of ketamine per day in his final days. On the day he died, Perry told him: 'Shoot me up with a big one.' Iwamasa worked with middleman Erik Fleming, who was sentenced to two years in prison on May 13, to obtain drugs from dealer Jasveen Sangha.
Iwamasa's lawyers argued that he was an employee doing his boss's bidding, stating he had 'a particular vulnerability to the relationship dynamic' and could not 'simply say no.'
