'Ketamine Queen' to be sentenced for selling Matthew Perry the drugs
that killed him
[April 08, 2026]
By ANDREW DALTON
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A woman who admitted to selling Matthew Perry the
ketamine that killed him is set to be sentenced Wednesday.
Jasveen Sangha will be the third defendant sentenced of the five people
who have pleaded guilty in connection with the 2023 overdose of the
54-year-old actor. His role as Chandler Bing on NBC's “Friends” in the
1990s and 2000s made him one of the biggest television stars of his era.
Sangha is the only one whose plea deal included an acknowledgment of
causing Perry’s death, and is likely to get the stiffest sentence of the
group by far.
Prosecutors are asking a federal judge in Los Angeles to sentence the
42-year-old Sangha to 15 years in prison. They cast her in court filings
as a “Ketamine Queen” who had an elaborate drug operation catering to
high-end clients to give herself a jet-setting lifestyle.
Sangha's attorneys said in their sentencing filing that the time she has
spent in jail since her August 2024 indictment should be sufficient, and
prosecutors' math on federal sentencing guidelines is “factually wrong.”
They point to her lack of a previous criminal record and exemplary
behavior as an inmate, as well as the unlikelihood she would return to a
life of drug dealing.
Members of Perry’s family are expected to speak in court before the
sentencing.
He was found dead in the hot tub at his Los Angeles home. The medical
examiner ruled that ketamine, typically used as a surgical anesthetic,
was the primary cause of death.
Perry, who had lifelong struggles with addiction, 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 and was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison after
prosecutors asked for three years. And it later led Perry to Sangha, who
sold him 25 vials of ketamine, including the fatal dose, for $6,000 in
cash four days before his death, 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
assistant and his friend, who admitted acting as the actor's middlemen,
are awaiting sentencing.
U.S. District Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett has said she is seeking to
calibrate how she sentences each of the five defendants to make sense as
a whole.
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Matthew Perry poses for a portrait in New York on Feb. 17, 2015.
(Photo by Brian Ach/Invision/AP, File)
 In September, shortly before a
scheduled trial, 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.
The prosecution said that despite Sangha's plea, she continued drug
dealing, showing her lack of remorse.
A dual U.S.-U.K. citizen, Sangha moved from England to the U.S. at
age 3, and when she was around age 10, her family settled in
Southern California.
She didn't know her father but has said her grandfather and
stepfather were essential male influences in her life. Both recently
died and it has had a “profound effect” on her, the defense said.
She is very close to her mother and grandmother, who would provide
her with stability if she were released, her lawyers said.
Sangha has a bachelor's degree from the University of California,
Irvine, and a master's degree from Hult International Business
School in England.
The defense used her biography to show she's an educated and
otherwise upstanding citizen who made an aberrant mistake when she
fell into selling drugs.
The prosecution said her life circumstances show she didn't act out
of desperation, and that she freely chose to deal drugs to finance
the posh lifestyle she wanted.
Sangha's lawyers said she has been a model inmate in jail,
maintaining sobriety and organizing and leading Narcotics Anonymous
meetings.
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