Matthew Perry death probe reveals new details of final hours: ‘Shoot me up with a big one’
Beloved “Friends” star Matthew Perry had apparently urged his assistant to “shoot me up with a big one” in the moments leading up to him overdosing on a deadly batch of ketamine last year, it has been revealed.
The timeline of Perry’s harrowing final hours was laid bare in court papers after his live-in assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, and four others were charged Thursday in connection with the Hollywood actor’s shocking death last October.
On the morning of his death, Perry, 54, is said to have asked the long-time assistant to administer the first ketamine shot of the day at about 8:30 a.m., according to the plea agreement Iwamasa went on to sign.
Four hours later, Iwamasa injected another dose while the actor was watching a movie at his Pacific Palisades home, the filing said.
It was only about 40 minutes later that Perry asked for yet another ketamine shot, Iwamasa recalled, according to the court papers.
“Shoot me up with a big one,” the actor apparently told Iwamasa before instructing his assistant to prepare the hot tub.
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After injecting his boss with the third dose in as little as six hours, Iwamasa set off to run errands, the documents say.
Iwamasa, who had worked for the actor since 1994, found Perry face down in the hot tub when he eventually returned to the home.
At the time of his death, Perry had been undergoing weeks of ketamine therapy for depression.
His assistant told authorities he had administered at least 27 shots of ketamine to his boss during the final five days of his life alone — including the last three that prosecutors allege resulted in his “death and serious bodily injury.”
Iwamasa was charged alongside two doctors, Salvador Plasencia and Mark Chavez, as well as alleged street dealer Erik Fleming, and Jasveen Sangha, the so-called “Ketamine Queen of Los Angeles.”
From September until Perry’s Oct. 28 death, prosecutors allege, Plasencia and Chavez allegedly supplied the actor with about 20 vials of ketamine in exchange for around $55,000 in cash.
Iwamasa, who had no medical training, was injecting the drugs into Perry based on instructions from Plasencia, prosecutors said.
Authorities believe that Perry’s final, fatal dose of ketamine was supplied by Sangha.
Plasencia and Sangha are both charged with one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine over Perry’s death.
Fleming, Iwamasa and Chavez all copped plea deals in exchange for pleading guilty to various charges, including conspiracy to distribute ketamine and conspiracy to distribute ketamine resulting in death.
