Mark Chavez is the second doctor sentenced for the overdose death of Matthew Perry

A California doctor who sold ketamine to Friends star Matthew Perry has been sentenced to eight months of home detention and three years of supervised release, making him the second person sentenced for the actor’s death.

Dr. Mark Chavez is among five people, including another doctor and a dealer known as the Ketamine Queen, who pleaded guilty to drug charges stemming from the comedy star’s 2023 death at his Los Angeles home.

The San Diego-based doctor admitted to obtaining ketamine from his clinic and a wholesale distributor through a fraudulent prescription and sold it to Dr. Salvador Plasencia, who supplied the dissociative anesthetic to Perry.

Plasencia was sentenced earlier this month to 30 months in prison.

The multi-year federal investigation into Perry’s death examined how the Emmy-winning actor acquired ketamine through an underground drug ring in Hollywood.

Ketamine, a surgical anesthetic, is used as a treatment for depression, anxiety and pain.

Perry, who had struggled with drug addiction and depression, had been prescribed the medication as part of his treatment, but soon began seeking more than what he had been assigned.

That eventually led him to the drug ring that ensnared the two doctors, Perry’s live-in assistant, a man named Erik Fleming, and dual American-British national Jasveen Sangha, the dealer known as the Ketamine Queen.

The last three should be sentenced in the coming months.

A postmortem examination of Perry found a high concentration of ketamine in his blood and determined that the “acute effects” of the substance killed him.

Prosecutors said Perry’s assistant Kenneth Iwamasa worked with Chavez and Plasencia to provide the actor with more than $50,000 (£38,000) worth of ketamine in the weeks before his death.

In his plea agreement, Chavez admitted that he obtained ketamine from both his former clinic and a wholesale distributor through a fraudulent prescription. He submitted a fraudulent prescription for 30 ketamine pills in the name of a former patient, without her knowledge or consent, to sell them to Plasencia and deliver them to Perry.

He confessed to selling 22 vials of liquid ketamine and nine ketamine pills to Plasencia, according to his October 2024 plea agreement.

The transaction was part of a larger scheme in which Chavez and Plasencia discussed exploiting Perry’s addiction for financial gain by mocking him in their text message exchanges.

“I wonder how much this idiot will pay,” Plasencia wrote to Chávez.

Chávez faced up to 10 years in federal prison. As part of his October 2024 plea deal, he surrendered his medical license and passport.