00:00But first, we've got breaking news from Los Angeles, where Matthew Perry's former assistant
00:04was sentenced today for his role in the 2023 overdose death of the Friends actor.
00:09Kenneth Iwamasa will spend more than three years in prison after he pleaded guilty to
00:14conspiracy to distribute ketamine causing death. Prosecutors allege Iwamasa gave Perry the final
00:20fatal dose of the drug nearly three years ago. Iwamasa was Perry's live-in personal assistant
00:26at the time and was the last person to see him alive. NBC News Entertainment correspondent
00:31Chloe Malas is tracking this case. And we're also joined by NBC News legal analyst Misty Maris.
00:36Chloe, I'll begin with you. Talk us through the details of the sentencing here.
00:40And what role do prosecutors say Iwamasa played in Perry's death?
00:44Well, prosecutors say that Kenneth Iwamasa played an instrumental role leading up to Perry's death.
00:51He administered that final fatal shot of ketamine, but that he was speaking to these different
00:57individuals, including doctors who were illegally prescribing Matthew Perry this ketamine, and that
01:04he was really coordinating all of this, knowing that Matthew Perry had a decades-long addiction
01:09to ketamine and substances, something that he, according to Matthew Perry's family, was there to
01:15protect Perry, to let his family know if he had fallen back onto hard times. Like you've already
01:22said, he is sentenced to 41 months in prison, two years of supervised release, and then he will also
01:28be ordered to pay $10,000. It's a fine to the U.S. government, and he has until noon on
01:34July 17th,
01:36the summer, to surrender. And Chloe, the family has not been quiet about their anger at him for
01:43everything that happened, their outrage, really. Can you tell us more about the relationship
01:48that he had with the Friends star and what the family had to say?
01:51Yeah, well, actually, NBC News spoke with Suzanne Morrison, Matthew Perry's mother, as she was walking
01:56into court today. Take a listen.
02:00You don't feel betrayed. You feel heartbroken. You feel empty. As a mother, I feel as though my life
02:09has been permanently changed all day.
02:14So you hear her say, my life has been permanently changed. She's heartbroken. She feels betrayed.
02:19She writes in this letter to the court that NBC News obtained yesterday that this was a man that
02:28worked with Perry for two years, who they trusted, who, after Perry's death, stayed very close with
02:35the family, even spoke at Perry's funeral, acting as though he was such a good friend to them. And
02:40then they allege that he even tried to seek money from the family after Perry passed away. And we know,
02:46according to prosecutors, that he, Kenneth Iwamasa, would administer up to eight injections per day
02:54to Matthew Perry in his final days. In light of all that, Miss D, Iwamasa did end up being an
03:00important witness for the prosecution. Can you walk us through how and how that impacted likely
03:05the sentencing? Absolutely. So Iwamasa gave prosecutors information, which was substantial
03:11invaluable to the prosecution of the other co-conspirators in this case. Because of that,
03:17when the prosecutors make a recommendation to the judge, which the judge has to sign off on and did
03:21in this case, prosecutors recommended something lower, taking that into consideration. Not only that,
03:27the fact that he pled guilty, he was the first to plead guilty, set him up to have a significant
03:32reduction in the sentence that's recommended. And prosecutors, they asked for what, three and a half
03:38years. So they essentially got what they were asking for in this resolution today.
03:43Yes, absolutely. And you often see that. The judges will be pretty deferential to what prosecutors
03:49ask for, specifically when it comes to plea deals. Now, judges don't have to. They can take other factors
03:55into consideration, and they can actually give more time than prosecutors recommend. But in many,
04:00many cases, and especially it's laid out in prosecutors' recommendation in a sentencing memo,
04:05judges will often defer, specifically when it comes to these plea arrangements.
04:09All right, Ms. Umaris, Chloe Malas, thank you both.
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