Matthew Perry’s Mom Shares Actor’s Last Words, Blasts Assistant Kenneth Iwamasa for Failing in His ‘Most Important Job’

Matthew Perry’s mother, Suzanne Morrison, expressed her outrage against the actor’s former live-in personal assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, ahead of his sentencing on May 27. She said her family “believed” Iwamasa “understood” her son’s long battle with addiction.

Perry died from a ketamine overdose on October 28, 2023.

Iwamasa, who pleaded guilty in 2024 to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine causing death, admitted to repeatedly injecting Perry with ketamine without medical training, including performing multiple injections on the actor the day he died.

Iwamasa could face up to 15 years in prison. Prosecutors are recommending a sentence of 41 months in prison, plus three years supervised release, according to court documents reviewed by People magazine.

Morrison said that Iwamasa’s “most important job” was to be Perry’s “companion and guardian in his fight against addiction,” ensuring he remained “drug free.”

“But instead of protecting Matthew, he aided and abetted illegal drug taking, arranged for one source of supply, then another,” Morrison wrote in her impact statement. “Shot the drugs into Matthew’s body, though he was not in the least qualified. He did it even though he could see, anyone could have seen, it was so obviously dangerous. And he did it again and again.”

On the day of his death, Perry told Iwamasa to “Shoot me up with a big one,” and to prepare his jacuzzi. Iwamasa went to run some errands and found him dead, face down in the water, upon his return.

After her son’s death, Morrison claimed that Iwamasa sent her songs, drew a map to help her find her way around the cemetery, among other things. “If he saw a rainbow – one of Matthew's favorite things – he would call me,” Morrison wrote.

She claimed Iwamasa “insisted” on speaking at Perry’s funeral and clung to her “as if he was somehow the good guy who tried to save Matthew.”

“He threatened legal action to pry a settlement from workmen’s comp. We trusted a man without a conscience, and my son paid the price,” she said.

Morrison said that despite everything he went through, the actor was her “heart and my soul.”

“And then one night he was just a body, lying all but naked on the cold, damp grass of his backyard. Helicopters circled overhead, eager for a glimpse of my dead little boy, a picture they could show the whole world while I stood out on the street in the cold and begged for a blanket to cover him. Impossible, of course,” she added.

While she thanked investigators “for their relentless determination to dig out the truth about Kenny,” she said that “closure” is a thing that “doesn’t exist.”

“Ask any mother whose child has been torn away so mercilessly,” she wrote. “Nothing takes this pain away, nor will it, I am sure, for as long as [I] live.”

Iwamasa was one of five people charged in connection with Perry’s death.

Dr. Salvador Plasencia was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to four counts of ketamine distribution.

Mark Chavez was sentenced to three years of probation, eight months of home detention, and 300 hours of community service after pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine.

Jasveen Sangha, known as the “Ketamine Queen”, was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison for selling ketamine that contributed to at least two fatal overdoses, including the death of Perry.

Meanwhile, Erik Fleming pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine and was sentenced to 24 months in federal prison followed by three years of supervised release.