Keith Morrison, the stepfather of the late Matthew Perry, is speaking out after the woman who illegally sold the “Friends” star the ketamine that killed him was sentenced.
On April 8, Jasveen Sangha, known as the “Ketamine Queen” to her drug customers, was sentenced to 15 years behind bars and three years’ supervised release for her connection to Perry’s 2023 overdose death, NBC News reported. Sangha had previously pleaded guilty to illegally selling the hallucinogenic anesthetic in September 2025.
Shortly after her sentencing, Morrison shared a brief statement outside of the courthouse. The “Dateline” correspondent said, “We miss Matthew dreadfully, of course, and I feel bad for the family of the perpetrator here as well. Nobody won today.”
He also said the “very fair” judge chose a “highly reasoned sentence.”
When asked if he thought Sangha took to heart the words he shared in court, Morrison replied, “Yes, I do. I looked down and she was visibly emotional about it. I mean, look, you’d have to have a heart of stone to wake up every morning and make a business out of feeding off the addictions of vulnerable people who are desperate for drugs. Then when you’re forced to confront what you have done, if you don’t feel some sense of shame or sorrow, then you’re not even human.”
He continued, “And she is clearly human. She is now facing her sentence, and I think she’ll do fine in prison.”
Morrison has been married to the late actor’s mom, Suzanne Perry, since 1981.
Perry was found face down and unresponsive in the pool at his Pacific Palisades home on Oct. 28, 2023. The 54-year-old actor was pronounced dead at the scene.
Morrison, his wife and three of Perry’s sisters — Caitlin, Emily and Madeline Morrison — previously spoke about grieving the loss of their son and brother on the first anniversary of his death in an interview with TODAY. The October 2024 sit-down came after charges were first announced for the five people connected to Perry’s death.
“What I’m hoping, and I think the agencies that got involved in this are hoping, that people who have put themselves in the business of supplying people with the drugs that’ll kill them — they are now on notice. It doesn’t matter what your professional credentials are. You’re goin’ down, baby,” Morrison said at the time.
Speaking about his stepson’s impact, Morrison added, “What he taught the world is that no amount of money will cure an addict. It needs something else. That’s what we’re trying to do (with the foundation),” referring to the Matthew Perry Foundation of Canada that the family founded that same month.
Prior to her sentencing, Sangha pleaded guilty in September 2025 to five federal charges involving Perry’s death. She was arrested in August 2024 and has been in federal custody since then.
In the courtroom, Sangha reflected on her “poor choices” and “horrible decisions that ultimately proved tragic,” according to NBC News.
She said, “I pray for forgiveness every day. Thank you for giving me the harshest reality check of my life. Thank you for taking me out of the equation.”
After the sentencing, her attorney, Mark Geragos, said about the decision, “I’m bitterly disappointed. If you weren’t in the courtroom, the argument is there’s no way that Jasveen is five times more culpable than the person who injected Matthew Perry with the drug or the doctor who got the drug.”
“To me, it’s absurd in the literal meaning of the word, and if this is what the criminal justice system, or the theory of crime and punishment is, that the dealer should get five times as much as the person who injects the drug, who is there to take care of somebody, then maybe I’ve been practicing too long,” he added.
According to the U.S. attorneys involved in the case, Sangha said in her plea agreement that she had worked with a man named Erik Fleming to supply Perry with 51 vials of ketamine. The drug was then given to Perry by his live-in personal assistant named Kenneth Iwamasa, prosecutors said.
Fleming and Iwamasa are two of the five people who were charged in the case. Fleming pleaded guilty in August 2024 to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine and one count of distribution of ketamine resulting in death, NBC News reported, and Iwamasa also pleaded guilty the same month to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine causing death.
They will receive their sentences later this month.
Additionally, Dr. Mark Chavez pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine in August 2024. Dr. Salvador Plasencia pleaded not guilty to the same crime. In December 2025, Chavez was sentenced to three years of supervised release, including eight months of home confinement. Plasencia was given two and a half years in prison.
The loved ones of actor Matthew Perry shared powerful impact statements as one of the doctors charged in his death faced sentencing. Carolyn Johnson reports for the NBC4 News at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 3, 3035.
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