LOS ANGELES — Matthew Perry’s live-in personal assistant, who had a central role in the “Friends” star’s descent into ketamine addiction and injected him with the fatal dose of the drug, was sentenced Wednesday to three years and five months in prison.

Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett handed down the sentence to 60-year-old Kenneth Iwamasa in federal court in Los Angeles. He was also sentenced to two years of probation and a $10,000 fine.

It was the fifth and final sentencing in the 2½-year investigation and prosecution that followed Perry’s death at age 54 on Oct. 28, 2023.

“You were privy to his struggle with addiction,” Garnett said before handing down the sentence. “Your conduct was reckless, not just on the day of his death but in the days leading up to his death.”

The sentence was exactly what prosecutors had sought, though Garnett disagreed on some of the details. She found that Iwamasa did not abuse a position of trust, which could’ve brought more prison time.

She also told Iwamasa, “there is no hard evidence that you acted with malicious intent, though some would disagree.”

Iwamasa was at Perry’s side through the final days of his life, acting as the actor’s enabler, drug messenger and de facto doctor. He was the last person to see Perry alive, and he was the one who found him dead in his Jacuzzi.

Iwamasa stood at the court’s podium before the sentencing and made the unusual move of looking right at Perry’s family and friends as he spoke into the microphone.

“I’m horribly, horribly sorry, and I offer my condolences to you,” he said. “I’m just so sorry to have done these illegal acts that I will forever regret. I will take that to my grave.”

Iwamasa wore a charcoal-gray suit, with his long white hair combed back. He had no visible reaction to the sentence. His father and brother sat in the audience with other supporters.

Iwamasa was the first person to reach a deal with prosecutors, pleading guilty in August of 2024 to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine resulting in death, and became their most important witness.

Iwamasa’s lawyer, Alan Eisner, argued for a six-month prison term with six months of home confinement, emphasizing he was always acting at the direction of a boss with much more power than he had.

“His loyalty to Mr. Perry was paramount,” Eisner told the judge. “He worshipped Mr. Perry, he looked up to Mr. Perry. All he did was please and accommodate Mr. Perry.”

When Eisner said Iwamasa was unable to act differently than he did, the judge cut him off and said: “Unwilling. Not unable. He could have said no.”

Perry’s mother and sisters made it clear in letters to the judge that there is no one they blame for his death more than Iwamasa — a longtime friend they thought would help the actor maintain sobriety but instead indulged the worst impulses of a lifelong addict.

Perry’s stepfather, longtime “Dateline” journalist Keith Morrison, spoke for his loved ones at the sentencing.

“We really felt that he was part of the family,” Morrison said. “We trusted him implicitly.”

Morrison acknowledged the power imbalance, but said Iwamasa still had a choice.

“You did the injections. You could have made the phone call,” he said. “But you didn't. Because you were living a dandy life.” He added, “You were in control of one of the most famous people in the world.”

Lisa Ferguson, Perry’s business manager for most of his career and now his estate executor, painted a darker picture, saying Iwamasa deliberately drove out everyone else surrounding Perry, including sober-living companions and medical workers, to shore up his own power and influence. She angrily said he used Perry’s addiction to his own advantage.

“What you are is the monster that killed him,” she said. She said he had shown “not a shred of guilt or remorse” since Perry’s death, and that he ought to “rot in prison.”

“Matthew deserved to live,” she said. “You don't.”

Iwamasa looked right at Morrison and Ferguson throughout their remarks from his nearby seat.

Perry had hired Iwamasa in 2022, and he was paying him $150,000 a year to live at his Los Angeles home and act as his assistant.

The actor had been taking the surgical anesthetic ketamine legally for depression, an increasingly common off-label use. But he wanted more than his doctor would give him.

According to Iwamasa’s plea agreement, he bought off-the-books ketamine from another doctor, Salvador Plasencia, who taught him how to inject it. Plasencia was sentenced to 2½ years in prison in July.

Iwamasa also began buying ketamine from Perry acquaintance Erik Fleming, who was getting it from a street dealer. Fleming was sentenced to two years in prison two weeks ago.

The dealer, Jasveen Sangha, dubbed “The Ketamine Queen,” was sentenced to 15 years on April 8.

The criminal investigation began not long after Iwamasa returned from running errands to find Perry dead.

The LA County Medical Examiner found that ketamine was the primary cause of death. Drowning was a secondary cause.

At first, Iwamasa had lied to police, omitting ketamine from the list of medications Perry was using, and saying nothing about his injections. But after investigators served a search warrant in January of 2024, he began coming clean.

Perry became one of the biggest stars of his generation along with Courteney Cox, Jennifer Aniston, Matt LeBlanc, David Schwimmer and Lisa Kudrow on “Friends,” NBC’s megahit sitcom that ran from 1994 to 2004.

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NEW YORK — Martin Short was the one who initiated the welfare check culminating in the discovery of his daughter’s body.

Katherine Short, a social worker and NYU graduate, died by suicide at the age of 42 earlier this year.

On Feb. 23, her funnyman father grew concerned and asked a friend to check in after not hearing from her for more than 24 hours, according to an autopsy report released by the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner and obtained by US Weekly. When he arrived at her residence, Short’s friend discovered “multiple notes” left by Katherine, which she “posted on the door,” causing him to phone 911.

Police responded and forced entry into Katherine’s bedroom, where they found her dead in the bed with a Glock 19 9mm pistol under her chest. The medical examiner has since concluded she suffered from self-inflicted wounds and her death was ruled a suicide. Her autopsy further notes she had a previous suicide attempt in 2017 involving pills, as well as a “history of depression and other mental health illnesses.”

Katherine Short also had benzodiazepines in her system when she died. According to the Cleveland Clinic, the drug is a class of prescription medication “that slow down activity in your brain and nervous system.”

Born on Dec. 3, 1983, Katherine was the adopted daughter of Martin Short and his and his late wife, Nancy Dolman, who died at age 58 in August 2010 after a battle with ovarian cancer. She and Short had been married since 1980.

The couple also shared adopted sons Oliver, 39, and 36-year-old Henry.

The “Only Murders in the Building” actor recently reflected on losing both Dolman and his daughter, revealing they said similar things to him in their final moments together.

“Martin, let me go,” Short recalled her saying as paramedics raced into their bedroom.

Sixteen years later, “Katherine was saying: ‘Dad, let me go,’” Short told the New York Times, “I don’t see any difference between mental illness as a disease and cancer as a disease. In some cases, both are terminal. And in some cases, both are survivable.”

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Rapper Lil Wayne has gotten engaged again, this time keeping his proposal and wedding plans low-key.

In fact, the identity of the 20-something Indiana woman he popped the question to earlier this year has not been made public, TMZ reported. “Sources with direct knowledge” alerted TMZ about the impending nuptials, the outlet reported Tuesday, but did not divulge her name.

Lil Wayne, given name Dwayne Michael Carter Jr., has been cagey about previous engagements, teasing the possibility with more than one of his many high-profile relationships. It was confirmed that he was engaged to singer Nivea and to Australian model La’Tecia Thomas.

Carter’s romantic life was the stuff of headlines for years, but he has become increasingly more private of late, which probably helped him keep his latest engagement under wraps, according to TMZ.

It’s not clear if babies could be in the offing with his new love. Lil Wayne already has four children with as many women. First is daughter Reginae Carter, 27, born in 1998 when he and high school sweetheart Antonia “Toya” Johnson were just 16. They married in the early 2000s but divorced two years later.

Next in line is 17-year-old Dwayne Michael Carter III, whom Lil Wayne welcomed with radio personality and entrepreneur Sarah Vivan in 2008. His son Kameron, 16, was born in 2009 to actress Laura London, and Neal, also 16, is the son of Nivea.

Lil Wayne remains friends with all the mothers and is close with his kids.

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From combined wire services