Mark Chavez, one of two doctors charged in connection with the death of actor Matthew Perry, was sentenced Tuesday to eight months of home confinement.
Chavez previously pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine. In addition to house arrest, he was also sentenced to three years of supervised release and ordered to complete 300 hours of community service.
“Today, United States District Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett sentenced Mark Chavez to eight months of home confinement and ordered him to perform 300 hours of community service. Chavez pleaded guilty in October 2024 to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine,” a representative for the Department of Justice said in a statement.
The San Diego-based doctor operated a ketamine clinic and admitted to selling ketamine to Dr. Salvador Plasencia, who prosecutors say then provided the drug to Perry and to Perry’s live-in assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa.
In text messages cited by prosecutors, Plasencia allegedly discussed pricing the drug for the actor, writing, “I wonder how much this moron will pay” and “Lets [sic] find out.”
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Prosecutors also alleged Chavez obtained additional ketamine for Plasencia by making false statements to a wholesale ketamine distributor and submitting a fraudulent prescription using a former patient’s name—without the patient’s knowledge or consent—according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California.
Chavez, along with Jasveen Sangha, Plasencia, Iwamasa and Erik Fleming, pleaded guilty to charges tied to Perry’s death. Plasencia was sentenced to 30 months in prison this month, while Sangha, Iwamasa and Fleming are scheduled to be sentenced in 2026.
Perry, 54, was found dead in the jacuzzi at his Pacific Palisades, California, home on Oct. 28, 2023, after suffering a fatal ketamine overdose. Other contributing factors listed in connection with his death included drowning, coronary artery disease and buprenorphine effects, a reference to a medication used to treat opioid use disorder.
Court documents state that Perry became addicted to ketamine in the weeks before his death and sometimes injected the drug six to eight times per day.
Chavez’s attorney, Matthew Binninger, previously said his client was “incredibly remorseful” and accepted responsibility for his role in the case.
“He is trying to do everything in his power to right the wrong that happened here,” Binninger said, according to the Associated Press. “He is doing everything in his power to cooperate, to help in this situation, and he’s incredibly remorseful.”
