LOS ANGELES (CNS) - A former drug counselor who delivered the fatal dose of ketamine that killed "Friends" actor Matthew Perry was sentenced Wednesday to two years in federal prison.

Erik Fleming, 56, of Hawthorne, was the fourth of five defendants to be sentenced in Perry's October 2023 death. The final defendant in the case, Perry's live-in personal assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, is set to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett on May 27.

Fleming admitted acting as a middleman in several drug deals over 11 days between Jasveen Sangha, the North Hollywood dealer dubbed the "Ketamine Queen," and Iwamasa, who injected Perry with the fatal dose.

"There was overwhelming evidence that Mr. Fleming provided the drugs that caused Mr. Perry's death," Assistant U.S. Attorney Ian Yaniello told the court.

However, the prosecutor added that when a search warrant was conducted in the days after Perry's death, Fleming immediately identified Sangha as the dealer who provided the drugs he sold to Iwamasa.

His cooperation, Yaniello said, "was significant," which was why the government did not argue for a stiffer penalty.

Perry, who had long struggled with addiction and wrote about it in a memoir, illegally obtained the powerful dissociative anesthetic from at least two sources. The drug is used medically for anesthesia, depression and pain management and has some hallucinogenic effects.

Beginning in mid-October 2023, Iwamasa obtained ketamine for Perry from Fleming, who was getting it from Sangha, according to court papers.

After discussing prices with Iwamasa, Fleming coordinated sales with Sangha, twice bringing cash from Iwamasa to Sangha's stash house for a total of 50 vials of the drug in exchange for $11,000, documents show.

In arguing for a split year's sentence of prison time and residential drug treatment, Fleming's attorney, Robert Dugdale, said his client's cooperation in naming Sangha gave law enforcement officials a target of their investigation early on in the case.

"They didn't have a clue who she was" until Fleming gave up the dealer on "day one, hour one" of the investigation, Dugdale told the court.

"He handed over the Ketamine Queen on a silver platter," the defense lawyer said.

On Oct. 28, 2023, Iwamasa injected Perry with at least three shots of Sangha's ketamine, delivered by Fleming, causing Perry's death, authorities said. When she pleaded guilty in L.A. federal court last year, Sangha admitted knowing that the ketamine she sold to Fleming was marked for Perry.

Perry also obtained the drug via then-physician Salvador Plasencia, a Santa Monica doctor who operated an urgent-care clinic. In late September 2023, Plasencia learned that Perry was interested in obtaining the drug, which is also used as a so-called party drug known in some circles as "Special K," according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Plasencia contacted fellow doctor Mark Chavez -- then a licensed San Diego physician who operated a ketamine clinic -- to obtain the drug to sell to the actor. In text messages to Chavez, Plasencia discussed how much to charge Perry for the ketamine, stating, "I wonder how much this moron will pay," records show.

Prosecutors said Plasencia illegally distributed ketamine to Perry and Iwamasa on at least seven occasions and taught the personal assistant how to inject Perry with the drug. Plasencia knew that Iwamasa had never received medical training and knew little, if anything, about administering or treating patients with controlled substances, court papers state.

Prosecutors said Perry was sometimes paying $2,000 per vial of ketamine, while his dealers were paying $12 for each vial.

Perry detailed his years-long struggle with addiction in the 2022 memoir "Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing." The "Friends" star, who played the character Chandler Bing in the series from 1994 to 2004, said he went through detox dozens of times.

The actor was found dead Oct. 28, 2023, in a jacuzzi behind his Pacific Palisades home of a fatal ketamine overdose. He was 54. The five defendants were charged in connection with his death in an 18-count indictment handed down in August 2024.

In a statement to the court, Fleming noted "how truly sorry I am for my role in bringing ketamine to Matthew Perry." He said he is "shocked and disgusted" and "profoundly ashamed of myself for what I did."

Fleming told the court he would in the future work to inform the public of the dangers of the drug.

Along with the prison sentence, Fleming will serve three years of supervised release when he is released.

Sangha, 42, was sentenced last month to 15 years behind bars for supplying the fatal dose that caused Perry's death. She pleaded guilty to maintaining a drug-involved premises, three counts of distribution of ketamine, and distribution of ketamine resulting in death or serious bodily injury.

"To cultivate her business, defendant marketed herself as an exclusive dealer who catered to high-profile Hollywood clientele," prosecutors wrote in sentencing papers. "As she told one customer in 2020, `I'm really select with people,' and `it's a very VIP circle of celebs."'

NBC's "Dateline" correspondent Keith Morrison, Perry's stepfather, described the late actor and author for the downtown Los Angeles courtroom in a victim impact statement when Sangha was sentenced.

Perry was "generous and kind and annoying" until "the old addiction came back," Morrison said, adding that he has been left with "a grinding sadness" since the death of his stepson.

Plasencia, 44, also known as "Dr. P," pleaded guilty in July 2025 to four counts of distribution of ketamine. He was sentenced in December to two years, six months behind bars for illegally supplying the drug.

Chavez, 55, pleaded guilty in October 2024 to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine. The second of two former doctors convicted in Perry's death, Chavez was sentenced to eight months of home confinement and ordered to perform 300 hours of community service.

Iwamasa, 60, of Toluca Lake, pleaded guilty in August 2024 to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine causing death. He faces up to 15 years in federal prison at sentencing later this month.