Among Perry's Last Words: 'Shoot Me Up'

Matthew Perry had repeatedly fallen unconscious or otherwise been unable to speak or move after injecting large amounts of ketamine before his last, fatal dose, court documents reveal. The Friends actor was undergoing medically supervised ketamine infusion therapy for depression and anxiety but was also injecting illegal doses up to eight times a day, according to federal prosecutors in California. On Oct. 28, Perry's live-in personal assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, gave him his first ketamine shot of the day at 8:30am, followed by another four hours later, the documents read, per the New York Times. Just 40 minutes after that, Perry requested more.

"Shoot me up with a big one," the actor told Iwamasa, according to the assistant's plea agreement. Iwamasa delivered the shot, prepared Perry's hot tub, then left to run errands. When he returned, Perry was, as the Times describes it, "face down in the water, dead." His blood showed a level of ketamine equivalent to that used for general anesthesia. Only a few weeks earlier, Dr. Salvador Plasencia had delivered an illegal dose that caused Perry to freeze up, but he kept administering the drug, prosecutors allege. The doctor collected at least $55,000 from Perry over the course of a month, according to the documents. A week before the actor's death, he allegedly observed Perry was "spiraling" and "too far gone," per NBC News.

Iwamasa allegedly turned to Plasencia for vials of ketamine, or what he called "cans of dr pepper," when a clinic refused to increase Perry's legal doses. Plasencia allegedly acquired the drug from Dr. Mark Chavez, who once ran a ketamine clinic. The doctors charged Perry $2,000 for a bottle that cost them $12, prosecutors say, per Business Insider. Perry also reached out to Erik Fleming, a friend of a friend, who conspired with drug dealer Jasveen Sangha to get more ketamine for the actor at a better price, prosecutors claim. Iwamasa, Chavez, and Fleming pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute ketamine earlier this summer and each face at least a decade in prison. Plasencia and Sangha face additional charges, to which they have not entered pleas. They are due to stand trial in October. (More Matthew Perry stories.)