San Diego Doctor Mark Chavez, Who Sold Ketamine Used by Matthew Perry, Gets House Arrest

Mark Chavez, one of the two doctors charged in connection with the death of actor Matthew Perry, was sentenced to 8 months of house arrest on Tuesday.

Chavez previously pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine.

Beyond house arrest, Chavez was also sentenced to 3 years of supervised release and 300 hours of community service, the Los Angeles Times reports.

The San Diego-based doctor operated a ketamine clinic and admitted to selling the drug to Dr. Salvador Plasencia — who then distributed the drug to Perry and Perry’s live-in assistant Kenneth Iwamasa.

In text messages to Chavez, Plasencia allegedly discussed how much to charge the actor for the drug, commenting, “I wonder how much this moron will pay” and “Lets [sic] find out.”

Prosecutors also alleged that Chavez obtained additional ketamine for Plasencia by making false statements to a wholesale ketamine distributor and by submitting a fraudulent prescription using a former patient’s name without the patient’s knowledge and consent, per a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California.

Chavez, along with so-called “Ketamine Queen” Jasveen Sangha, Plasencia, Iwamasa and Erik Fleming pleaded guilty to charges connected to Perry’s death.

Plasencia was sentenced to 30 months in prison this month. Sangha, Iwamasa and Fleming are set to be sentenced in 2026.

The 54-year-old Friends star was found dead in the jacuzzi at his Pacific Palisades, Calif., home after suffering a fatal ketamine overdose on Oct. 28, 2023.

According to court documents obtained by PEOPLE, Perry became addicted to ketamine in the weeks leading up to his death, injecting the drug sometimes six to eight times a day.

Other contributing factors to the actor’s death included drowning, coronary artery disease and buprenorphine effects — referencing a medication used to treat opioid use disorder.

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Chavez’s attorney Matthew Binninger previously told reporters that his client was “incredibly remorseful” and accepted his role in the actor’s death.

“He is trying to do everything in his power to right the wrong that happened here,” Binninger said, per the Associated Press. “He is doing everything in his power to cooperate, to help in this situation, and he’s incredibly remorseful.”

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