15-year sentence for ‘ketamine queen’ in Matthew Perry death highlights federal guidelines
The California woman who sold actor Matthew Perry the ketamine that killed him in 2023 was sentenced Wednesday to 15 years in federal prison. It could have been way longer.
Jasveen Sangha — described by prosecutors as the “ketamine queen” — faced as much as 65 years for selling Perry lethal doses of the drug.
The sentence highlights a part of America’s criminal justice system that most never see: how federal prison time is actually calculated.
Under the terms of a plea agreement, Sangha admitted last fall that she sold the drugs that killed Perry, and prosecutors recommended a sentence of 15 years, followed by three years of supervised release. The judge accepted the recommendation.
While the actual sentence is a fraction of the potential punishment, it is hardly unusual in federal court. It’s the product of how federal sentencing guidelines and plea bargains interact. It can almost be seen as a math equation.
The starting point
Sixty-five years may seem random or shocking. But that number is carefully calculated.
Federal sentencing guidelines are in place purportedly to allow more transparency and consistency in punishing those convicted in federal courts. The guidelines are not random. They follow a structured system.
In 1984, Congress passed the Sentencing Reform Act to make federal sentencing more predictable and fair. Previously, sentencing was at each federal judge’s discretion, and they were not required to explain their reasoning.
“Federal sentencing guidelines were created to bring consistency across courts,” J. Patrick Carey, a criminal law specialist and former prosecutor for the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office, wrote on his law firm’s website. “Before the guidelines, sentences could vary widely depending on the judge or location.”
Carey said “the idea was to reduce disparities and ensure that similar crimes received similar consequences, giving defendants and attorneys a clearer picture of potential outcomes.”
“These guidelines also promote transparency,” Carey said. “By laying out how sentences are calculated, they help the public see the logic behind decisions and allow defendants to better anticipate what might happen in court.”
The process is formulaic. Prosecutors usually start by adding up the statutory maximums for all of the defendant’s charges combined.
But the maximum penalty acts as more of a ceiling than a reality.
The real calculation
Judges typically do not start with the maximum sentence. They start with the sentencing guidelines, which provide a road map for 43 offenses.
“The more serious the crime, the higher the offense level,” the guidelines state.
Brandishing a firearm to commit a crime adds to the sentence; firing adds even more. Other factors — such as the degree to which a defendant participated in the crime — can add or subtract time from the final sentence. The same is true if a defendant accepts responsibility or has committed previous crimes.
In Sangha’s case, prosecutors sought a sentence far below the maximum even though she was, they said, “a drug dealer who sold drugs that hurt people.” And, they said, when she learned about Perry’s death, “she didn’t care and kept selling.”
“For years … Sangha operated a high-volume drug trafficking business out of her North Hollywood residence,” prosecutors argued in a sentencing memorandum, which was reiterated in a DOJ press release Wednesday. “To cultivate her business, [Sangha] marketed herself as an exclusive dealer who catered to high-profile Hollywood clientele. …While [Sangha] worked to expand and profit from her drug trafficking, she knew — and disregarded — the grave harm her conduct was causing.”
Ciaran McEvoy, a spokesperson for the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles, told Straight Arrow News that prosecutors had no further comment.
Perry’s stepfather, Keith Morrison, a correspondent for NBC’s “Dateline,” praised what he called a “highly reasoned sentence,” NBC News reported.
“We miss Matthew dreadfully, of course, and I feel badly for the perpetrator here as well,” Morrison said. “Nobody won today.”
Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
