One of two doctors charged in connection with Matthew Perry’s death is expected to plead guilty to conspiring to distribute the surgical anesthetic ketamine when he appears in court on Friday. Dr Mark Chavez, 54, of San Diego, reached a plea agreement with prosecutors earlier this month and would be the third person to plead guilty in the aftermath of the Friends star’s fatal overdose last year. Chavez agreed to cooperate with prosecutors as they pursue others, including the doctor Chavez worked with to sell ketamine to Perry. Also working with the US attorney’s office are Perry’s assistant, who admitted to helping him obtain and inject ketamine, and an acquaintance of the actor who admitted to acting as a drug messenger and middleman. The three are helping prosecutors as they go after their main targets: Dr Salvador Plasencia, who is charged with illegally selling ketamine to Perry in the month before his death, and Jasveen Sangha, a woman who authorities say is a dealer who sold the actor the lethal dose of ketamine. Both have pleaded not guilty and are awaiting trial. Chavez admitted in his plea agreement that he obtained ketamine from his former clinic and from a wholesale distributor where he submitted a fraudulent prescription. After a guilty plea, he could receive up to 10 years in prison when he is sentenced. Perry was found dead by his assistant on 28 October. The medical examiner ruled ketamine was the primary cause of death. The actor had been using the drug through his regular doctor in a legal but off-label treatment for depression that has become increasingly common. Perry found Plasencia about a month before his death when seeking more ketamine than his doctor would give him. Plasencia in turn asked Chavez to obtain the drug for him. “I wonder how much this moron will pay,” Plasencia texted Chavez. The two met up the same day in Costa Mesa, halfway between Los Angeles and San Diego, and exchanged at least four vials of ketamine. After selling the drugs to Perry for $4,500, Plasencia asked Chavez if he could keep supplying them so they could become Perry’s “go-to”. “The doctors preyed on Perry’s history of addiction in the final months of his life last year to provide him with ketamine in amounts they knew were dangerous,” US attorney Martin Estrada said in announcing the charges on 15 August. Plasencia is charged with seven counts of distribution of ketamine and two charges related to allegations he falsified records after Perry’s death. He and Sangha are scheduled to return to court next week. They have separate trial dates set for October, but prosecutors are seeking a single trial that would probably be delayed to next year.