BATON ROUGE - A man previously arrested for dumping the body of a Georgia contractor who came to Baton Rouge and overdosed was arrested in a chase Wednesday afternoon.

Derrick Perkins, 46, was arrested around 11:45 a.m. after trying to escape arrest in a stolen 2020 Nissan Maxima. The owner of the car called the police about the theft, leading to the chase. The stolen car led officers through Perkins Road and through the I-10 construction zone on East Lakeshore at City Park Lake before Perkins lost control of the vehicle and crashed near the exit ramp on Evangeline Street.

Perkins was arrested and booked into East Baton Rouge Parish Prison for unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, aggravated flight from an officer, and resisting an officer.

Perkins has been arrested in East Baton Rouge Parish more than a dozen times since 1996. Law enforcement says Perkins is a known drug dealer known as 'Stanka.' He was arrested in the death of Nathan Millard, who was found dumped into a vacant lot in March 2023. 

WBRZ reported that Millard was drinking in downtown Baton Rouge the night of Feb. 22 before being kicked out of several bars. Footage showed Millard making cash withdrawals at an ATM near the Greyhound bus station on Florida Boulevard before leaving with Perkins, a prostitute and another man.

The group drive around getting high on crack cocaine until stopping at a gas station just after 4 a.m. It was the last place Millard was seen alive. Reports said Millard then told Perkins he wanted a white girl, so they picked up alleged prostitutes Tiffany Guidry and Tabbetha Barner and went to a home on Lori Burgess Avenue where the three started shooting up and having sex. 

Perkins said he stayed outside the home because he cringes when people use drugs intravenously.

"They were all up in there doing that s***. I don't f*** with that s***," Perkins reportedly said during the police interview.

Arrest paperwork said Perkins left the home, went to the store and bought a few things with Millard's debit card. He came back and then left to pick up more drugs at Barner's request. When he arrived again, Barner said that Millard was dead.

At the time, the accused drug dealer then told police he "panicked" and had Guidry help him roll up Millard in the rug he was lying on when he died. They then loaded the body into the trunk of Perkins' car. He left it there for up to four days until the "odor got too bad," police wrote in investigative documents. He said they eventually disposed of Millard's body at a vacant lot along Scenic Highway, where the remains were found on March 6. The car was found torched nearby. 

Perkins also has two cases pending in East Baton Rouge Parish that are connected to Millard's disappearance and death. The two charges are unlawful disposal of human remains and obstruction of justice and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle related to a stolen car he allegedly used around the time of Millard’s death.

Perkins was arrested March 13, 2023, and was released on bond in October. His bond conditions required him to register with a service that monitors defendants while out on bond using their cell phones, but he did not have a cell phone at the time, leading him to never register for it despite the service mandating 10 days to register.

He was scheduled for a court appearance January 9 and never showed up for court.