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Ex-Con Who Killed Woman While Fleeing Police Did Same Thing 27 Years Ago

By Kathleen Culliton | July 8, 2016 1:01pm | Updated on July 11, 2016 8:44am
 Derrick Perkins, who killed a 78-year-old woman while fleeing police, was on parole for killing another person in a police chase in 1989.
Derrick Perkins, who killed a 78-year-old woman while fleeing police, was on parole for killing another person in a police chase in 1989.
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New York State Department of Corrections

QUEENS — The ex-con who killed a 78-year-old woman while fleeing police Thursday was on parole for killing another driver in another police chase more than 25 years ago, according to official records.

Officers chased Derrick Perkins after he robbed a Cambria Heights tire shop and fled down 225th Street in his BMW SUV at about 1 p.m. on June 7, said police.

When Perkins, 51, ran a red light on Linden Boulevard, he flipped his vehicle and crashed into a car driven by Roxina Clayton, killing her, police said.

The incident mirrors almost exactly the crime that landed Perkins with a murder conviction in Nassau County 27 years ago.

Perkins was arrested in Hempstead, Long Island after he led police on a high-speed, 11-mile car chase that culminated in a fatal collision with another car at the intersection of Grove and South Franklin Streets in 1989, according to a 1991 decision to deny his appeal.

Perkins later confessed to police that he had been using drugs the night of the crash, broke the speed limit to escape police, and ran the red light before striking the other car, the document states.

Perkins was sentenced 21 years to life in prison after his conviction of murder and criminal possession of stolen property in 1989, according to DOC records.  

In 1991, Perkins appealed his conviction on the grounds that he confessed to police while suffering from the pain of a recently-removed catheter, according to the appeal decision.

His fourth plea for parole was approved in 2014 and Perkins was released on June 14, 2016, three weeks before he would take off on his second fatal car chase.

NYPD police officers arrested Perkins immediately after the July 7 crash and charges were still pending Friday morning, police said.