by Alfonso A. Castillo
NEWSDAY

Since being laid off from his job as a cargo worker sev­eral years ago, Rus­sell Defre­itas has lived a meek exis­tence — at times sleep­ing in trains and try­ing to eke out a liv­ing run­ning two-bit scams, sell­ing incense on street cor­ners and col­lect­ing wel­fare, acquain­tances said.

For the past sev­eral years, Defre­itas, 63, who once wowed jazz con­nois­seurs with his sax­o­phone prowess, had been unable to scrape together enough money to put down any real roots, or even track down his estranged daugh­ter, those who knew him said yesterday.

He wasn’t the type of per­son, they said, who could have pulled off a ter­ror plot to blow up a fuel pipeline at Kennedy Airport.

“This is a guy — his car wouldn’t start, and I’d have to start his car,” said Trevor Watts, a for­mer neigh­bor in Brooklyn.

“He was a trick­ster,” said Watts. “But he out-tricked him­self this time.”

Defre­itas’ rel­a­tives could not be reached yes­ter­day. His court-appointed attor­ney, Andrew Carter, did not return a call for comment.

Friends said Defre­itas came to New York from his native George­town, Guyana, more than 25 years ago. He once lived in Rock­away with his wife and at least one daugh­ter, but has been estranged from them for sev­eral years, they said.

Defre­itas was hired by a cargo trans­porta­tion com­pany at Kennedy Air­port, Watts said. Doc­u­ments show he was employed as a “trainee super­vi­sor” in 2001 with Ever­green Eagle, a sub­sidiary of Oregon-based Ever­green Inter­na­tional Avi­a­tion. Offi­cials there declined to comment.

Defre­itas’ father was a well-known big band leader in Guyana, said one for­mer acquain­tance liv­ing in Queens, who knew Defre­itas from when both lived in George­town. Defre­itas some­times moon­lighted play­ing sax at jazz clubs.

“Peo­ple who vis­ited night­clubs heard him play, they said he was damn good,” said the man, 73 — a retired truck dri­ver who asked that he not be named.

At his core, how­ever, Defre­itas was a hap­less hus­tler, always look­ing for an angle, said Watts, who first met the ter­ror sus­pect more than 10 years ago when they lived across the street from each other on Albany Avenue in Brook­lyn. He later moved to a place on North Con­duit Boule­vard in Jamaica that was “falling apart.”

After injur­ing his back in a car acci­dent with a gypsy cab, Defre­itas wore a back brace and col­lected wel­fare ben­e­fits, Watts said. Before long, he was unem­ployed and home­less, and came to Watts look­ing for some help about six years ago.

“He had no place to go. He had just come back from Guyana and was sleep­ing on the train,” said Watts, who agreed to let Defre­itas store a trunk full of clothes and receive his mail at Watts’ home.

Defre­itas had alien­ated one of his broth­ers in a dis­pute over a refrig­er­a­tor that Defre­itas gave him, and later asked for it back, Watts said. That brother has since died. Defre­itas also told Watts he wanted to use the Inter­net to track down his estranged daugh­ter, but couldn’t afford to do so.

Acquain­tances said that in recent years Defre­itas made much of his money ship­ping junk appli­ances, car parts and any­thing else he could get his hands on to Guyana, where he would sell them. He also some­times sold books and incense on Jamaica street cor­ners, his retired truck-driver coun­try­man said.

Three years ago, Watts said he got a phone call from Defre­itas ask­ing whether any mail had come for him.

“That was the last I heard of him — until yes­ter­day,” said Watts, who learned Sat­ur­day that his for­mer friend had been arrested at a Brook­lyn diner.

“When I heard ... I thought, ‘Who was he try­ing to hus­tle a din­ner out of?’” Watts said.