ROAD RAGE: Manuel Velasco is freaked out after giving a ride to Charles Kelley (inset) — who in the past allegedly repaid generosity with murder. (
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He rode with the devil and lived to tell the tale.
A Long Island trucker picked up a hitchhiker in Tennessee and drove him all the way to New York with no clue his companion had a deadly secret — he is wanted for murder.
Manuel Velasco, 37, even had the alleged killer over for dinner at his family’s house for two nights, sharing meals of pork chops and steak with his wife and three young kids.
“The last thing I was expecting was for this guy to be a killer. He was so respectful,” Velasco said.
The trucker picked up Charles Kelley, 52, on Sunday at a truck stop near Kingsport, Tenn., and their multistate ride ended Thursday when cops stopped the big rig at the George Washington Bridge after it blew through an E-ZPass toll gate.
That’s when Velasco learned that Kelley — beside whom he slept in the truck for one night — was indicted for murder in Tennessee and has a lengthy rap sheet going back to 1986 that includes child sex abuse.
Kelley, who also goes by the name “Randy,” allegedly bludgeoned to death a man who allowed him to crash on his couch for a few nights in May.
After the murder, Kelley fled the scene in a pickup truck belonging to victim Johnny Arwood, 47.
Velasco said he got a bad vibe from Kelley when he first picked him up, but the dangerous drifter sold him a sob story about how he had lost his construction job and his son had recently died.
“He said his son was killed four months ago and everything was going bad,” said Velasco. “I felt bad for him. He said he was trying to get a new life.”
They were supposed to part in Virginia, where Kelley said he had family, but the alleged killer ended up tagging along all the way up to Elmont, LI.
Velasco paid Kelley to help him unload the truck along the way and said he slept in the rig parked outside the house.
The two became friends on the journey — and Velasco even offered to help Kelley find a job as a trucker.
But their friendship came to an abrupt end on the George Washington Bridge.
Port Authority cops said that after the truck was pulled over, they spotted a magnetic strip over the rear license plate that at first appeared to be designed to evade tolls. The driver also allegedly had a knife in the truck.
When cops questioned the pair, their stories didn’t match up. Kelley said he worked for Velasco, which the trucker denied. They also gave different answers to how long they had been together.
“I learned a lesson. I don’t think I’ll pick up a stranger again,” Velasco. said. “My wife is not happy about what happened. She said, ‘I don’t even want to live with you,’ because she’s scared.”
Additional reporting by Philip Messing & Jennifer Bain