Former college basketball star Howard Porter was robbed, beaten and dumped miles away to die after he went to a St. Paul woman's home, apparently to trade drugs and money for sex with her, according to a murder charge filed Tuesday against a St. Paul man.

Co-workers of Porter, a Ramsey County probation officer for the past 13 years, said the focus should remain on bringing the killers to justice, rather than what may have been a relapse for a man whose life had been marked by spectacular highs and lows.

On Tuesday, Rashad A. Raleigh, a 29-year-old with a history of assaults, theft and robbery, was charged with second-degree murder in Porter's death.

Porter was found May 19 in a north Minneapolis alley, severely beaten and robbed of his jewelry and other personal effects. He died eight days later without regaining consciousness.

Raleigh was an associate of a woman who lived at 389 Sherburne Av., who told police that she took Porter there after he agreed to give her crack cocaine and money in exchange for sex.

The woman, Tonya Evette Johnson, told police that after she and Porter arrived at her residence, four masked men broke in and beat Porter. She was arrested recently in connection with Porter's slaying but released without charges. Police, however, say that Raleigh may not be the only person to ultimately face murder charges.

On May 18, the night that Porter disappeared, Raleigh needed money, according to the criminal complaint. Among other things, he needed to pay a $228 fine and court costs in Ramsey County. He paid that fine on May 19 -- the day after Porter was last seen alive.

Porter, 58, was a former Villanova University basketball star who had struggled with cocaine addiction and a drug possession conviction before rehabilitation in 1989 with the help of Hazelden, near Center City, Minn. He became a Ramsey County probation and parole officer in 1995.

"I took a ride with the devil," Porter had told the Star Tribune in a 2001 interview. "And the devil picked me up and rolled me a while."

The woman who claims to have last seen him alive, Johnson, 33, also known as Tonya Washington, has a previous conviction for drug possession. Neither she nor Raleigh were ever Porter's probation clients, corrections officials said Tuesday. The court papers say that she and Porter had met for the first time on the night he was attacked.

At the probation office where Porter worked, there was gratitude on Tuesday for the arrest of a suspected killer, said Chris Crutchfield, deputy director of community relations and external affairs for Ramsey County Community Corrections. Crutchfield said because of the ongoing investigation, his office would not comment on the possibility that Porter had relapsed before he was slain.

"Howard was not on duty when this happened, and it doesn't appear to have anything to do with his job," Crutchfield said Tuesday evening. "This was a heinous, heinous crime, and we are all focused on bringing those people to justice for their vicious acts."

The complaint traces the last known movements of Porter. Anaya Neal, the daughter of Porter's fiancée, Theresa Neal, told police that he had dropped her off at an Iglehart Avenue address between 8 and 8:30 p.m. on May 18.

Porter was driving a loaner vehicle, a 2007 champagne-colored Cadillac DeVille. It was likely that he was wearing a gold-and-diamond pinky ring, a gold D-shaped ring with small diamonds, a gold diamond ring and a Mondovi watch, his fiancée told police.

Hours after Anaya Neal last saw Porter, Minneapolis police and firefighters found an unconscious man who had no identification and wore no jewelry.

It was 5:30 a.m. on May 19. The man had traumatic brain injuries and was clad only in blue shorts as he lay in an alley in the 3700 block of Girard Avenue N. He was identified as Porter the next day after Minneapolis fire personnel contacted St. Paul police, who had been looking for Porter and had asked for the public's help in locating the probation officer. His car, with blood on it, was found in St. Paul.

Porter died May 27 at North Memorial Medical Center in Robbinsdale of blunt-force trauma injuries, including to his brain.

On June 1, an anonymous caller told police that the two people responsible for Porter's death lived at 389 Sherburne Av., and one of them was Raleigh. But those people had moved, the caller said.

Police checked the residence and found it unoccupied. They could see that a carpet had been removed, and also what appeared to be blood stains at the bottom of the doorway. A neighbor told police that people had hauled many items out in garbage bags earlier that day. Police searched the house and found more blood and blood spatters throughout it, the complaint says.

Police located Johnson on June 2, and she told them that she had no involvement with Porter.

Soon, Johnson again contacted an investigator, saying she wanted to provide more information. Johnson then told police that on the night of May 18, she was street-walking on Sherburne Avenue near her apartment when a "big pretty car" pulled up. She told the black male driver -- later identified as Porter -- that they could go to her apartment for sex.

At her residence, she later told police, four masked men rushed in and threw her to the floor, then went to Porter and demanded money and drugs. She said they beat him and that "there was blood everywhere."

She was jailed on suspicion of being involved in Porter's slaying, and was later released without charges, although police said at the time that they continue to believe she is connected to the death.

Crime described in calls

As police continued to investigate, they learned from phone company records that someone at the Sherburne Avenue residence had been talking to someone at the Ramsey County Workhouse on several occasions. Such calls are recorded, so police obtained tapes from the dates in question, including a call made the same day that Porter was found severely beaten.

Police identified Raleigh as talking to a workhouse inmate and saying:

• That Johnson brought Porter to the house, where Raleigh, who needed money, robbed Porter.

• That Johnson and a person he called "Killer" were present and that Porter tried to run away, the complaint says.

• That Porter "rushed" him and "didn't go along with the program." Raleigh allegedly told Porter to "just lay down." Raleigh also said that Porter's body was found in Minneapolis, although the attack took place at the Sherburne Avenue address.

The tape also contains statements made by Johnson in which she said she wasn't "losing any sleep or getting any grey hair" over Porter's death, the complaint says.

Porter's fiancée, Theresa Neal, was unavailable for comment Tuesday evening.

"Our hearts continue to go out to the family," Crutchfield said. "This is something we think about all the time and have been working with police on from the day it happened, and continue to do that. We're very happy that they've made an arrest."

Howard Edward Porter