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Home | Local + Metro | West Metro

Widow tells of grief as Porter killer gets life

Rashad Raleigh participated in the beating death of a Ramsey County probation officer, who once was a college basketball star.

By TERRY COLLINS, Star Tribune

Last update: September 9, 2008 - 1:27 PM

Rashad Raleigh didn't want to hear it.

But Theresa Neal, the widow of Howard Porter, said she waited 477 days for this moment to speak in front of the killer.

She got her way Monday after Hennepin County District Judge George McGunnigle denied Raleigh's request to be out of the courtroom for the victim impact statements before he was sentenced to life in prison without parole for Porter's murder.

"Our lives have been shattered. Our hearts have been broken, and parts of us have been laid to rest with Howard," Neal tearfully said in a packed courtroom. "It will never change. Howard will never return to me."

Last month, Raleigh, 29, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder for his role in the May 2007 slaying of Porter, 58, the former Villanova basketball star who was a Ramsey County probation officer.

Tonya E. Johnson pleaded guilty in February to aiding and abetting. She admitted that she had lured Porter to a St. Paul house promising sex, as a ruse for robbing him. Raleigh said Johnson and Porter were engaged in a sex act when he burst in with a gun. Johnson, Raleigh and a third person, Fredquinzo (Snake Eyes) King, helped beat Porter.

Porter, who had struggled and beaten a cocaine addiction, was later dumped in a north Minneapolis alley.

He died in a hospital eight days after being discovered brutally beaten.

Jury selection for King's first-degree murder trial begins today in Hennepin County.

In exchange for Raleigh's guilty plea, he will not be prosecuted by Ramsey County for his role in the triple slayings of a St. Paul woman, her boyfriend and daughter in March 2007.

In those killings, which took place two months before Porter's murder, intruders broke into a home occupied by a family of five and fatally shot Maria McLay, 32, her boyfriend, Otahl Saunders, and her 15-year-old daughter, Brittany Kekedakis, in the head. Two younger children escaped.

Raleigh's charge of murder during an aggravated robbery was dismissed because of his plea in the Porter case. He could still face federal charges.

Raleigh's sentencing on Monday was delayed briefly when his attorney, Dan O'Brien, requested that Raleigh not be present during the statements from Porter's family and friends. He claimed that their statements would be similar to a "therapy session."

But Assistant County Attorney Mike Furnstahl argued that the courtroom is a "temple of justice" and that they should be allowed to speak with Raleigh there. The judge agreed.

Red-eyed and expressionless, a handcuffed Raleigh listened to Neal and three others describe how Porter's death has affected them.

The Rev. Gloria Roach-Thomas, who led a prayer outside the courtroom with more than two-dozen Porter supporters, said his death was felt across the country with more than 2,500 people attending services for him in three states.

"Your honor, everybody pays," she said. "It affects all of us."

She added that Porter's widow, Neal, has been unable to sleep for more than three hours a night since his death.

Earlier, Neal said her husband's killing had made her question her faith.

"How do I resolve that I be a good Christian, a good person and a productive citizen in the community?" she said. "I have to be resolved to be all of that -- a good Christian, a good person and a good community citizen. "

Angela Williams, Porter's sister, said her brother valiantly assumed the role as head of the family after their mother died in 1997. She said he was the one who always was there with "a hug or an 'I love you.'"

Neal wept as several Porter supporters cried in the crowded courtroom.

Eventually, McGunnigle asked Raleigh if he wanted to address the court before his sentence was read.

He replied simply, "No."

Terry Collins • 612-673-1790

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