At first, it appeared Miguel Ramos lost his life over a cooked chicken and a bicycle, which would have been senseless enough. But it was money the four teens who robbed him were after, authorities said, and they left Ramos to die in a dark northwest Houston alley after shooting him and taking everything he had - a single, torn dollar bill.

Ramos, a 32-year-old homeless man who worked hard when he could find it and drank beer with a group of other homeless men who hung out along a gritty stretch of Hempstead Highway near the intersection with 34th Street, wasn't a target on the night of April 4.

The four teenagers who were charged with capital murder Tuesday in the slaying were looking for prostitutes to rob that night but couldn't find any, police said.

At about 10:30, heavily armed and cruising around in a dark green Honda, they happened to see Ramos at Tezzie's Mesquite Grill, a food truck parked on the corner, and figured if he was buying a chicken, he would have money.

They were wrong.

Bought on credit

Marguerite Manriquez, the owner of the truck, said she knew Ramos. He was a good man and she trusted him. That night she sold him a chicken on credit because he didn't have any money.

"He was a very, very decent guy," Manriquez said.

Carlos Daniel Fernandez, 18, Michael Alexander Correa, 17, and Marilyn Ashley Villarreal, 18, are charged with capital murder in Ramos' death. A 16-year-old girl will be referred to Harris County Juvenile Probation authorities on a capital murder charge.

When police first arrived on the scene that night, they thought Ramos and two of his friends had been targeted because of the chicken and the bicycle one of them had.

But as the investigation unfolded it emerged the teens had gone looking for money because Correa was out of work and he needed supplies for his 1-year-old baby, said Brian Harris, a sergeant with the Houston Police Department homicide division.

Villarreal was driving the car. Fernandez had a .25 pistol; Correa a .38. The 16-year-old girl was in the back with a shotgun, police said.

Fernandez and Correa confronted Ramos and his two friends in an alley leading to a rundown trailer park where the homeless men squatted in an abandoned trailer.

According to the juvenile girl, two of the men started fighting with Fernandez and Correa. She got out of the car and fired the shotgun at them, but missed.

The girl told police that Fernandez then shot Ramos in the heart, and the teens fled.

'It hurts'

A witness, Enrique Jose Avila, told police he ran over to Ramos, his friend, who was lying on the ground. Ramos said "it hurts" and then stopped breathing, the witness said.

Harris said the break in the case came four days after Ramos' slaying when the 16-year-old girl was shot in the leg with her own shotgun during a home invasion allegedly involving Fernandez, who is her boyfriend, and another man.

Soon, police said, all had admitted their roles in the killing. Harris said police believe the quartet is responsible for as many as a dozen home invasions and robberies since March. 1.

A white cross with a wreath on it is still in the alley where Ramos died. It has the inscription Miguel el ojitos - Miguel the little eyes.

'A giving man'

Peter Welz, who described himself as temporarily homeless, had nothing but praise for Ramos.

On Tuesday, he was sitting outside the convenience store on the corner, nursing a hand he broke on the jaw of another man during a whiskey-induced fight.

"Miguel was damned good man," he said. "He liked to drink beer, but he was a giving man. If he saw you and you were down and out, he'd help you out."

Harris said the 16-year-old girl, who is less than 5 feet tall and weighs about 90 pounds, told them they had gotten $2 from Ramos in the robbery. She was wrong.

"They killed a man for a one dollar bill torn in half," he said.

tony.freemantle@chron.com