Transient Admits Killing ‘Bicycle Man’

A transient charged with killing an 84-year-old man known in his neighborhood for fixing bicycles pleaded guilty Wednesday to second-degree murder.

Robert Miller, 41, entered his guilty plea on the day his case was to have been assigned to a courtroom for trial.

Romie Hall, nicknamed the “Bicycle Man” in his Southeast San Diego neighborhood, was slain Jan. 2.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Gordon Davis said that Miller and another person who has not been arrested took Hall’s television set, a microwave oven, a can opener and $8.

Hall’s hands were tied behind his back, and the elderly man, who had oxygen tanks in his house to help him breathe, was gagged, said Davis.

Sentencing was set for July 25.

Miller could be sentenced to a maximum of 15 years to life and fined $10,000.