A Florida woman who dressed up as a clown and fatally shot another woman finally pleaded guilty to the murder more than 30 years later.
In 1990, a clown showed up at Marlene Warren’s doorstep in Wellington, Florida, holding flowers and balloons before shooting her dead. More than three decades later, Sheila Keen-Warren, the main suspect in the shooting for decades, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in a plea deal, closing the case on Tuesday.
Authorities arrested Keen-Warren in 2017 after advanced technology linked her DNA to the clown’s getaway car. She had been free until then.
Keen-Warren will only serve 16 months in prison due to her time in jail since 2017 and time off for good behavior. Prosecutors initially sought the death penalty but opted for a life sentence. Keen-Warren’s defense attorney, Greg Rosenfeld, has maintained her innocence, but outside the courtroom, he said they were thrilled with the resolution.
Marlene Warren’s son, Joe Ahrens, who witnessed his mother’s murder, watched Tuesday’s hearing over Zoom and offered a brief message for Keen-Warren, saying, “May God be with her.”
Investigators suspected Keen-Warren early on due to a tip-off that she was having an affair with Marlene Warren’s husband, Michael Warren. Keen-Warren denied the rumors, but years after the murder, she married him. Michael Warren was convicted on racketeering, grand theft, and odometer tampering charges in 1994 but was not charged in his former wife’s death.
In 2017, police arrested Keen-Warren in Virginia, where she was living under a new name with Michael Warren. She has remained in Palm Beach County Jail since then.
Keen-Warren’s defense attorneys filed motions seeking to quash fiber evidence linking her to the crime and other key evidence for the prosecutors’ case. The trial, scheduled to begin on May 12, was delayed several times from its original start date in 2020 due to COVID-19 and logistical problems in tracking down witnesses.
State Attorney Dave Aronberg applauded the prosecutor and detectives’ efforts to hold Keen-Warren accountable.
