Florida’s killer clown case finally ends with plea deal

2023-04-27 09:15:35 Written by Alex

Over 30 years ago, a woman dressed up as a clown and fatally shot her husband's ex-wife at her home in Florida. Recently, the woman admitted to committing the crime, although her lawyer maintains that she is innocent.

On Tuesday, Sheila Keen Warren, aged 59, entered a guilty plea to second-degree murder in a Palm Beach County court. This plea deal was agreed upon several weeks prior to the commencement of her trial. Warren had been taken into custody in 2017 after being accused of killing Marlene Warren in 1990. The victim had been shot in the face upon answering her front door in Wellington and subsequently passed away within two days.

During her court appearance on Tuesday, Keen Warren retracted her previous not guilty plea and entered a guilty plea instead. Her attorney, Greg Rosenfeld, revealed to reporters outside the courtroom that despite the plea deal calling for a 12-year imprisonment term, he expects his client to be released in 10 months. Had Keen Warren been found guilty, she could have faced life imprisonment.

Judge Scott Suskauer acknowledged that Keen Warren had been incarcerated since her arrest and granted her a total of 2,039 days credit towards her sentence as part of the plea agreement.

Keen Warren's attorney, Greg Rosenfeld, maintained his client's innocence in the crime but still referred to the plea deal as a substantial win for her. "Despite denying her involvement, this is a major achievement for our client," Rosenfeld stated.
 

"It was an incredibly hard decision for our client, saying you did something that you didn't do," Rosenfeld said. "I mean, nothing's harder than that."

"Our client wanted to go home," he added.

At the hearing, prosecutors presented evidence that would have been used to implicate Keen Warren in the deadly shooting that took place on May 26, 1990. This included witness accounts from employees at a nearby costume store who claimed to have seen her purchasing a clown costume and wig around two days before the incident.

According to Palm Beach County Assistant State Attorney Reid Scott, individuals present at the scene of the crime saw "a clown visit the front door, present Miss Warren with flowers and balloons, and then shoot her in the face." The clown then drove away in a white Chrysler LeBaron.

Around four days after the incident, a white Chrysler LeBaron was discovered in a Winn-Dixie parking lot with "trace evidence" that included long brown human hairs and what authorities described as artificial orange fibers. Palm Beach County Assistant State Attorney Reid Scott revealed that a search of Keen Warren's residence at the time had yielded comparable fibers.

Prosecutors revealed that Keen Warren was employed as a repossession agent during the time of the homicide, and her job duties involved repossessing automobiles on behalf of the victim's husband. The husband was operating a used car and rental business at the time.

Prosecutors stated that Keen Warren and the victim's husband, Michael Warren, went on to co-own a restaurant in Tennessee and eventually married in 2002. The couple resided in Abingdon, Virginia until Keen Warren's detainment in 2017.

According to Reid, the evidence presented in the case "strongly suggests" that Keen Warren was responsible for the crime and that a jury would likely find her guilty if the case went to trial.

During the court proceedings, the judge asked Keen Warren and her attorney if they were aware of any physical evidence that could clear her of the charges, and both responded in the negative.

Authorities revealed that Warren's son, Joseph Ahrens, was present in the house when the shooting occurred. Ahrens confirmed to Judge Suskauer that he agreed with the terms of the plea bargain.

 

"The only thing I want to say is, all through this trial, I didn't see any remorse," Ahrens told the court while appearing remotely.

"God be with her," he added.

 

In 2014, the Cold Case Unit of the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office reopened the investigation into the homicide. Through witness interviews and further DNA testing, investigators were able to establish probable cause connecting Keen Warren to the crime. A grand jury issued a true bill for first-degree murder a month before her arrest in September 2017, following the reopening of the case.

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