World

Sheila Keen-Warren pleads guilty in clown murder case

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. –

A clown came to Marlene Warren’s doorstep one morning in May 1990, handed her carnations and balloons, and shot her dead in front of his son. On Tuesday, her husband’s second wife finally pleaded guilty to murder, closing a case that’s strange even by Florida standards.

Sheila Keen-Warren, 59, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in a settlement that saw her release from prison in no more than two years. Long suspected of being the shooter, Keen-Warren has been jailed awaiting trial for first-degree murder since 2017, when Palm Beach County sheriff investigators said improvements in DNA technology has proven that a hair found in the clown’s getaway car is hers. However, Keen-Warren has insisted that she is not the killer.

Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg said in a statement that the plea agreement “achieves a measure of justice” for Marlene Warren and her son. No public announcement was made for Tuesday’s plea hearing in West Palm Beach, which would otherwise draw crowds of reporters and spectators. Instead, it was handled quietly during Circuit Judge Scott Suskauer’s lunch break after another murder trial.

“Sheila Keen Warren was finally forced to admit that she was the one who dressed up as a clown and took the life of an innocent victim. She will be a convicted murderer for the rest of her days. his own,” said Aronberg.

Her attorney, Greg Rosenfeld, told the Associated Press in a phone interview that “this is an incredible victory for Ms. Keen-Warren,” still insisting she was not the killer. People. Keen-Warren has said she’s not a killer.

The settlement demanded a 12-year sentence, but Keen-Warren served a 6-year sentence pending trial. Also, 1990 Florida law allows for substantial time off for good behavior, so Rosenfeld hopes she’ll be released early next year.

Her trial will begin next month and if found guilty, she will receive a life sentence. Had she received a life sentence, she could have been pardoned after serving 25 years. Initially, prosecutors sought a death sentence but eventually quashed that.

“The state of Florida originally wanted to execute her, but now she’s going home in 10 months,” Rosenfeld said. “While it’s hard to plead guilty to a crime she didn’t commit, it’s easy to have the reassurance that you’ll be at home with your family.”

Aronberg’s office denied Rosenfeld’s claims, saying she would spend at least another two years in prison.

Marlene Warren’s son, Joseph Ahrens, watched the trial online. Just 21 years old when he saw his mother murdered and now in his 50s, his only message to the court and Keen-Warren was, God be with her.

The trial has been delayed several times due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the scramble for evidence.

At the time of the shooting, Keen-Warren was an employee of Michael, Marlene Warren’s husband, at his old parking lot. Since 2002, she’s been his wife — they eventually moved to Abington, Virginia, where they run a restaurant just across the Tennessee border.

Witnesses told investigators in 1990 that Sheila Keen and Michael Warren were having an affair, though both denied it.

Detectives said that for years, costume store employees had identified Sheila Warren as the woman who purchased a clown suit days before the murder.

And one of the balloons — the silver one with the words “You’re the Greatest” — was only sold at one store, the Publix supermarket near her house. Officers told detectives that a woman who looked like Keen-Warren bought the balloons an hour before the shooting.

The getaway car is said to have been found abandoned with orange hair-like strands inside. The white Chrysler convertible is believed to have been stolen from Michael Warren’s lot a month before the shooting. Keen-Warren and her then-husband got the car back for him.

Relatives told The Palm Beach Post in 2000 that Marlene Warren, 40 when she died, suspected her husband of having an affair and wanted to leave him. But the car and other possessions were in her name, and she feared what might happen if she did.

She allegedly told her mother, “If anything were to happen to me, Mike would have done it.” He has never been charged and has denied involvement.

But Rosenfeld said the state’s case is failing. One DNA sample, he said, somehow shows both male and female genes, and the other could come from one in 20 women — even Marlene Warren.

And even if that strand of hair came from Keen-Warren, it could have been deposited before the car was reported stolen. He said Ahrens and another witness also told detectives that the vehicle deputies found was not the killer’s, although investigators insisted it was.

Aronberg, in his statement, acknowledged that there were holes in the case, saying they were due to the three decades it took to bring the case to trial, including the deaths of key witnesses.

Michael Warren was convicted in 1994 of grand theft, fraud and tampering with odometers. He served nearly four years in prison – a punishment that his then-attorneys said was too long over suspicions that he was involved in his wife’s death.

Michael Warren did not call back on Tuesday seeking comment.



Source by [author_name]

news7h

News7h: Update the world's latest breaking news online of the day, breaking news, politics, society today, international mainstream news .Updated news 24/7: Entertainment, Sports...at the World everyday world. Hot news, images, video clips that are updated quickly and reliably

Related Articles

Back to top button