Global Courant 2023-04-26 08:16:29
FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida –
A clown came to Marlene Warren’s door one morning in May 1990, handed her carnations and balloons, then shot her dead in front of her son. On Tuesday, her husband’s second wife finally pleaded guilty to being the killer, closing a case that is strange even by Florida standards.
Sheila Keen-Warren, 59, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in a deal that will likely see her released from prison in no more than two years. Keen-Warren, long suspected of being the shooter, has been in jail awaiting trial for first-degree murder since 2017, when Palm Beach County sheriff’s investigators said improvements in DNA technology proven that a hair found in the clown’s getaway car came from her. However, Keen-Warren has maintained that she is not the killer.
Palm Beach County Attorney Dave Aronberg said in a statement that the plea deal has provided “some degree of justice” for Marlene Warren and her son. No public notice was given for Tuesday’s plea hearing in West Palm Beach, which would have otherwise drawn a crowd of reporters and onlookers. Instead, it was quietly settled during Circuit Judge Scott Suskauer’s lunch break after another murder trial.
“Sheila Keen Warren has finally been 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,” Aronberg said.
Her lawyer, Greg Rosenfeld, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview that “this is an incredible victory for Ms. Keen-Warren,” while insisting that she is not the killer. Keen-Warren has said she’s not the killer.
The deal requires a 12-year prison sentence, but Keen-Warren has already served six years awaiting trial. Also, Florida law allowed time off for good behavior in 1990, so Rosenfeld expects she will be released early next year.
Her trial was due to begin next month and if convicted, she would have received a life sentence. Had she received a life sentence, she would likely have been paroled after 25 years. Originally, prosecutors demanded a death sentence, but eventually dropped it.
“The state of Florida originally wanted to execute her, but now she’s going home in 10 months,” Rosenfeld said. “While it was hard to plead guilty to a crime she didn’t commit, it was kind of a good idea if there’s a guarantee that you’ll be home with your family.”
Aronberg’s office disputes Rosenfeld’s claim, saying she will face at least two more years in prison.
Marlene Warren’s son, Joseph Ahrens, followed the proceedings online. Only 21 when he saw his mother killed and now in his 50s, his only message to the court and Keen-Warren was may God be with her.
The trial has been delayed several times by the COVID-19 pandemic and fighting over evidence continues.
At the time of the shooting, Keen-Warren was an employee of Marlene Warren’s husband, Michael, at his used car parking lot. She has been his wife since 2002 – they eventually moved to Abington, Virginia, where they ran a restaurant just across the border from Tennessee.
Witnesses had told investigators in 1990 that then-Sheila Keen and Michael Warren were having an affair, though both denied this.
Over the years, detectives said, costume store employees identified Sheila Warren as the woman who bought a clown suit a few days before the murder.
And one of the two balloons — a silver one that says “You’re the Greatest” — was sold in just one store, a Publix supermarket near her home. Employees told detectives that a woman who looked like Keen-Warren bought the balloons an hour before the shooting.
The suspected getaway car was found abandoned with orange, hair-like fibers inside. The white Chrysler convertible had been reported stolen from Michael Warren’s car lot a month before the shooting. Keen-Warren and her then-husband took possession of cars for him.
Relatives told The Palm Beach Post in 2000 that Marlene Warren, who was 40 when she died, suspected her husband was having an affair and wanted to leave him. But the car lot and other property were in her name, and she was afraid of what would happen if she did.
She is said to have told her mother, “If anything happens to me, Mike did it.” He has never been charged and has denied involvement.
But Rosenfeld said the state’s case was falling apart. One DNA sample somehow showed both male and female genes, and the other could have come from one in 20 women — even from Marlene Warren, he said.
And even if that 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 car they found did not belong to the killer, although investigators insisted it did.
Aronberg admitted in his statement that there were holes in the case, saying they were caused by 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 larceny, extortion and odometer tampering. He served nearly four years in prison – a sentence his lawyers said was disproportionately long due to suspicions that he was involved in his wife’s death.
Michael Warren did not call back Tuesday to ask for comment.
