FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — A girl who pleaded responsible to dressing as a clown and killing the spouse of a person she later married in 1990 was launched from jail Saturday, ending an odd case even for Florida requirements.
Sheila Keen-Warren, 61, was launched 18 months later she pleaded guilty to second-degree homicide within the killing of Marlene Warren, Florida Department of Corrections data present. The plea settlement got here shortly earlier than the trial started.
Keen-Warren, who maintained her innocence even after her plea, was sentenced to 12 years in jail. But she had been in custody for seven years since her arrest in 2017, and Florida regulation in 1990 gave vital credit score for good habits. She was anticipated to be launched in about two years.
“Sheila Keen-Warren will at all times be a convicted assassin and can carry that stain every single day for the remainder of her life,” Palm Beach County State’s Attorney Dave Aronberg stated in an announcement Saturday.
Greg Rosenfeld, Keen-Warren’s legal professional, stated she accepted the plea deal solely as a result of she could be launched in lower than two years and will face life in jail if convicted at trial.
“We are completely thrilled that Ms. Keen-Warren has been launched from jail and is returning to her household. As we now have said from the start, he didn’t commit this crime,” he stated in a textual content message Saturday.
Marlene Warren’s son, Joseph Ahrens, and his associates had been at residence once they stated an individual dressed as a clown rang the doorbell. She stated when her mom answered, the clown handed her some balloons. After she replied, “How cute,” the clown pulled out a gun and shot her within the face earlier than fleeing.
Palm Beach County sheriff’s detectives had lengthy suspected Keen-Warren of the killing, however she wasn’t arrested till 27 years later, once they stated improved DNA testing linked her to proof discovered within the getaway automobile. Rosenfeld referred to as this proof weak.
At the time of the taking pictures, Keen-Warren was an worker of Marlene Warren’s husband, Michael, at his used automobile yard. She has been his spouse since 2002: they ultimately moved to Abington, Virginia, the place they ran a restaurant simply throughout the border from Tennessee.
Witnesses instructed investigators in 1990 that then-Sheila Keen and Michael Warren had been having an affair, though each denied it.
Over the years, investigators stated, costume retailer workers recognized Sheila Warren as the girl who had purchased a clown costume days earlier than the homicide.
And one of many two balloons — a silver one studying “You’re the Greatest” — was offered at just one retailer, a Publix grocery store close to Keen-Warren’s residence. Employees instructed investigators {that a} lady who appeared like Keen-Warren had purchased the balloons an hour earlier than the taking pictures.
The alleged getaway automobile was discovered deserted with orange hair-like fibers inside. The white Chrysler convertible had been reported stolen from Michael Warren’s lot a month earlier than the taking pictures. Keen-Warren and her then-husband took the automobiles again for him.
Relatives instructed the Palm Beach Post in 2000 that Marlene Warren, who was 40 when she died, suspected her husband was having an affair and wished to depart him. But the parking zone and different properties had been in his identify, and he feared what may occur if he did.
He allegedly instructed his mom, “If something occurs to me, Mike did it.” He was by no means charged and denied involvement.
But Rosenfeld stated final yr that the state’s case was falling aside. One DNA pattern in some way confirmed each female and male genes, he stated, and the opposite could have come from one in 20 ladies.
And even when that hair got here from Keen-Warren, it may have been deposited earlier than the automobile was reported stolen. He stated Marlene Warren’s son and one other witness additionally instructed investigators that the automobile discovered was not the killer’s, regardless that investigators insisted it was.
Aronberg final yr admitted there have been holes within the case, saying they had been brought on by the three many years it took to get to trial, together with the deaths of key witnesses.
Michael Warren was convicted in 1994 of grand larceny, racketeering and odometer tampering. He served almost 4 years in jail — a punishment that his then-lawyers stated was disproportionately lengthy due to suspicions that he was concerned in his spouse’s demise.
He didn’t reply to a telephone message left Saturday.
