A woman pleaded guilty on Tuesday to killing her husband’s then-wife while wearing a clown costume and pretending to deliver flowers and balloons.
The defendant, Sheila Keen-Warren, 57, took a deal for a lesser-included charge of second-degree murder. The judge sentenced her to 12 years behind bars, with credit for time served of 2,039 days, or more than 5 1/2 years.
“Thirty-three years after the murder of Marlene Warren, today we have obtained a measure of justice with the conviction and sentencing of her killer,” Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg said in a statement.
Prosecutors in Palm Beach County, Florida, said that it was Keen-Warren who wore a clown costume and makeup to the home of Marlene Warren, 40, on May 26, 1990. The victim answered the door. The defendant, then known under the last name Keen, gave her victim balloons and flowers before shooting her in the face and driving off in a white Chrysler LeBaron.
That vehicle was found several days later in a Winn-Dixie parking lot, with trace evidence including long brown human hairs and “orange-like fibers” that matched similar hair and fibers later found in Keen-Warren’s apartment. The LeBaron belonged to A Bargain Motors, a local dealership belonging to Marlene Warren’s husband, Michael Warren. Keen was a repossession agent who operated her own company and did jobs for the husband.
Prosecutors said there are witnesses who can place her and Michael Warren together in the LeBaron in the months leading up to Marlene Warren’s death. They were also seen going in and out of Keen’s apartment and engaged in “intimate interactions.”
Prosecutors said that witnesses picked Keen-Warren from a photo array as the person who purchased a clown outfit — sans shoes — and makeup from a costume shop. One person who spoke with investigators said a person resembling Keen-Warren purchased similar balloons and flowers the morning of the murder, though this person did not make a positive identification at the time, authorities said.
The defendant ended up marrying Michael Warren in August 2002. The couple ran a restaurant together in Tennessee and lived in Virginia until Keen-Warren’s arrest in September 2017.
“The decision to negotiate a guilty plea was made after considering the age of this 33-year-old case, particularly the death of key witnesses,” Aronberg said in his statement. “For example, the death of the lead crime scene investigator broke the chain of custody for critical evidence that could no longer be authenticated.”
Marlene Warren’s son, Joseph Ahrens, briefly spoke at the hearing on Tuesday and confirmed he approved the terms of the plea deal. Nonetheless, he said he saw no remorse throughout the proceedings against Keen-Warren.
Ahrens, then 22, was at the home eating breakfast with his mother when the murder happened.
Keen-Warren was sentenced to 12 years in prison with credit for time already served in jail since her 2017 arrest.
— Law&Crime Network (@LawCrimeNetwork) April 25, 2023
Authorities never charged Michael Warren in his wife’s death.
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