Left: Sheila Keen-Warren in clown makeup (Office of State Attorney 15th Judicial Circuit/Law&Crime). Right: Keen-Warren booking photo (Florida Department of Corrections).
A woman in Florida who dressed up as a clown and murdered the wife of her current husband — while she and him were unmarried and allegedly having an affair — was released from prison over the weekend after copping a plea deal last year.
Sheila Keen-Warren, 61, is officially free after spending seven years behind bars following her arrest in 2017 for the decades-old killing in Palm Beach County, according to Florida Department of Corrections officials.
Records viewed by Law&Crime show that she began serving a 12-year sentence on May 16, 2023, for the fatal shooting of 40-year-old Marlene Warren and was credited for time served and good behavior, leading to her release on Saturday.
The sparked numerous headlines and articles about Keen-Warren — dubbing her Florida’s “killer clown” — who managed to get a first-degree murder charge dropped down to second-degree thanks to issues with the DNA samples, dead witnesses and other problems that Palm Beach prosecutors reportedly faced before trial.
Keen-Warren, despite accepting a plea, has maintained her innocence while behind bars.
“We are absolutely thrilled that Ms. Keen-Warren has been released from prison and is returning to her family,” her attorney, Greg Rosenfeld, told local NBC affiliate WTVJ. “As we’ve stated from the beginning, she did not commit this crime.”
Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg sang a much different tune about Keen-Warren in his response to her release, telling WTVJ: “Sheila Keen-Warren will always be an admitted convicted murderer and will wear that stain for every day for the rest of her life.”
Before her plea deal, authorities alleged that Keen-Warren wore a clown costume and clown makeup to the home of Marlene Warren on May 26, 1990, to deliver a set of balloons and flowers to her. Keen-Warren went to the front door and rang Marlene Warren’s doorbell, prompting the woman to answer and accept her gifts before being shot in the face by Keen-Warren.
“How nice,” Marlene Warren reportedly told the clown killer before getting blasted, per WTVJ.
Keen-Warren’s connection to Marlene Warren stemmed from an alleged relationship that Keen-Warren was said to be having with Marlene Warren’s husband at the time, Michael Warren, with family and friends telling local media that Marlene Warren had found out about it.
This alleged affair later blossomed into a marriage after Marlene Warren’s death, per reports.
One of the key pieces of evidence against Keen-Warren, according to prosecutors, was an alleged getaway car that she ditched after being seen in it earlier at a Publix grocery store. Orange hair fibers were allegedly found inside the vehicle, along with DNA samples. But the genes turned out to be both male and female.
Another major issue with the car was that two witnesses, including Marlene Warren’s son — who was home at the time of the shooting — told police they didn’t believe it belonged to the person who shot Marlene Warren and sped away.
An employee at the restaurant run by Marlene Warren and Michael Warren, meanwhile, told detectives that Keen-Warren — who worked at the restaurant as a waitress — had dressed up as a clown one year for Halloween, and provided investigators with a picture.
Attempts to reach Keen-Warren’s lawyer for comment on Monday were unsuccessful.
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