Woman who pleaded guilty to 1990 'clown' murder released from Florida prison

The woman who pleaded guilty to dressing as a clown and fatally shooting the wife of a man she later would marry has been released from prison, according to Florida Department of Corrections records.

Sheila Keen-Warren, 61, was released from custody on Saturday, Nov. 2, after serving nearly 18 months, state records show. She entered her plea to second-degree murder in April 2023, more than 30 years after investigators found Marlene Warren shot at her Wellington Aero Club home near West Palm Beach, Florida.

The May 26, 1990, fatal shooting is one of Palm Beach County's most notorious murder cases, drawing international attention. Authorities said Warren opened the door and was greeted by Keen-Warren, who was dressed in a clown suit and carrying balloons, flowers and a gun.

Keen-Warren was arrested nearly three decades later in 2017 at her home in Virginia after investigators cited new evidence linking her to the crime. In exchange for her plea, she received a 12-year prison sentence, with credit for the five and a half years she spent in jail while awaiting trial.

Keen-Warren has maintained her innocence despite taking the plea, her attorney saying at the time that she chose to take the state's offer rather than risk a potential life sentence had the case gone to trial.

"We are absolutely thrilled that Ms. Keen-Warren has been released from prison and is returning to her family," her attorney, Greg Rosenfeld, said in a statement to The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Network. "As we've stated from the beginning, she did not commit this crime."

However, Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg said Keen-Warren will forever be linked to Marlene Warren's murder.

“Sheila Keen-Warren will always be an admitted convicted murderer and will wear that stain for every day for the rest of her life," he said in a statement to The Post.

Rosenfeld told The Post in 2023 that Keen-Warren would likely spend about 16 months in prison, citing gain time and Florida sentencing laws that existed at the time of Marlene Warren's murder.

Gain time incentivizes good behavior among inmates, promising to shave time off a person's sentence for each month they remain incarcerated without incident. Current state law requires that people serve at least 85% of their sentences, limiting the amount of gain time a person can accrue, but Keen-Warren was not subject to laws enacted after the crime.

New evidence linked Sheila Keen-Warren to 1990 Wellington 'clown' murder, investigators said

Investigators suspected Keen-Warren of the murder early on, tipped off by her coworkers that she was having an affair with Marlene Warren's husband, Michael. Keen-Warren worked at a car dealership owned by Michael Warren and took care of rental properties owned by Michael and Marlene.

She denied rumors of having an affair with Michael but married him years later. The couple was living in Virginia at the time of Keen-Warren's arrest.

Keen-Warren was formally linked to Marlene Warren's murder after a Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office detective who took over the case in 2013 discovered a previously unseen 6- to 8-inch fiber among the crime-scene evidence. Prosecutors later argued that the fiber linked Keen-Warren to the murder.

The murder was the subject of a two-hour ABC "20/20" documentary in May 2023, a month after Warren entered her plea.

Julius Whigham II is a criminal justice and public safety reporter for The Palm Beach Post. You can reach him at jwhigham@pbpost.com and follow him on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, at @JuliusWhigham. Help support our work: Subscribe today.