In 1990, Sheila Keen-Warren dressed as a clown and killed the wife of a man she later married, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the death of Marlene Warren, and was released from prison Saturday after serving 18 months there. The case was "strange even by Florida standards," writes Terry Spencer, and the short term was due to Keen-Warren, 61, having already spent seven years inside waiting for her trial and credit for good behaviour.
Keen-Warren, who has maintained her innocence even after her plea, was sentenced to 12 years in prison. But she had been in custody for seven years since her arrest in 2017, and Florida's law in 1990 allowed significant credit for good behavior. It had been expected she would be released in about two years.
"Sheila Keen-Warren will always be an admitted convicted murderer and will wear that stain for every day for the rest of her life," Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg said in a statement Saturday.
Greg Rosenfeld, Keen-Warren's attorney, has said she only took the plea deal because she would be released in less than two years and had been facing a life sentence if convicted at trial.
I had expected to find a tragic and mundane story behind the spectacular headline, but no, this is overtly nuts:
Marlene Warren's son, Joseph Ahrens, and his friends were at home when they said a person dressed as a clown rang the door bell. He said that when his mom answered, the clown handed her some balloons. After she responded, "How nice," the clown pulled a gun and shot her in the face before fleeing….
…costume shop employees identified Sheila Warren as the woman who had bought a clown suit a few days before the killing…
…getaway car was found abandoned with orange, hair-like fibers inside…
The secret is not that Florida is crazy, it's that the world is crazy and Florida just has the best public records act.
