The murder trial of a woman accused of dressing as a clown during the killing of another woman in Palm Beach County nearly 30 years ago will begin early next year, a judge said on Wednesday.
Jury selection will begin on Jan. 31, 2020 in the first-degree murder trial of 55-year-old Sheila Keen Warren, who was arrested in 2017 in the May 1990 killing of Marlene Warren, WPTV reported.
Marlene Warren was killed outside her Wellington home by a person dressed as a clown who handed her carnations and two foil balloons. Her son, who witnessed the killing, said she replied, "How pretty!" The clown then pulled a handgun, shot her in the face and drove away. Marlene Warren died two days later.
Detectives publicly identified Sheila Keen, who worked for Michael Warren, as their primary suspect shortly after the killing but say they lacked sufficient evidence to assure conviction without the DNA test. Keen later married Michael Warren in 2002.
Witnesses told investigators in 1990 that Keen and Michael Warren were having an affair, though both denied it. Costume shop employees identified Keen as the woman who had bought a clown costume a few days earlier.
And one of the two balloons — a silver one that read, "You're the Greatest" — was sold at only one store, a Publix supermarket near her home. Employees told detectives a woman who looked like Keen had bought the balloons an hour before the shooting.
The presumed getaway car was found abandoned with orange, hair-like fibers inside. The white Chrysler convertible had been reported stolen from Michael Warren's car lot a month before the shooting. Sheila Warren and her then-husband repossessed cars for him.
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Relatives told The Palm Beach Post in 2000 that Marlene Warren, who was 40 when she died, suspected her husband was having an affair and wanted to leave him. But the car lot and other properties were in her name, and she feared what might happen if she did.
She allegedly told her mother, "If anything happens to me, Mike done it."
Michael and Sheila Warren lived in Virginia and sold a popular restaurant in Kingsport, Tennessee around the time of her arrest.
Sheila Keen Warren has pleaded not guilty. Prosecutors have announced they are seeking the death penalty in the case.
