FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.—A clown came to Marlene Warren’s door on a May morning in 1990, handed her carnations and balloons and then shot her dead in front of her son. On Tuesday, her husband’s second wife finally pleaded guilty to being the killer, closing a case that is strange even by Florida standards.
Sheila Keen-Warren, 59, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in a deal that will likely see her released from prison in no more than two years. Long suspected of being the shooter, Keen-Warren has been jailed awaiting trial for first-degree murder since 2017, when Palm Beach County sheriff’s investigators said improvements in DNA technology proved that a hair found in the clown’s getaway car came from her. Keen-Warren has insisted, however, that she is not the killer.