Sheila Keen-Warren is charged in the 1990 Florida murder of Marlene Warren, who was shot and killed at her Wellington, Florida. Keen-Warren was arrested in 2017 near her home in Southwest Virginia. She is the former co-owner of the Purple Cow, a Kingsport eatery.
Sheila Keen-Warren is charged in the 1990 Florida murder of Marlene Warren, who was shot and killed at her Wellington, Florida. Keen-Warren was arrested in 2017 near her home in Southwest Virginia. She is the former co-owner of the Purple Cow, a Kingsport eatery.
ABINDGON — An Abingdon woman accused of dressing up as a clown and fatally shooting the wife of a man she later married is expected to return to court before Christmas in Florida.
Shelia Keen-Warren, who was arrested near her home in Southwest Virginia in 2017 — 27 years after Marlene Warren, 40, was shot at her home in Florida — remains incarcerated.
Recently, Keen-Warren’s attorneys asked prosecutors to release a “clown sighting file.” After learning about the file, defense attorneys in a motion asked for a delay in the first-degree murder trial, which was scheduled to start this fall. The jury trial was canceled, and a status hearing is scheduled for Dec. 22.
The “clown sighting file” contains information about other clown sighting leads at the time in 1990, the year Marlene Warren was gunned down at her front door in Palm Beach County. The file consists of names, addresses or phone numbers of 40 leads, according to the motion.
“Needless to say, this will take the defense considerable time and resources to investigate,” the defense attorneys said.
Due to her extended stay in a Florida jail, which has resulted from numerous delays since her arrest, defense attorneys also asked the judge for a pretrial release. The judge ultimately denied that request.
In May 1990, Marlene Warren was shot in the face by someone wearing an orange wig, red nose and white face paint, who handed her carnations and foil balloons after she answered the door.
Keen-Warren, an employee of Marlene Warren’s husband, Michael, was considered a person of interest early on, authorities said. The two later married in Las Vegas, police said.
In 2017, detectives said advances in DNA technology, combined with evidence gathered in 1990, showed Keen-Warren was the killer in what has been dubbed the Killer Clown case.
Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office detectives, with help from deputies with the Washington County Sheriff’s Office, arrested Keen-Warren on Sept. 26, 2017. Keen-Warren was arrested during a traffic stop on Good Hope Road, not far from her home in an upscale neighborhood at South Holston Lake.
Keen-Warren, who once operated the Purple Cow restaurant in Kingsport, has pleaded not guilty, and her attorneys have repeatedly said she is innocent.
