Woman accused as ‘killer clown’ seeks freedom before trial

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Attorneys for a woman accused of being a killer clown challenged evidence and urged a South Florida judge Tuesday to grant her release from jail on bond ahead of a trial set for September. They insist the menacing clown was a man.

It’s been 3 1/2 years since Palm Beach County authorities charged Sheila Keen Warren, 57, with first-degree murder in the May 26, 1990, slaying of Marlene Warren, 40, at the victim’s Wellington estate home. Detectives credited a DNA link with making the arrest possible in what was one of the region’s most shocking crimes.

Prosecutors say Sheila wore a orange yellow wig and clown costume, though no funny shoes, when she shot Marlene once in the face at close range and got away in a stolen car. They say Sheila was then having an affair with Marlene’s husband, Michael, culminating in the marriage of Sheila and Michael a dozen years later.

At the end of Tuesday’s hearing, Circuit Judge Scott Suskauer asked the lawyers on both sides to file written closing arguments by April 13. The proceedings — which served as a preview of the trial — were streamed live over Zoom, with listed attendees including Michael Warren and Sheila’s mother, Mary Sheltra.

The judge asked the defense counsel to clarify their contention that that clown was a man, considering the fact that the shooter was wearing white makeup and a costume.

“Tell me how that’s possible,” Suskauer instructed.

Earlier, Sheila’s lawyers highlighted statements provided by Marlene’s son, Joseph Ahrens, one of four witnesses to the shooting. He told investigators that his mother answered the door to their Aero Club home at 10:45 a.m. and encountered a clown clutching two decorative balloons and a flower bouquet.

Ahrens described the clown as a 6-foot-1 skinny man, which was similar to descriptions then provided by two of the three other witnesses in the home that day, records show. Sheila stands 5-foot-7, according to her lawyers, though some documents list her at 5-foot-8.

The witness accounts of the clown’s gender and height provide serious doubt that Sheila was the assailant, argue defense attorneys Greg Rosenfeld, Richard Lubin and Amy Morse. They also claim the alleged DNA connection between Sheila and hair samples in evidence is “highly misleading” or false, making it clear she is innocent.

For these reasons, they say their client is entitled to a $50,000 bond so she can live with her son Charles Keen in West Palm Beach while awaiting trial.

Keen, 33, testified that he has no criminal history and there would not be any guns in the home.

But Assistant State Attorney Reid Scott asked the court to keep Sheila Keen Warren locked up on the basis of “overwhelming” evidence of her guilt. The prosecution also warned that Sheila, who faces a life sentence with the possibility of parole after 25 years if convicted, would be a major flight risk if let out now.

“The facts and circumstances point to one, and only one person, as being the clown that killed Marlene Warren, and that person is the Defendant,” Scott wrote in a filing before the hearing.

The prosecutor noted that the witness accounts of the clown appearing to be a man simply shows the entire point of the disguise.

“Such is the purpose behind dressing like a clown, to conceal your identity,” Scott wrote.

Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Detective Paige McCann, the lead investigator when the cold case was reopened in 2014, testified Tuesday that Sheila had been described by witnesses “as having male mannerisms.”

McCann said detectives determined that Michael Warren was headed to a Miami-Dade horse racing track at the time of the shooting.

On top of the evidence, the prosecution pointed out that while in custody it was discovered that Sheila tried to hide more than $1 million in assets while claiming to be indigent. Sheila had wanted the public to pay for some of her trial preparation costs.

Scott said this “shows she is a person devoid of honesty in her character and and cannot be trusted.”

Prosecutors Scott and Kristen Grimes say their case comes down to hair and wig fiber samples collected from the getaway car, a white Chrysler LeBaron, found abandoned in a grocery store parking lot, four days after the shooting.

A 2016 FBI examination of a strand of burgundy head hair with the root attached concluded that “the skin portion of the hair root” was from Sheila, the prosecution said, adding she “could not be excluded” as the DNA source of the entire strand.

“These scientific advances were not in existence at the time this murder took place,” Scott said.

A separate analysis revealed an identical match of orange yellow acrylic hair fibers found in the LeBaron, shoes from Sheila’s apartment, and on the balloon ribbons, prosecutors said.

The prosecution also says there is another solid link between Sheila and the LeBaron: An employee of Michael Warren’s used-car lot, Bargain Motors in West Palm Beach, told a detective that he observed Michael and Sheila steal the car from a competitor 45 days before the murder.

But a day after the killing, Sheila told an investigator that she never had been in a LeBaron and never owned or wore a clown costume.