(CNN) Three decades after a Florida woman was fatally shot by a man dressed as a clown, the longtime suspect — who was married to the victim’s widower — pleaded guilty even though the his lawyers say he is innocent.
Sheila Keen-Warren, 59, withdrew her earlier plea of not guilty and entered a guilty plea on Tuesday as part of a plea deal with prosecutors just weeks before the case was set to go to trial.
He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the May 1990 slaying of Marlene Warren, who was shot and killed in her home near West Palm Beach, Florida, while her son and his friends were eating breakfast inside. .
On the morning of the murder, Warren answered her door to find a man dressed as a clown and holding two balloons and a flower arrangement. The costumed man handed Warren the gifts and then pulled out a gun and shot him in the face, authorities said.
Warren died at the hospital two days later.
Twenty-seven years after the murder, Keen-Warren, who was married to Marlene Warren’s widowed husband, was arrested and charged with the crime in 2017.
As part of his plea deal, Warren will be sentenced to 12 years in prison, with credit for time he has served since his arrest.
The victim’s son approved the plea terms, said prosecutor Reid Scott in court.
“After years of claiming her innocence, Sheila Keen Warren was finally forced to admit that she was the one who dressed up as a clown and took the life of an innocent victim,” the State said. Attorney for Palm Beach County Dave Aronberg in the statement.
Keen-Warren’s attorney, however, told CNN that she maintains her innocence but is happy with the plea terms.
“This woman should never be arrested or charged,” her attorney Greg Rosenfeld said, “She is looking forward to her day in court.”
In the end, Rosenfeld said, the plea deal was the best available option to Keen-Warren. “You never know what’s going to happen at trial,” he said.
If the case goes to trial, Scott said in court, the evidence presented by prosecutors “will guide a jury to find him guilty of the crime.”
When asked by the judge if he agreed with the prosecutor’s statements, Keen-Warren replied, “Yes, sir.”
Sheila Keen-Warren, pictured in a Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office mug shot.
Keen-Warren is married to the victim’s husband
When detectives first investigated the case, they heard rumors that the victim’s husband, Michael Warren, was having an affair with Sheila Keen, but the couple denied having a relationship at the time, authorities said in 2017.
Twelve years after killing his late wife, Michael Warren married Sheila Keen, now Keen-Warren, authorities said.
Although Keen-Warren had long been a suspect in the case, the evidence available in 1990 was not strong enough to secure a conviction, investigators said at the time of his arrest.
A major break did not come until 2014, when the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office cold case unit reopened the investigation and was able to use advances in DNA technology to strengthen their evidence, the office said.
CNN’s Elizabeth Wolfe, Faith Karimi, Ralph Ellis and Janet DiGiacomo contributed to this report.
