NBC 6- A South Florida woman accused of dressing like a clown and fatally shooting her lover’s wife more than 30 years ago has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the killing.
Sheila Keen-Warren withdrew her plea of not guilty and changed her plea to guilty Tuesday as part of a deal with prosecutors, WPTV reported.
Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Scott Suskauer accepted the plea just weeks before Keen-Warren was set to go on trial.
Keen-Warren, now 59, will be sentenced to 12 years in prison but will receive 2,039 days of credit for time already served in jail.
It was May 1990 when Marlene Warren opened her door and was shot in the face by a clown delivering carnations and balloons to her home in Wellington, a suburb of West Palm Beach.
The former Sheila Keen, rumored to be having an affair with Marlene Warren’s husband, Michael Warren, was considered a suspect, but the case against her seemed thin.
Two nights before the killing, a woman showed up at a costume store telling clerks she urgently needed a clown suit, an orange wig, white gloves, a red nose and enough white makeup to cover her face completely. One of the clerks identified her in a photo lineup, but the other clerk wasn’t sure.
She later married Michael Warren in 2002, and they were living in Virginia when investigators said DNA provided the evidence they needed to arrest her in 2017.
Keen-Warren’s trial was delayed multiple times over the years for issues involving witnesses and evidence.
