Prosecution seeks death penalty in killer clown murder case
Sheila Warren is accused of dressing up like a clown and killing the wife of a man she later married.
Florida prosecutors and defense attorneys gearing up for the long-awaited trial for alleged "killer clown" Sheila Keen-Warren have filed several motions related to the mention of certain evidence – including details related to the clown costume possibly used to carry out the 1990 slaying, court records show.
The parties handling the case involving Keen-Warren filed an agreed order on Tuesday calling for the exclusion of testimony from one of the detectives who handled the investigation decades ago. The agreed order states that Det. William Williams, who has since retired from the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office, should not be called as a witness "because he is unable to observe, remember and recount the facts about which the witness would testify."
Marlene Warren, 40, was shot and killed at her Wellington, Florida, home Saturday, May 26, 1990, officials said. Warren had just finished breakfast with her son and his friends around 10:45 a.m., when they spotted a Chrysler LeBaron roll into the driveway, the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office said.
Paramedics take Marlene Warren to an ambulance on May 26, 1990, after she was shot in front of her home in Wellington, Florida. (Mark Randall/Sun Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
A person dressed like a clown exited the vehicle and walked to the home’s front door, police said.
"The person dressed as the clown was carrying a flower arrangement and two balloons," the sheriff’s office explained. One balloon reportedly bore a picture of Snow White, the other was emblazoned with the words, "You're the Greatest!"
"Marlene answered the front door and as the clown offered the items to her, witnesses heard a gunshot and Marlene fell to the ground," police said. "The person dressed as a clown calmly walked back to the LeBaron and drove away."
Warren suffered a gunshot wound to the face and was rushed to a local hospital, where she died two days later.
Photo shows Marlene Warren, who was shot and killed in the entryway of her Wellington, Florida, home in the infamous 'Killer Clown' case of 1990. (Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office)
Police arrested Keen-Warren Sept. 26, 2017, 27 years after Warren’s death.
Investigators learned Keen-Warren, who was married to someone else at the time of the murder, went on to wed Warren’s husband, Michael Warren, in 2002. The pair had been living in Tennessee, where they operated a restaurant, police said.
Years later and with the pre-trial proceedings now underway, Circuit Judge Scott Siskauer has signed the order to exclude Williams’ testimony.
Siskauer has yet to rule on several other motions, regarding various elements related to the circumstances of the killings. He is expected to issue orders after holding hearings over the course of two days in early March.
Specifically, defense attorneys have asked the jurist to prohibit prosecutors from making any mention of evidence or witnesses that allegedly show Keen-Warren purchasing a clown costume two days before the murder, arguing that the information is flimsy and "irrelevant," records show.
Sheila Keen-Warren was accused of dressing up as a clown and murdering her future husband's then-wife 27 years ago. (Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office)
Evidence that Keen-Warren was the person who purchased the clown costume from West Palm Beach’s Spotlight Capezio on May 24, 1990, is "irrelevant and unreliable," and would "deprive" her of "her rights to a fair trial and due process," her attorneys argued in a motion filed in November. Store employees said the person bought an orange wig, a "yellow and hot pink" clown suit and a makeup kit, but no mask, two days before Marlene Warren’s broad daylight execution.
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However, defense attorneys argued that witnesses had different descriptions of the clown costume from the one that was purchased at Spotlight.
Photo shows receipt from May 24, 1990, purchase at Spotlight Capezio in West Palm Beach, Florida. (Motion to Suppress exhibit, Nov. 1, 2022)
"[T]hat clown suit is not the one described by eyewitnesses to Marlene Warren’s murder," they wrote in the motion. One witness "said the clown was wearing a gray jumpsuit, like a mechanic’s uniform," and wore a wig similar to "Bozo the Clown," the motion states.
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Another witness said the clown "was wearing a white clown suit with red hearts or diamonds," while a third described the costume as having "blue dots on it," the attorneys wrote. Both witnesses told police the wig was red, the motion states.
"Absent evidence identifying the Spotlight clown suit as the shooter’s clown suit, the identity of the Spotlight customer is not relevant to prove any material fact in this case," the document states. "In other words, because no witness will identify the items purchased at Spotlight as those worn by the shooter, the State will be unable to ‘connect up’ the preliminary facts related to Spotlight with the ultimate facts of the homicide."
Photo shows items purchased on May 24, 1990, at Spotlight Capezio in West Palm Beach, Florida. (Motion to Suppress exhibit, Nov. 1, 2022)
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Defense attorneys have also filed a motion seeking to exclude details related to a white Chrysler LeBaron convertible that was found in a Winn-Dixie parking lot after it had been reported stolen, and any evidence that was recovered from inside the vehicle.
They argued that the vehicle "is not the car driven by the clown who murdered Marlene Warren."
"The clown car was a coupe, not a convertible. The clown car was all white, whereas the Winn Dixie LeBaron had a prominent black stripe down the length of the car. None of the eyewitnesses to the shooting identified the Winn Dixie LeBaron as the clown car, and two said definitively that it was not the clown car."
Sheila Keen-Warren, right, appears in court for a pre-trial hearing Monday morning, Nov. 13, 2017. Keen Warren is facing charges in the death of Marlene Warren in 1990. (Lannis Waters/Palm Beach Post/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
The motion further stated that the vehicle is "irrelevant" and any value of including such details would be "substantially outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice."
But prosecutors previously said that DNA found inside the getaway vehicle tied Keen-Warren to the crime.
The defense is also seeking to exclude any mention on a "six-to-eight-inch hair or fiber" that was allegedly found on a ribbon attached to one of the balloons handed to Warren before she was shot.
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An investigator said they discovered the fiber – said to have been from a wig – in 2014, despite that no one who had previously handled the balloon ribbons had "noticed the mysterious fiber," the motion states.
Prosecutors do not appear to have responded to the defense’s three outstanding motions.
Keen-Warren’s trial is scheduled to begin on May 12, 2023.
Fox News Digital's Stephen Sorace contributed to this report.
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