Criminology - Marlene Warren

Episode Date: February 1, 2020

In 1990, Marlene Warren opened the front door of her Florida home to find someone dressed in a clown suit holding balloons and flowers. The clown pulled out a gun and shot Marlene to death. Marlene's son was home at the time and raced to the front door and saw both the clown running away and his mother lying in a pool of blood. Join Mike and Morf as they discuss the details surrounding the murder of Marlene Warren and the twists and turns in the case afterward. Marlene's husband Michael caught the attention of authorities after it was discovered he was having an affair with a woman named Sheila Keen. But, it would take the authorities more than 25 years to put the pieces of the puzzle together to make an arrest. You can support the show at patreon.com/criminology   An Emash Digital Production Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

If you love chilling mysteries, unsolved cases, and a touch of mom-style humor, moms and mysteries is the podcast you've been searching for. Hey guys, I'm Mandy. And I'm Melissa. Join us every Tuesday for moms and mysteries, your gateway to gripping, well-researched true-crime stories. Each week, we deep dive into a variety of mind-boggling cases as we shed light on everything from heist to whodunit.

We're your go-to podcast for Mysteries with a Motherly Touch. Subscribe now to moms and mysteries wherever you get your podcast. Criminology is a true crime podcast that may contain discussion about violent or disturbing topics. Listener discretion is advised. Hello everyone and welcome to episode 97 of the criminology podcast. I'm Mike Ferguson. And this is Mike Morford. Mr. Morford, how are you? I'm doing good. I just got over a cold. I lost my voice, but luckily it was in between episodes of

recordings. So I dodged a bullet. How about you? Well, you know, that timing can be kind of tricky, right? You and I, have kind of a set recording time. So there's nothing worse than feeling like you're about ready to get sick in the day or two leading up to when we're about ready to record. That's, it's kind of nerve-wracking to think, oh, am I going to make it? Is my voice going to be there? I think that's the key because we can baby a little bit and maybe, you know, take some hot tea and get it ready. But are you going to make it for the entire episode? Because once you start talking by the time it ends, you don't know if you're going to make it all the way through.

So luckily, your voice is pretty strong. That's always a good thing. So Morf Gibby and I put out an episode last week. And it was on this woman named Evelyn Hernandez. This was on unsolved. While there were ties to Lacey Peterson, Scott Peterson, and then by association, Kristen Smart. So we were talking about this big news, this big bombshell that was about ready to draw. which was that reportedly the FBI was going to make a big announcement in the Kristen Smart case.

After we recorded the episode, it came out that, okay, Kristen's mother had said something that the FBI was saying that they hadn't said. So now I'm kind of up in the air. I guess there's not going to be this big bombshell like we were thinking was coming. And I think they went ahead and announced that it was a retired FBI agent that had talked to the family. as if he didn't carry as much weight as far as their message. So it'll be interesting to see what comes from that. That was such a big case, right? The disappearance of Kristen Smart.

And I say the word was, it still is. I mean, you know, you have families involved. You have all of these people. I was just really hopeful that they had figured something out and was looking forward to hopefully maybe finding. that they had solved her case. Who knows? Maybe they still have something behind the scenes that they're sort of working with

and just didn't want to spill the beans. Yeah, I hope so because I think for, you know, especially for her mother, she needs that. All right, Morph. So we had some new Patreon supporters. Let's give our shoutouts. We had Echo Kent, Jeanette J, Rosie, Jeff Taylor, and Donna McKay. So huge thanks to those folks that made.

the decision to support the podcast. Yeah, we can't say it enough. That really goes a long way to helping the show. And if anyone out there listening would like to help with Patreon, they can do it by visiting patreon.com slash criminology. All right, buddy, are you ready to jump into this episode? Yeah, this is a good one. I'm ready. Yeah, this is a creepy case to many people because it involves a killer clown. And there are a number of people that are really freaked out by the theory of a killer clown or just clowns in general. For some reason, maybe it's a traumatic childhood experience. But you know, there are a lot of people that do not like clowns for whatever reason. But in this case, we're not talking about a fictional clown. Think Pennywise or some of the

other characters from horror movies, we're talking real life. This is a real life clown that was a cold-blooded killer. It was nearly 30 years ago that a person dawned a clown suit and committed a brutal murder. This person dressed in costume, knocked on the front door of Marlene Warren's Wellington, Florida home and shot her in the face. Marlene died two days later following the murder. Police had to wade through a sea of rumors and secrets that ultimately led to a couple of prime suspects. The problem was police had only circumstantial evidence and no arrest was made for decades. But then in 2017, armed with new evidence, authorities finally made an arrest that they said would finally unmask this killer clown. Marlene May McKinnon was born in

Michigan on April 15, 1950. Her parents Shirley and Leonard split up. In 1965, her mother of Shirley married a man named Bill Twing, who was 12 years Shirley's junior. Bill was in the Air Force, and he and Shirley went to Germany in 1966. Marlene, who was only 16 at the time, stayed in the States and married a man named John Arons. The couple eventually had two sons, Johnny and Joe Arons, in 1967 and 1969, respectively. The elder John Aaron's passed away, and details about his death as well as his date of death aren't known. But in April, 1972, Marlene remarried to a man named Michael Warren, and the couple moved to Florida.

Michael grew up in Roseville, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. His father worked in the meat business and introduced Michael to it when he was only 12 years old. In 1972, around the time that he and Marlene got married, Michael applied at the Florida Department of Agriculture and landed a $500 a month job. He worked his way up to inspection supervisor, making over $1,350 a month. But shortly after, he resigned from the position after his boss has accused him of falsifying timesheets when he was purchasing cars to resell. on state time. Michael claimed that he had no choice but to resign and he accused his bosses of framing him. In 1980, Michael and Marlene started buying property in Palm Beach County, Florida,

and bought a home in Royal Palm Beach. On September 23rd, 1988, Marlene's oldest son, Johnny, was killed in a car accident in West Palm Beach, not far from their home. He was just 22 years old. This devastated Marlene understandably. And she co-teens. with the tragedy as best she could. Michael during this time kept very busy. During his years working in the agriculture industry, he met a man named John W. Bush, who introduced him to horse racing. In January 1990, Michael started a new endeavor called Mike Warren's Racing Stable, and he named his best horse, Joyce Azaleen, after his mother. By 1990, things were going very well for Michael and Marlene. They owned several properties, and their holdings on their holdings on their own.

rental properties totaled nearly $1.1 million. Marlene handled the tenants and was known to be a good landlord, but she hated evicting anyone and would often let the tenants be laid on rent. Michael also owned two businesses, bargain motors, and a bargain auto rentals. The Warrens lived in a private air park community called the Arrow Club in Wellington, Florida. The Arrow Club has numerous homes spread out around a private air strip and taxiways. Many of the homeowners owned small airplanes, and Michael and Marlene often participated in what was called fly-in parties with other private pilots. Michael Warren had his pilot's license, and it was here that the Warrens lived in a $175,000

gray ranch-style home. The community was considered safe, and no one locked their doors at night. Life and business were good for the Warns. They were hard-working people. Neighbors said Michael and Marlene had a good marriage and were devoted to one another, but that couldn't have been further from the truth. In one shocking moment, life for the Warns in the Wellington community changed forever. On Saturday, May 26, 1990, Marlene was home watching television. Her 21-year-old son, Joe, had a few friends over her, and the group was in the living room hanging out. At around 1045 A.m., the doorbell rang. Marlene answered the door to find a person dressed in a bozo-the-clown

costume, with orange hair, a red nose, and white gloves. The clown's face was camouflaged with white makeup, and the clown was carrying balloons and red and white carnations with a card that read, You are the greatest. Marlene, perhaps a bit confused or surprised, said, oh, how pretty. Those were the last words she would ever speak. Without warning, the clown pulled out a pistol and shot Marlene in the face. Her son Joe heard the shot and ran to his mother's side. Catching her as she fell to the floor in a pool of blood. The clown immediately took off and Joe called 911.

He yelled at the clown who turned around and faced him for a brief second. Joe could tell that the person had brown eyes but couldn't give any details, really, besides eye color and a description of the person. of the clown costume. Joe instinctively chased after the clown but couldn't catch up. The clown jumped into a white Chrysler-Labarin convertible and sped off and that's when Joe raced back to check on his mother. Police and paramedics arrived shortly after and the investigation began. Marlene was barely alive and was transported to Palm's West Hospital in Loxahatchie. Two days later, on May 28th, she was taken off life support.

passed away at the age of 40. Friends and family gathered around Michael and Joe as they began making funeral arrangements. The community was in shock. The details of the killer clown didn't seem real. And morphed to me, these details of a killer clown coming to someone's front door and shooting a wife and mother in the face, they wouldn't seem real to me either. And I go back to Joe, being at the house at the time that. his mother was murdered, you know, racing to her aid, cradling her in his arms while she lay

fighting for her life. How horrible for a son to be in that position. And it's probably very surreal for him too to know that a clown had done this, probably shocking on top of whatever shock he was already feeling. Yeah, to look out and see a clown looking back at you knowing that, okay, whoever is underneath this clown suit is the person that pulled the trigger and shot my mom. I can't even think of how I would be feeling in that same situation. I think surreal is the only word that really kind of sums it up. It would almost be dreamlike. Like this can't be happening.

This must be a dream. Marlene Warren was laid to rest on Friday, June 1st, 1990. Over 200 people attended her funeral. Police were stationed in a white surveillance van nearby during the ceremony to watch for suspicious activity. After Marlene's death, kids in Wellington became fearful of clowns, and the residents started locking their doors at night for the first time. Detective said that the murder was well planned, and the crime clearly was committed with the sole intention of executing Marlene Warren. The investigators didn't find any useful evidence at the crime scene. No blood other than blood that came from Marlene Warren, no fingerprints, no gun, nothing from the killer.

The bullet that killed Marlene had lodged in her neck and the slug was retrieved by the medical examiner and given to detectives. But more if I think it's safe to say, authorities really didn't have much to go on. and we're kind of clueless as to who murdered Marlene Warren and why. Their best guess was that they were looking for an unknown male. And that makes sense. I think their first inclination would be to think that, okay, this is a man dressed up in a clown costume. Now, they don't have any idea why, but the man shot Marlene Warren shortly after the

shooting, an anonymous caller, dialed 911, and told the dispatcher that police needed to look at the husband. As in any murder investigation, police first look at those closest to the victim, including the spouse and children. In 1989, Joe Aaron's, Marlene's youngest son, had been put on probation after pleading guilty to aggravated battery. He and two other people were accused of beating and stabbing a man in 1986. He also had a grand theft charge against him, but it was dropped right before his mother's murder.

Police didn't think that Joe had anything to do with his mother's murder, and he was witnessed by people chasing after the clown. So it was hard for police to think that he had pulled the trigger. Because of the anonymous 911 call, police turned their attention to the victim's husband, Michael Warren. They inspected phone and bank records of the Warrens. They also started looking at the phone records. of a couple named Richard and Sheila Keen,

who ran a car repossession company called Eastern Recovery Company. The Keens had done quite a bit of repo work for the Warrens. Richard Keene had a criminal history that included criminal charges ranging from weapons possessions to drug trafficking, for which he spent 10 years in a Georgia prison in the 1970s.

Richard was a director of the United States. United Klan of America. This was a KKK organization. And during that time period, he had helped organize the presidential campaign of politician George Wallace and Florida. Sheila, on the other hand, didn't have much of a criminal history then. She had just one small brush with the law. In 1984, she was arrested for retail theft in Palm Beach County. I think more if when you're looking for potential killers, a little bit of retail theft isn't going to jump out at you as some type of hardcore criminal. Sheila became pregnant, and she and Richard married on May 13, 1987.

She gave birth to a son the following August. Sheila was 20 years younger than her husband and liked to live rich, wearing expensive clothes and driving fancy cars. But at the time, the Keens lived in a trailer owned by Richard's family. Sheila and Richard helped run the trailer park in a nearby year. used car lot. By early 1990, the marriage started going downhill. Sheila filed a petition for injunction against domestic violence in January. In the petition, Sheila complained that Richard had grabbed her arm, pulled her hair, ripped her bracelets off, and threatened a killer if she tried to

take their son. She added that he had pushed her out of the car and left her in Indian town without money or a car. In May, she moved into an apartment in suburban West Palm Beach. When police started digging, they discovered that Michael Warren was paying her rent. Police determined that Sheila Keene and Michael Warren were having an affair, and this sparked police interests towards Sheila as a possible suspect in Marlene's murder. Apparently, Richard Keene knew about the affair, but didn't seem to care. But he did tell police that about a month before the murder, Sheila asked him about a missing 38 caliber revolver. The autopsy performed on Marlene Warren identified the bullet as either a 38 or a

357. And Morph, you and I might have talked about this before on other cases. We've done so many cases that involved ballistics. But, you know, a 38 and a 357 are similar in many ways. There are a lot of guns that can fire both types of cartridges from the same gun. Now, a 357 is more powerful and will do a lot more damage. And I think sometimes when these ballistics experts look at these wounds, they have a hard time determining exactly which of them is the exact gun use because they are so similar. Yeah, I would agree. I mean, this is not like trying to figure out if it's a 22 or a 357.

That's not hard at all. But when you get into the area of 38 versus 357, the differences are much smaller. But there's no doubt that police learned Sheila and Michael had spent a lot of time together to the point that people in her apartment complex thought that the two were married. But at some point, it seems as though the relationship became a bit too much for Michael. He told employees that Sheila was acting like his wife. And apparently this irritated him. The two often had lunch together.

But just a couple of weeks before the murder, Michael had stopped the lunch date. Sheila didn't like this one bit and was very upset about it. Police began to wonder if Sheila was angry enough to kill. On the evening of Marlene's murder, after she was. After hearing the shocking details about the clown that pulled the trigger, two employees at a Dixie Highway costume shop in West Palm Beach contacted police, saying that a woman had purchased a clown costume, orange wig, red nose, and makeup at 6 p.m. on May 24th, two days before the murder.

The woman requested extra face makeup to ensure complete coverage of her face. The clerks later identified Sheila Kean's picture from police files. Witnesses to the murder said that. the clown was wearing army boots. And the costume shop employees told authorities, the woman didn't buy clown shoes for the costume. And I think as a person that sells costumes, right? You're selling a clown costume to an individual.

The fact that they don't buy the shoe... In the suburbs of D.C., a woman fails to show up for work and is found brutally murdered. I wonder what's emergency. We just walked in the door and there's blood in the foyer. For the next two decades, the case remained unsolved until new technology allowed investigators to do what had once been impossible. A new series from ABC Audio in 2020, Blood and Water. Listen now, wherever you get your podcasts. Who's to go with it would be something that might jump out, might stick with you, because it would be odd.

And since this wasn't Halloween, you have to think that the purchase of that clown cost, by this woman was more memorable to these employees than it might have been, say, around Halloween time. And based on what she wanted, the complete coverage of the clown outfit to not buy the shoes seemed unusual to me and apparently to the employees because they remember the shoes not being purchased for the outfit. Things continued to make Sheila Keene look guilty. Cashiers at a public supermarket identified her as the woman who bought flowers and balloons about an hour and a half before the murder. This public store was less than a mile from Sheila's home. The balloons and flowers purchased matched exactly those left at the crime scene. Four days after the

murder, police recovered a Chrysler-Labaron that they believed to be the getaway vehicle used in the shooting. They examined the car and they also seized two other LeBerons that were later determined to not be related to the murder. Payless auto rental reported the LeBaron stolen on April 14th. The main suspects in that theft were Michael Warren's employees from A-Bargon auto rentals. At the time, Sheila Kean worked at Michael's other business, Bargain Motors. This Chrysler-Labarin had been rented by a tourist couple, and it was mistakenly returned to Michael Warren's rental lot. A person at Payless Auto told the couple they could drop the car off outside the lot with the keys in the visor.

During the forensic examination of the Liberan, police found a brown paper public's bag in the trunk and orange fibers in the car, similar to the orange wig, the killer clown war. In June 1990, investigators used the evidence to get a judge to order Sheila Keene to provide hair and blood samples. At the end of June, Palm's West Hospital filed a lien against Michael Warren and the National Association of Self-Employed, a Texas insurance company that insured Michael and Marlene. The insurance company refused to pay the bill until it received more records about Marlene's death, but the hospital responded by saying they didn't have the records the company wanted. Investigators obtained a search warrant and

searched Sheila's apartment, they found more orange hairs, similar to those taken from the LeBaron, but they didn't find the murder weapon. And in fact, it has never been recovered. Police questioned both Michael Warren and Sheila Keene about their affair. Both denied having an affair, but they did admit to traveling together on business. Police continued to build their case against Sheila Keen. The orange hairs found in LaBaron and Sheila's apartment were sent off to the FBI lab

for further analysis. Meanwhile, detectives interviewed to employees at an auto parts store in Pahokee where Sheila Keene was a regular customer. These employees told detectives that Sheila had come into the business

previously dressed as a clown, but they couldn't describe the costume exactly, and they had no idea why she was dressed that way. In an interview with investigators, Sheila denied ever owning or wearing a clown costume. Marlene Warren's family told detectives that Marlene feared her husband and that she was afraid he was going to kill her. She told her mother, Shirley, that if anything happened to her, Michael did it. In the weeks and months after Marlene's death, Michael sold their home and other properties.

He quit-claimed some of their properties to Marlene's son, Joe Arons, but Joe couldn't afford the mortgages and eventually lost them. A few months after Marlene's murder, nearly two dozen sheriff's deputies and plain-closed cops raided a-bargain-autor rentals. Of course that was owned by Michael Warren. They arrested his employee Ron D. Carter, who was 21 years old. He was charged with grand theft, conspiracy to commit grand theft, operating a chop shop, processing false. and fraudulent insurance claims and racketeering. The raid wasn't related to Marlene's murder. Police shut down the business and executed a search warrant that a judge had granted earlier

that day. Ron Carter's brother, Donald, who was also an employee at A Bargand Motors, was eventually arrested on three racketeering and theft charges. Michael Warren was not at the business when authorities made their raid, but he turned himself in shortly after. was held in the Palm Beach County Jail on $500,000 bail. Police charged him with 13 felony counts of racketeering, operating a chop shop, grand theft, an insurance fraud.

Now Michael claimed the police were using the arrest as a means to get him to confess to his wife's murder. Warren has always denied that he had anything to do with the murder of Marlene. The sheriff's office denied. denied his allegation. But there is some connection here. One of the grand theft charges alleged that Michael stole the white Chrysler-Labaron that was used as a getaway car in Marlene's murder. According to court documents, all three suspects used a variety of ways to profit from fraud and stolen cars. Ron Carter's girlfriend owned a 1988 red Chevy Camero that was reported stolen in January 1990. When the police offered her immunity, she admitted to conspiring with Michael Warren

and Ron Carter to have the car stolen so that she could collect the insurance money. The Camaro was originally purchased from Bargain Motors, Michael Warren's other auto business. The company was reimbursed almost $10,000 for the car, which Michael Warren had financed. Another employee at Bargain Motors told police Donald Carter called the business from a portable phone in the car on the day it was reported stolen. And yet another employee confessed that he and Donald stole the Camaro. Marlene's son Joe told authorities he had seen a red Camaro shortly after the car was stolen at Michael's airplane hangar. According to Joe, his mother told him the Camaro was a stolen car. Police later found the Camero nearby. It had been stripped. A judge reduced Michael Warren's bail from $500,000,

to $250,000 and ruled he couldn't use his home, business, or properties for bail. At that time, authorities announced that Michael and Sheila Keene were considered suspects in Marlene's murder, saying they had strong evidence that linked them to the crime. A few days later, Circuit Judge Thomas Schultz cut the bond again. This time, all the way down to $50,000, the judge told prosecutors either charge Michael Warren in Marlene's murder or stop using it as a reason to keep him locked up on unrelated charges. Michael's mother, Joyce Clayton, put up her Palm Beach condo for the bond and Michael was released from jail at 1.30 p.m. on Tuesday, October 30th, 1990. A judge ordered the state's attorney's

office to return papers and records seized in the raid so that Michael Warren could continue to who run his businesses. But the charge against him and the Carter brothers had damaged the reputation of Michael's businesses, but they remained open. Michael continued his public tirade that police had some type of vendetta against him. Michael Warren's trial had originally been scheduled for January 7, 1991, but a judge pushed the date back to March 4th due to conflicts with other trials, despite protest from Michael's attorney. Around the time the trial was postponed, police seized a second set of records from Michael's car business,

and Richard Keene and his mother were subpoenaed by the state's attorney's office for questioning in Marlene Warren's murder. Police refused to say whether the interview actually took place. In January, 1991, police charged Michael with 51 more counts of odometer fraud and other charges, totaling 66 charges in all. He was released after posting $25,000 bail. The charges included 25 felony counts of odometer fraud, 21 felony counts of grand theft,

three misdemeanor counts of petty theft, two felony counts of title fraud, and two felony counts of notary public violation. Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office said Michael Warren tampered with odometers on vehicles that his business had on lease. He then fraudulently claimed lower miles on those said vehicles when they were sold or sent in for warranty work. at the one year anniversary mark of Marlene's murder, still no arrest had been made.

All initial suspects besides Michael and Sheila Keene had been eliminated. Detectives knew Michael didn't actually pull the trigger because he had a confirmed alibi at the time of the shooting. But they believed he gave Sheila his approval to kill his wife. And more if we've talked about some of this. he certainly had plenty of motives. He was angry at Marlene over the fact that she wanted to leave him because he feared, rightfully so, that he would lose a lot of money from their combined businesses and rental

properties. On top of that, he was having an affair with Sheila. There was also the life insurance money. The insurance company had not paid out yet because of the ongoing investigation. Michael said it was only 25,000, but it was later revealed to be more than twice that amount. Authorities also said Michael wasn't being cooperative in the murder investigation. Michael turned around and said he was the victim of a police witch hunt and said he and Sheila didn't kill Marlene. He said police were way off track in their efforts to prove Sheila was the killer clown.

Richard Keene also defended his estranged wife and said she had nothing to do with it. Meanwhile, one of the Carter brothers was convicted in the racketeering charges and another pleaded guilty to similar charges. Donald Carter received four years probation for his part in the auto theft case, and a judge ordered him to pay a rental car agency $3,000 for conspiring to steal a Chrysler-Laborin. Michael Warren's trial was pushed back to September 1991, then again to December 2, 1991, and ultimately to the following July. The trial finally began on July 27, 1992. The prosecution's case was built mostly on the testimony of Michael Warren's former employees. His attorney John Wilbur labeled the employees as misfits and drunks who were not intelligent and could barely keep a job. Two days after the trial started, Circuit Judge Walter Colbath cited Ronald Carter, who by that time was 12,

23 years old with contempt while Carter testified. He was not supposed to mention Marlene Warren's murder, but he did so on the stand anyway. The judge briefly considered a mistrial, but he didn't declare one. And the trial continued until early August 1992. And it was on Friday, August 7th, that Michael was found guilty on 43 counts of odometer fraud, theft, and racketeering. The jury deliberated for about 18 hours over a three-day period. They cleared Michael of 14 other counts and they deadlocked on three others.

Michael faced at least 30 years in prison, but the prosecution asked for 22. And more of you and I research a lot of cases. Normally, to me, a jury deliberating for 18 hours over a three-day period tells me that, number one, they have a lot to go through, which I'm sure they did. But number two, that they were very conflicted over some of these charges. One thing that jumped out to me was that this guy was looking at potentially up to 30 years in prison. So they didn't take these car related theft charges and odometer fraud and stuff. They didn't take that very lightly. No, and I think that was because so many of them were actually felony charges, right? You have a number of felony charges.

You're going to rack up quite a few years in prison, or at least the possibility is there for you to be sentenced to a large number of years in prison. And if you contrast that, sometimes we hear about these cases where somebody commits manslaughter or some type of murder and they wind up serving a very late sentence seven to 10 years. and that makes you question that whole sentence and thing of what's appropriate for what kind of crime. I question it in almost every case I look at because you look at some of these serial killers or these infamous killers. Look back to their early years and you'll see, right, charge after charge, some of these very serious types of sexual assault charges and they get six months. They get a year. And you weigh that against, you know, somebody that's got a little bit of pot and they end up doing like five years. Sometimes it's hard for me to make sense of the justice system and the sentences that result from different types of crimes. I get it. You rack up a bunch of felony charges. They're not good. But compare that to multiple sexual assaults on women. And you have to ask yourself, How did those two compare? And here Michael Warren is looking at 20, 30 years for the odometer fraud and car-related charges.

That's similar to the time that he would be looking at if he's implicated in this murder. It's just, it's kind of a head scratcher. It is. And I don't think we're alone. I think a lot of true crime listeners sometimes have trouble reconciling the sentences that people get. In a surprise move, Judge Cole, Coulbath sentenced Michael to 20 years probation in November and called the case a, quote, total and complete selective prosecution. He also said that he didn't believe Michael Warren would have been looked at if his wife had not been murdered.

State Attorney David Bloodworth announced he was going to appeal the late sentence and said there was no evidence that these cases against Michael Warren were the result of selective prosecution. One year later in December 1993, the appellate court rejected Judge Colbass claim that, the case was a selective prosecution. The 4th District Court of Appeals ruled that Colbeth lacked evidence to support his claim, and the court ordered him to resentence Michael Warren under state guidelines that recommended 12 to 17 years in prison. He was later sentenced to nine years, but served only three years before his 1997 release on good behavior. So there again, go back to the conversation that we just had. This man racked up a large number of felony charges, was convinced. on a large number of them and the judge first sentenced him to 20 years probation. No jail time.

And appeals court said, whoa, you can't do that. Go back and resentence him. He got nine years, but he only served three. Now, you can make the argument that's fair, that's not fair. And I don't want to take anything away from the gravity of these crimes, right? Insurance fraud. all of this stuff, but when you compare it to a violent sexual assault or an attempted murder or something like that, I've seen people be convicted of that and do less than three years in prison. That's where I struggle. I think the justice system as a whole, it's not a perfect system, but, you know, we just

have to deal with what we have and strive to, you know, hopefully see it change for the better And more if I think what I left out was the difference in sentencing among states and throughout the years, because that does play into this as well. Busy work simply doesn't work. That's why Commonwealth Charter Academy offers career readiness programs that help students jumpstart their futures. CCA, how schools should work. Visit cca educate. from August 1999 to November 1999, a routine audit took place at the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office. The auditors found errors in evidence procedures. They found that some of the evidence was improperly

stored. The bags of evidence in the Marlene Warren murder case were not sealed, but should have been in order to preserve the evidence. The bags contained seven times. The bags contained seven types of clown makeup, a white clown glove, an orange wig, and a bozo-type clown suit linked to the murder. They also found poorly kept records in other cases that didn't accurately track evidence, including more than $110,000 in cash. There were also clerical errors, such as typing the wrong case numbers, but the sheriff's office was quick to point out that no prosecutions had been jeopardized by any of these types of errors. And I get the sheriff's office coming out and saying that, but you know, you have to look at these findings from the audit and say, what the heck is going

on? What are we doing? I mean, this is not the 1940s. This is the 1990s. The audit was done in 1999. I don't know how far back it went, but we know Marlene was murdered in 1990. This is also Palm Beach County. This is not a very small rural jurisdiction. Wouldn't you expect the procedures to be kind of clamped down by that point in time? And one thing I think is worth considering any time you have a human element involved in the process, there's always a risk of something, an eye not being dotted, a T not being crossed, that kind of thing.

And I think that's a good thing to point out. Sometimes I look at the system, police, investigators, detectives, prosecutors as above all that. It's almost like we and when I say we, I'm saying myself, we expect them to be infallible when in reality they're human beings just like us and they're bound to make a mistake from time to time. Now, this does seem like quite a few mistakes, but still. In 2000, on the 10-year anniversary of Marlene Warren's senseless murder, police announced new DNA tests were being done. These tests weren't around in 1990 when DNA testing was in its infancy,

but they remained tight-lipped on any further information. That same year, Sheila Keene divorced Richard and took back her maiden name, Shelter. Then in a ballsy move, years later, in 2002, she married Michael Warren in Las Vegas. The only two prime suspects in Marlene Warren's murder, who always denied having an affair, were now married to one another. In 2004, Sheila Keen Warren purchased a three-bedroom home on close to two acres along the Holston River in Abingdon, Virginia. This is near the Tennessee border in the Blue Ridge Mountains. The home was valued at nearly $600,000.

According to Washington County Virginia property records, couple also owned a drive-thru restaurant called the Purple Cow in nearby Kingsport, Tennessee. The restaurant served a full menu, anything from sandwiches to steaks and even ice cream cones. On Tuesday, September 26th, 2017, Michael and Sheila were on their way back home from a road trip. Five minutes from their home, deputies pulled them over and arrested Sheila, who by this time was 54 years old for the 1990 murder of Marlene Warren. The arrest was meant to catch Sheila by surprise, which I'm sure it did, Morp, Michael was not arrested or charged.

Authority said that when Sheila learned she was being charged in the murder, she sighed, buried her face in her hands, as if acknowledging it was finally over. I do feel as if Sheila had to have been shocked by this arrest. You know, they married. They settled down in 2004. They had this restaurant. It was 13 years of living together, running the business together. You would think by that point in time, you would start to relax and feel as though this is my new life.

I'm free and clear. It had to be a big shock. Yeah, they essentially went on with their lives. But fortunately, police continued doing. their job and building a case, and it might have taken a while, but that arrest came, which proves that in some of these cases that are cold cases, it doesn't mean that if you're the person that committed these crimes, that you're ever really completely out of the woods. Police had renewed their investigation into Marlene's murder case in 2014, after receiving a

large grant the year before. Police had a DNA analysis finally got them a warrant for Sheila's arrest following on August 31st grand jury indictment. Authorities didn't release any further information about the analysis, but did say that they sent the DNA back to the lab. Sheila Keene Warren was held at the Southwest Virginia Regional Jail in Abingdon until she was extradated to Palm Beach County. She waived her right to fight an extradition request to Florida. Three days after her arrest, she was back in Palm Beach County and stood before a judge on a first-degree murder charge. She was denied bail.

During the hearing, the state's attorney office filed its intent to seek the death penalty. It had been over 10 years since a jury imposed a death sentence in a Florida court from 2010 to 2017. There were only three juries that had to decide between life and death sentences, and they all came back with life. In other cases, the prosecution either withdrew the death penalty. or ended the cases with plea agreements. Sheila's attorney Richard Lubin told reporters that Sheila would plead not guilty to the murder charge and that she vehemently denied killing Marlene Warren in 1990.

Because Sheila was indicted, authorities didn't have to release an arrest report, which would have provided more details regarding the nature of the offense and why that person is being charged with the crime. The arrest was a long time coming for Marlene Warren's mother, Shirley Twing. After 27 years, she believed no one would ever be charged for her daughter's murder. She was shocked to say the least when she heard Sheila Kean Warren had been arrested, and even more shocked that Michael Warren had married Sheila. After Sheila's arrest, Marlene Warren's son, Joe Arons, took to Facebook and posted the following. I got some good news today. They got the murderer that killed my mother 27 years ago.

Sheila Keene Warren pleaded not guilty in mid-October 2017 and waived her right to be arraigned on the first-degree murder with a firearm charge. She also requested a jury trial and was held on no bond. But her attorney said he could file a request for her to receive bond and be released on house arrest. On November 13th, 2017, Sheila appeared in court a second time at a status hearing where her attorney waived her right to a speedy trial. Her attorney, Richard Lubin, told the judge he had received a huge batch of electronic and paper documents from prosecutors as part of the trial's discovery phase and he requested more time to go through this mountain of document.

The judge set the next status hearing for January 23, 2018, and kept Sheila's no-bond status. Sheila's attorney also filed a request that Sheila need not be present at future status hearings, and that request was granted. In April 2018, Palm Beach County prosecutors released 3,000 pages of documents in the case of Sheila Keen-Warn. In the documents was a record of a conversation between attorney Christopher DeSantis and Michael Warren that occurred on April 10, 1989. DeSantis had represented Joe Arons in his aggravated battery case. Michael Warren approached DeSantis and asked him a strange question. He asked, If a husband were to kill his wife, what would happen to her estate? DeSantis noticed Michael's

wife wasn't with him and told Michael, it really isn't a question of a man killing his wife. The question is whether the man is convicted of murdering his wife. Because if he's convicted of murdering his wife, he wouldn't hear it. But if he were convicted of a lower charge, he would. DeSantis told detectives in 1991 that his first impression of Michael Warren was that he was nuts. According to the detectives report, DeSantis told them, quote, I said what is particularly peculiar about the thing is not only that, but if he had a friend who did it and they couldn't tie him as an accessory to the friend, he'd get away Scott free. When DeSantis was interviewed again in 2017, he remembered telling Michael during this unusual conversation that a killer dressed as a clown

would likely get away with it because no witnesses would be able to identify the killer or determine if the killer was male or female. Also in the release documents was a 2000 investigative report that showed Donald Carter, the former employee arrested on racketeering charges along with his brother and Michael Warren called detectives in June 2000. He told them that shortly after Marlene Warren's murder, Michael gave him several guns and told Donald to take them from the Bargain Motors car lock. Donald said he hid the guns in his parents' attic. and believe that one of these guns was the murder weapon.

But when police searched the attic, they didn't find any guns. Donald also told detectives that the orange clown wig was thrown into a canal near military trail and southern boulevard. Police sent out a dive team, but they failed to find the wig. The release documents also contained 1,700 pages of the Warren's financial records. One record showed that Michael Warren received a life insurance payout from Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance in the amount of $53,000 as sole beneficiary of Marlene's estate. Also in the records was a very interesting witness statement. John Moran of Cluiston and his father detailed cars at Bargand Motors at the time of the murder. He told detectives in 2014 that at some point before Marlene's death, Michael said that his wife told him he was, quote,

in a sinking ship, and he would lose everything he owned if he kept screwing with her. He added that Michael Warren went on to say that he would make someone a very happy person, and they would never have to work again if they got rid of her. In 2019, Sheila Keene Warren said that she could not afford to pay for her defense. She claimed she had no property, no cash, and no car. So her lawyers filed a motion asking the court to find her indigent. in. This would allow payment for her outstanding fees by Florida's Justice Administrative Commission, who covers due process costs for people who cannot afford to pay. Her sudden inability to pay

came after Michael paid $150,000 to hire Richard Lubin as her attorney. Investigators discovered that Michael and Sheila moved $300,000 in 2018 into Michael's sole bank account. and Sheila signed over to Michael, the title to their Virginia home, valued at close to $600,000. The couple also owned a $184,000 home in Tennessee and two cars that were each valued at $40,000. The prosecutor wrote in the motion, the defendant has deliberately abused the state's funds through knowingly and intentionally falsifying her application in order to seek staff. as being indigent. In fact, her actions are contemptuous and criminal. The defendant and her husband have done nothing short of perpetrating a fraud onto the court and the state of Florida. A judge later denied Sheila Keene Warren's request to be declared indigent. That means she will have

to pay for her legal fees despite all the chaos and the trial delays. Jury's selection is set to begin May 29th, 2020, 30 years after Marlene Warren's murder. The trial is scheduled to run through June. To date, Michael Warren has never been charged in his wife's murder, but that doesn't mean that someday he won't be charged. The trial and any fallout or developments from it will be interesting to say the least, and more if I think it's something that we'll have to keep a close eye on. Because to me, this is a fascinating case. And let's not forget that a wife and mother lost her life. But when you look at the facts that have come out over the years, and it's hard to believe that it's taken 30 years to get to this point, but sometimes it does. At the time of Marlene's murder, it's alleged that her husband

Michael was having a fair with Sheila. You have all of this other trouble that Michael's been in over the years, but I go back to the relationship between Michael and Marlene. There doesn't seem to be any doubt that it was going downhill very quickly. I don't know for sure whether Marlene knew about Sheila, but even if she didn't know for sure, she had to suspect something was going on. I mean, the relationship was so rocky. it appeared as though it was getting toxic. And the statements that have come out over the years that Marlene made to Michael indicate

to me that she was about ready to most likely in the relationship. Now, on top of that, you have a couple that is involved in a number of businesses. Now, what happens if Marlene files for divorce? That creates a lot of havoc, right? in trying to run multiple businesses because how do you split those up? And we know from doing a lot of cases that there are a lot of men that do not want to give up any money, let alone a couple of businesses that have been built. You can kind of see where things started to go sideways if all of the allegations are true.

I think in most of these kind of cases, police investigate them along the lines of it's related to money, jealousy, that kind of thing. Here we have different elements that are all surrounding that. You have a possibly jealous mistress, so you have that aspect working, you have the money at stake, the businesses at stake. So this sort of encompasses all of those things. And one other thing that really jumps out to me about this whole case lasting 30 years is that it proves to me that although the wheels of justice sometimes turn slowly, they do turn. Yeah, they continue to turn. It will be interesting to see how this trial shakes out, right? If Sheila Keen-Worn is convicted, more if I think they obviously had quite a bit of circumstantial evidence.

against Sheila, even, you know, going farther back in time, but they obviously didn't have enough. It took them a while to be comfortable with charging her with murder. And there's one thing we didn't really talk about. I'm just going to throw it out there. If there's anything that maybe gives her a softer sentence if she's found guilty, if she comes clean about anything involving Michael Warren, I wonder how she would react to that kind of offer from the prosecution. If these people, and I'm lumping Sheila and Michael in together, I know Sheila is the only one that's

been charged, but if these people had something to do with Marlene's murder, how brazen is it to marry and try to, you know, build this life together? Now, I know they waited some number of years. So they must have felt, okay, enough time has passed that we can do this. To me, you're just taking a big risk because you have to know police have not stopped looking at you. But that's it for the murder of Marlene Warren. This is an interesting case morph in the fact that later this year, we will have more information. You know, a lot of the cases that we do are either completely unsolved at the time that we do them or they're solved and we have all of the information. This one's a little in between, right?

Unsolved for 30 years. We're about ready to find out whether or not a jury believes that Sheila had something to do with Marlene's death. And as you mentioned, the fallout from that, do prosecutors then turn around and try to charge Michael with something? based on the information that comes out at Sheila's truck. Very interesting. Thanks goes out to Debbie Buck at TruecrimeDiva.com for writing and research assistants

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