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Trial date set for woman charged in 1990 Wellington killer clown case

Sheila Keen-Warren
Sheila Keen-Warren
Posted at 8:55 AM, Nov 22, 2019
and last updated 2019-11-22 19:12:29-05

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — (WPTV/AP) - A judge on Friday set a trial date for a woman accused of dressing as a clown and fatally shooting her lover's wife in Wellington in 1990.

MORE: Detectives search sunken car for clown suit, murder weapon

A Palm Beach County circuit judge on Friday said the first-degree murder trial of 56-year-old Sheila Keen-Warren will begin starting May 29, 2020.

Keen-Warren was arrested in 2017 and extradited from Virginia, where she lived with husband Michael Warren.

Officials say Warren's then-wife, Marlene Warren, was shot in the face in May 1990 by a clown delivering carnations and balloons. Investigators say new DNA testing led to Keen-Warren's arrest.

Several witnesses told detectives Sheila Keen and Michael Warren were having an affair before the killing, which they both denied. They married in 2002.

Keen-Warren denies the killing. Michael Warren has not been charged.

On Friday, the Palm Beach County judge also addressed Keen-Warren's finances and ruled she will have to pay for her attorney fees.

In April, Keen-Warren's lawyers filed a motion asking the court to find her indigent, allowing payment for her outstanding fees by the Justice Administrative Commission, a taxpayer-funded agency that covers due process costs for people declared too poor to pay.

In the motion, her lawyers wrote that Keen-Warren's husband was unable to pay the remaining agreed-upon fee.

Prosecutors later discovered her husband had several hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and assets. In addition to the cash, prosecutors argued that the couple's multiple cars and properties, as well as a lakefront Virginia home, total hundreds of thousands of dollars more in assets.