Fort Lauderdale, Fla. –
A lady who pleaded responsible to dressing as a clown and in 1990 murdering the spouse of a person she later married was launched from jail Saturday, ending a case that has been unusual even by Florida requirements.
Sheila Eager-Warren, 61, was launched 18 months after she pleaded responsible to second-degree homicide for the capturing of Marlene Warren, Florida Division of Corrections information present. The plea deal got here shortly earlier than her trial would have began.
Eager-Warren, who has maintained her innocence even after her plea, was sentenced to 12 years in jail. However she had been in custody for seven years since her arrest in 2017, and Florida’s regulation in 1990 allowed important credit score for good habits. It had been anticipated she can be launched in about two years.
“Sheila Eager-Warren will all the time be an admitted convicted assassin and can put on that stain for each day for the remainder of her life,” Palm Seashore County State Legal professional Dave Aronberg mentioned in an announcement Saturday.
Greg Rosenfeld, Eager-Warren’s lawyer, has mentioned she solely took the plea deal as a result of she can be launched in lower than two years and had been dealing with a life sentence if convicted at trial.
Sheila Eager Warren, left, talks together with her lawyer Richard Lubin, throughout her first courtroom look Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2017, in West Palm Seashore, Fla. (Adam Sacasa / South Florida Solar-Sentinel through AP)
“We’re completely thrilled that Ms. Eager-Warren has been launched from jail and is returning to her household. As we’ve acknowledged from the start, she didn’t commit this crime,” he mentioned Saturday in a textual content message.
Marlene Warren’s son, Joseph Ahrens, and his pals have been at house after they mentioned an individual dressed as a clown rang the door bell. He mentioned that when his mother answered, the clown handed her some balloons. After she responded, “How good,” the clown pulled a gun and shot her within the face earlier than fleeing.
Palm Seashore County sheriff’s investigators had lengthy suspected Eager-Warren within the slaying, however she wasn’t arrested till 27 years later after they mentioned improved DNA testing tied her to proof discovered within the getaway automotive. Rosenfeld has known as that proof weak.
On the time of the capturing, Eager-Warren was an worker of Marlene Warren’s husband, Michael, at his used automotive lot. Since 2002, she has been his spouse — they ultimately moved to Abington, Virginia, the place they ran a restaurant simply throughout the Tennessee border.
Witnesses informed investigators in 1990 that the then-Sheila Eager and Michael Warren have been having an affair, although each denied it.
Through the years, detectives mentioned, costume store workers recognized Sheila Warren as the girl who had purchased a clown swimsuit a number of days earlier than the killing.
And one of many two balloons — a silver one which learn, “You’re the Best” — was offered at just one retailer, a Publix grocery store close to Eager-Warren’s house. Workers informed detectives a lady who regarded like Eager-Warren had purchased the balloons an hour earlier than the capturing.
The presumed getaway automotive was discovered deserted with orange, hair-like fibers inside. The white Chrysler convertible had been reported stolen from Michael Warren’s automotive lot a month earlier than the capturing. Eager-Warren and her then-husband repossessed vehicles for him.
Defendant Sheila Eager-Warren seems throughout pre-trial listening to on the County Courthouse on Friday, Oct. 21, 2022, in West Palm Seashore, Fla. (Andres Leiva/The Palm Seashore Publish through AP, Pool)
Family informed The Palm Seashore Publish in 2000 that Marlene Warren, who was 40 when she died, suspected her husband was having an affair and wished to depart him. However the automotive lot and different properties have been in her identify, and he or she feared what may occur if she did.
She allegedly informed her mom, “If something occurs to me, Mike achieved it.” He has by no means been charged and has denied involvement.
However Rosenfeld mentioned final yr that the state’s case was falling aside. One DNA pattern one way or the other confirmed each female and male genes, he mentioned, and the opposite might have come from one out of each 20 girls.
And even when that hair did come from Eager-Warren, it might have been deposited earlier than the automotive was reported stolen. He mentioned Marlene Warren’s son and one other witness additionally informed detectives that the automotive deputies discovered wasn’t the killer’s, although investigators insisted it was.
Aronberg final yr conceded that there have been holes within the case, saying they have been brought on by the three a long time it took to get it to trial, together with the loss of life of key witnesses.
Michael Warren was convicted in 1994 of grand theft, racketeering and odometer tampering. He served virtually 4 years in jail — a punishment his then-attorneys mentioned was disproportionately lengthy due to suspicions he was concerned in his spouse’s loss of life.
He didn’t reply to a telephone message left for him Saturday.
