Judge Warner graduated from the Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science in 1981. He graduated from the University of Denver College of Law in Denver, Colorado where served as law review editor was awarded the Order of Saint Ives in 1990 and . He was licensed to practice law in October, 1990. He was a Chief Deputy District Attorney in the Seventeenth Judicial District prior to his appointment as a District Court Judge. He was appointed as a District Court Judge in 2005 by Governor Bill Owens.