Shelley Malil, ’40-Year-Old Virgin’ Actor, Who Stabbed His Girlfriend 23 Times, Released From Prison

Shelley Malil, the former actor and attempted murderer, was released from prison after a California parole board granted him parole.

The actor appeared in The 40-Year-Old Virgin as well as Scrubs and NYPD Blue was given a 12 years-to-life sentence in 2010 after being convicted of premeditated attempted murder.

Three years after appearing in the hit film, Malil, 53, stabbed his girlfriend 23 times in an attack her originally claimed was a case of mistaken identity on his part.

Luis Patino, spokesman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, told People, Malil had served the full minimum term. Conditions of his parole were not made public.

 

The day after his release, his former girlfriend Kendra Beebe appeared on Good Morning America and revealed that she doesn’t feel safe.

“I will always have to watch my back for the rest of my life,” Beebe said. She spoke about the actual attack, saying that in the moment she thought she was going to die. “When I was going to give him a hug, he pulled out his hand and just started stabbing me,” she said.”I got a second chance when so many women don’t, so I feel very strongly that I need to help be a part of the change.”

On August 10, 2008, Beebe was talking with a friend on her back patio when Malil arrived and immediately stabbed her in her torso.

At his trial, Malil claimed he thought he was stabbing someone else in self-defense on a night he couldn’t remember. It wasn’t until hearing Beebe shout, “Call 911!” that Malil said he realized she was the one he was stabbing.

Malil would tell a different story in in front of a California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation panel earlier this year.

According to a report in the San Diego Union-Tribune, he said after drinking heavily he grabbed a knife from his Sherman Oaks home and drove to Beebe’s San Marcos, California home to “annihilate” her because he felt he’d been slighted by her the day before.

Malil continued to stab her with a broken wine glass and a second knife her kitchen, and tried to smother her with a pillow. Beebe suffered 23 deep puncture wounds during the attack and the flesh on her chin was almost sliced off. Her arm was close to severed as well.

“Does a woman’s life matter? Does inflicting injury on her matter? I think if we all thought of Kendra as our daughter, we would say ‘It matters quite a bit,'” Beebe’s lawyer said.

“So many women do not even testify at trials because they’re afraid of being dirtied on the stand, they’re afraid of revenge from their attacker, and we cannot live in that fear,” she added. “We have to be strong and stand up and speak out.”