Former Olympia High cheerleader victim stabbed; actor is suspect

The Olympian, news services | • Published August 13, 2008

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An Olympia High School graduate from 1991 was the San Diego-area woman who was stabbed more than 20 times in a case in which a comic actor, her ex-boyfriend, has been arrested.

Actor Shelley Malil’s bail was raised to $10 million by a judge Wednesday, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported.

Malil, best known for his work in the 2005 comedy "The 40 Year Old Virgin," is being held in connection with a knife attack Sunday on Kendra Beebe, 35, who suffered severe lacerations to her face and multiple stab wounds.

Malil was charged with attempted murder with special circumstances of premeditation, causing great bodily injury and using a deadly weapon, San Diego County Deputy District Attorney Steven Carver said.

Malil faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted.

The hospital where Beebe was admitted refused to update her condition Wednesday, though the sheriff’s department said that Beebe was critically injured but expected to live.

The San Marcos, Calif., home where the attack occurred is the same as the most-recent address of the Olympia High School alumna, who is a parent of two daughters.

At Olympia High, Beebe was a cheerleader and in the Debate and French clubs and was voted the “Most Spirited” woman in the class of 1991, according to that year’s annual.

Olympia High graduates first identified their classmate through pictures being used by tabloid Web sites. Word spread through e-mail.

“She was wonderful and sweet and full of life,” Sarah Kabat said of their high school years. Kabat graduated with Beebe’s brother in 1992 and heard about the attack from another classmate. “It’s just so sad.”

A San Diego sheriff’s news release says that Malil and Beebe had been in a relationship that recently had ended.

Malil, 43, pleaded not guilty at his arraigned Wednesday in Vista, north of San Diego, Paul Levikow, a spokesman for the district attorney’s office, told The Associated Press.

According to Beebe’s Facebook page, she is a 35-year-old mother who works as an insurance broker in Carlsbad, a coastal suburb.

Eve Salony, who lives across the street from Beebe, told the Union-Tribune that Beebe was having dinner with a date in her back yard on Sunday when Malil showed up and “got into the initial scuffle” with Beebe’s date. Salony said the date “got scared, and he ran over here. He was bleeding.”

Chuck Lee, 32, who also lives next door to Beebe, told the Union-Tribune that he was watching TV when he heard her scream and went to help.

Lee said he saw a man with a knife on Beebe’s front patio, restraining the woman. “I kept telling him, ‘You don’t want to do this,’ ” Lee said.

But he added the man kept saying, “Look at what she did to me.”

Malil starred in a Budweiser commercial that aired during the 2001 Super Bowl. He played a co-worker, Haziz, to comedian Steve Carell’s title character in “The 40 Year Old Virgin.” He has also appeared in dozens of TV shows including “NYPD Blue” and “Scrubs.”

Malil, who lives in the Sherman Oaks section of Los Angeles, had taken the train to Oceanside on Monday night to meet his attorney, who had joined the actor’s family members and friends in persuading him to turn himself in, deputies said.

Deputies found the victim on Sunday night while responding to reports of screams in San Marcos, about 15 miles east of Oceanside.