The mother of a San Marcos woman stabbed more than 20 times testified Thursday that her daughter’s ex-boyfriend, the suspect in the attack, was "very possessive."
Washington resident Laurey Lee Manning learned about the Aug. 10, 2008 attack through a phone call from the hospital. After telling Manning that her daughter, Kendra Beebe, was being treated for 23 stab wounds, the nurse asked Manning, “How fast can you get here?” Manning took the first flight possible to San Diego.
Malil, an actor who appeared in the movie "The 40-Year-Old Virgin," sat across a county courtroom in Vista Thursday listening to Manning's testimony.
Malil has pleaded not guilty to charges of attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon and burglary stemming from the stabbing that took place in the backyard of Beebe's home in San Marcos.
Prosecutors said Malil came to Beebe's house uninvited, walked up to her with one hand behind his back saying "Kendra, Kendra, Kendra..."
“I thought, ‘Oh my God, he’s going to hug me,’" Beebe testified Tuesday. "Then I thought ‘Oh no, he’s going to punch me’ and then I see this flash of silver and bang, bang, bang.”
A friend of Beebe's wrestled the knife away from Malil. In the meantime, Malil went into Beebe's kitchen and grabbed a second knife and started stabbing Beebe again, according to court documents.
After a neighbor intervened, Malil stopped the attack and walked calmly from the scene, investigators said.
Beebe's mother testified about a phone call with Malil the night of her daughter's attack. She asked him what had happened to her daughter.
“You tried to kill Kendra, why?” she testified that she asked Malil.
“He kept saying over and over again, ‘I’m sorry. I’m sorry. It got out of control. I’m sorry. I’m sorry,’” she said.
The phone call didn’t last much longer when Malil hung up the phone, she told the court.
Defense attorney Matthew Roberts told the jury Beebe has a history of violence, has attacked her ex-husband, and would fall into jealous rages. He said Malil acted in self-defense.
Manning described Malil as "very possessive, very jealous.”
At the time of the stabbing, Beebe was sitting outside enjoying a glass of wine with her friend, renowned Spanish Flamenco singer and guitarist David Maldonado.
Roberts said that on the night of the attack, Malil went to Beebe's home to apologize for sending out e-mails to Beebe's employees showing the couple having sex. Instead, Malil found her in an intimate setting with another man. The defense attorney said Malil had a knife because he feared for his own safety and was eventually attacked by Beebe with a garden hoe on the side of the house.
Shelley Malil played a co-worker, Haziz, to comedian Steve Carell's title character in "The 40-Year-Old Virgin." Malil also starred in a Budweiser ad, a spinoff of the "Whassup" spots from 2000.
Malil could face life in prison if convicted of all charges.
