That Guy From '40 Year Old Virgin' Who Stabbed His Girlfriend 23 Times Serves Just 8 Years in Jail

Source – A former actor who stabbed his girlfriend 23 times in an attempt to murder her will be released from prison after being approved for parole, PEOPLE confirms.

Shelley Malil, 53, who appeared in the film The 40-Year-Old Virgin as well as TV shows Scrubs and NYPD Blue, was given a 12 years-to-life sentence in 2010 after being convicted of premeditated attempted murder.

On Aug. 10, 2008, Kendra Beebe was talking with a friend on her back patio when Malil arrived and immediately stabbed her in her torso, according to a report in the San Diego Union-Tribune.

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

Earlier this year, Malil told the parole board a different story. He said he grabbed a knife from his Sherman Oaks home and drove to Beebe’s San Marcos, California, home with the intent to “annihilate” her because he felt he’d been slighted by her the day before, according to the Union-Tribune.

Malil continued to stab her with a broken wine glass and another knife he took from her kitchen, and attempted to smother her with a pillow. Beebe suffered 23 deep puncture wounds during the attack and the flesh on her chin was nearly sliced off.

On Tuesday, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation approved his parole with a unanimous decision.

For starters, this is a testament to the power of the 24 hour news cycle to bombard us with so much information we forget things we never would’ve forgotten 20 years ago. A guy in one of the five best comedies of the 2000s has been in jail for attempted murder and I absolutely have no recollection of this. Haziz, no less!

I never would’ve figured Haziz for going all Psycho McStabby on anyone. Mooj always struck me as they with anger issues:

But then again, he was all into advice about passion and spirit. And butthole pleasures. Rusty Trombones and Rainbow Showers.

So maybe Haziz was the most suspect one all along.

What I can’t fathom is how he gets sentenced to 12 years to life and serves 8. What do they do, measure it in dog years? What part of “stabbed his girlfriend 23 times in an attempt to murder her” strikes you as he’s not a threat do this again?

This sounds like another example of one of my greatest beefs with the criminal justice system. That they treat “attempted murder” different that “actual murder.” Just because he failed is no reason to reward him. And even if it was, 23 stabbings plus smothering his victim with a pillow is one hell of a dedicated, serious attempt. So it sounds to me like the parole board is punishing her for the crime of being a badass and too tough for this sociopath to kill.

Then again, he was an actor. Maybe he just went before them and did Red’s “Rehabilitated” speech from Shawshank. That gets me every time.

What I do know is apparently they’re not taking domestic violence as seriously as they should in California. Because this POS deserves to be incarcerated and for the guards to break the key off in the lock. God help anyone who dates this scumbag.