'40-Year-Old Virgin' actor convicted of attempted murder is to be released

Shelley Malil, who starred in the 2005 comedy movie The 40-Year-Old Virgin, is to be released from prison after serving eight years of a life sentence for attempted murder.

Malil was convicted following a violent attack on his then-girlfriend Kendra Beebe in 2008.

He stabbed her multiple times with a knife during an attack at her home in California, and also slashed at her with a broken glass, causing lacerations and 23 puncture wounds, according to The Los Angeles Times.

Following the attack, he then tried to smother her with a pillow.

Malil, who played one of Steve Carrell’s co-workers at the fictional store SmartTech in the movie, and also had roles in TV shows Scrubs and NYPD Blue, was given a life sentence for the attack, and went to jail in 2010.

However, a panel considered his case, and unanimously approved his release on parole, having decided that he is at ‘low risk of committing violence in the future’.

He will be freed in two weeks, and will spend five years under supervised parole.

Beebe, who attended his hearing on Tuesday, said that she was ‘shocked’ by the decision to release him, and said that ‘the system is broken’.

In a statement through her lawyer, Gloria Allred, Beebe told the San Diego Union-Tribune: “Today, these men had a chance to take real action showing that we, as a society, value women and will protect them.

“Because of their inaction, I will continue to live in fear.”

The Governor of California, Jerry Brown, has also rebuked the curtailing of Malil’s sentence, noting that there was still no explanation as to why Malil’s ‘rage escalated so far out of control, and resulted in such a prolonged horror’.

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