Contact: Gloria Allred
(323) 653-6530
Email: [email protected]
Maya Angelou the great poet, wrote: You may write me down in history with your bitter twisted lies, you may trod me in the very dirt, But still, like dust, I rise.” I stand before the defendant today, alive. Despite plunging a butcher knife into my body 23 times in an attempt to murder me, I am here. I am alive. Despite the wicked scars he inflicted on my body, from head to toe, I am alive and I have my freedom, my family, my friends and my future.
He was once an adored father to his innocent child. He was once the sibling to a proud and loving brother and sister. He was once the son of an adoring mother. Now, the defendant is Booking Number 8160594, found guilty by a jury of his peers of premeditated attempted murder. . . . of me. Despite the stab wounds he inflicted, I am alive.
During the course of the trial, some people were interested in this case because in the past, in his former life, he appeared in a beer commercial, in little parts in popular television shows, and in a movie that some people found funny, but now, he is nothing more than a shell of a man convicted of premeditated attempted murder of a helpless woman, whose defenseless young children slept upstairs, and to this day have no idea what happened to their mother on August 10, 2008. From this day on, he will not be known as a promising young actor. From this day on, he will be known by booking number 8160594, issued to him as an attempted murderer by the State of California. This fate, is the result of the choices that he made on August 10, 2008.
During the course of the trial, it became clear he was an actor, but not a very good actor at that. His testimony was lie, after lie, after lie, after lie. The defendant and I were the only ones at the side of the house that night. I saw his eyes, and he saw my eyes . . .and he knew it was me begging him to stop each time he plunged the knife into my body as I gasped for breath. I thank God he is not a very good actor and that the jury has found him guilty of premeditated attempted murder of me. It wasn’t the knife that caused this tragedy. It was the defendant.
During the course of the trial, because he had no defense whatsoever for the unjustifiable brutal attack on me, I had to endure an attack on my character. Just like the first attack, his second attack on me was wholly unwarranted and a direct reflection of his weak and spineless character. He and his defense attorney, attempted to discredit me, a defenseless woman, to justify Malil’s actions . . .his premeditated attempted murder of me. I thank God the jury found the truth. After the verdict was read, I felt safer.
While I have survived this attack, I will never forget what has happened to me. Every day when I look in the mirror, my chin is a very real reminder of the brutality that I survived on that fateful night. I dread the day years from now when I will have to tell the truth to my children about what really happened to me. The scars on my skin will fade more and more over time, but the scar on my heart will remain forever. While this attack has weighed so heavy on my heart, I have chosen to not let this experience break me. As Maya Angelo so eloquently stated in her poem, ” I will rise”….. “I will rise, I will rise, I will rise.”
Statement by Kendra Beebe
December 16, 2010
Represented by Attorney Gloria Allred