David Maldonado Sees the Eyes of the Devil

“I have been friends with Kendra for a very long time but did not know Mr. Malil until that horrific night,” says Spanish guitarist David Maldonado, who spent two days testifying at the recent attempted-murder trial of actor Shelley Malil, costar of The 40-Year-Old Virgin. Maldonado not only witnessed the 2008 knife attack on Kendra Beebe in San Marcos, he intervened and was injured.

“I hadn’t seen Kendra in over a year, and it was just by chance that day that we started texting, and I decided to stop by her house on my way home. It was only about 15 minutes of conversation on her back porch before Mr. Malil walked in...with the eyes of the devil. Before he walked in, she was telling me about her ex-boyfriend [Malil] and how they had just broken up because of his possessiveness. He walks in quickly, wearing only shorts and a baseball cap, no shoes, no shirt, and I saw him lean into her, thinking he was hugging her...all of a sudden, she starts squirming and yelling for help.

“I immediately stand up and try to pry him off her, and I see the silver flash of the knife. I don’t have any fighting experience, nor do I even watch sports. I disarmed him by pulling on the blade with my hand, and he had the knife by the handle. Needless to say, I cut my hand up, but I knew if I don’t get this knife, I will probably end up dead. By the grace of God, I managed to remove the knife from his hand.... I threw it over the fence so that he couldn’t do any more harm.” Beebe was stabbed more than two dozen times.

On the 17th of last month, a Vista jury convicted Malil of attempted murder. “I feel empty about being part of such a crazy occurrence,” says Maldonado. “It’s nothing victorious, and many people lost in this situation. His family lost a son, brother, father. Kendra is scarred for life, and it has affected her whole family. My family is still in a surreal state about how my children could’ve ended up fatherless.”

Maldonado heads up a stage show called Noche de Pasión, which will have its last 2010 performance at Vista’s Moonlight Amphitheatre on October 23.