Actor Shelley Malil — who played Haziz, Steve Carell's electronics store coworker in The 40-Year-Old Virgin — has pleaded not guilty to attempted murder in the stabbing of his girlfriend.

Malil, 43, is being held on $10 million bond after Superior Court Judge Marshall Hockett deemed him a potential flight risk during his arraignment Wednesday.

If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of life in prison. (He also faces charges of special circumstances of premeditation, causing great bodily injury and using a deadly weapon.)

Prosecutor Steven Carver said Malil "appeared on the back patio of Kendra Beebe's house Sunday ... and attacked her with a knife while her two children slept upstairs," according to the Associated Press.

Added Carver, "He came up and started stabbing her immediately without any words or argument."

A man who was visiting Beebe disarmed Malil, who found a second knife inside the house and continued attacking Beebe, who was stabbed 20 times, Carver said.

A neighbor then found Malil on the front patio and took away the second weapon; the actor soon fled.

"He did not stop his murderous acts voluntarily but because of the heroic acts of the neighbor," the AP quotes Carver as saying.

Beebe, a 35-year-old mother of two, remains hospitalized but is expected to survive, Carver said.

Malil was arrested Monday. See unforgettable celebrity mugshots.

In 2005, he was convicted of a misdemeanor hit-and-run while driving under the influence of alcohol, Carver said.

http://www.usmagazine.com/virgin-star-pleads-not-guilty-to-attempted-mur...