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A Virginia man will spend the next several decades in a New York prison for a jealousy-inspired murder in the upstate region.
In October, Jacob L. Klein, 42, was convicted on one count of murder in the second degree for killing physician assistant Philip L. Rabadi, 35. The victim was discovered bound, slashed and mutilated in his home in New Scotland, New York, on April 13, 2022.
During a vituperative Friday sentencing hearing, the judge overseeing the case issued the victim’s family’s requested punishment: meting out the maximum Empire State sentence of 25 years to life in prison.
“People who know me know I pride myself on finding the good in people even in their darkest moment,” Albany County Judge William Little said during the sentencing hearing, according to local ABC affiliate WTEN. “I’ve almost had to question my humanity over the last couple days because I struggle to find any humanity in Mr. Klein.”
The judge’s condemnation, however, was mild compared to the impact statements lodged by the victims of the elaborate murder.
“He is dangerous, psychopathic, and evil,” Shaw Rabadi, the victim’s father, said at the hearing, according to The Times Union.
Jacob L. Klein appears in a booking photo. (Albany County Sheriff’s Office)
“If ever this evil walks the streets again, obvious targets are my family and certainly other innocent people who may be sitting in this room today,” he added.
Evidence during the trial showed the victim was killed because he had recently married the suspect’s long-ago ex-girlfriend, Elana Radin.
As Law&Crime previously reported, the grieving widow received an email from the defendant just before she and Rabadi were married in September 2021. That evidence was used by law enforcement to quickly develop Klein as the lone suspect in the fatal home invasion.
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The victim was found lying face down on his garage floor. His jacket was pulled down, his hands were tied behind his back, and his shoes were off. Klein strategically stabbed his victim in several key areas of the neck until he bled to death, prosecutors proved during the trial.
I’ve never seen anyone spend so much time planning something like this,” Assistant District Attorney Jessica Blain-Lewis said during the trial in comments reported by local CBS affiliate WRGB.
Rabadi’s father and Radin arrived at the victim’s New Scotland residence to meet with police after the dead man uncharacteristically did not show up for his shift at St. Peter’s Hospital, where the recently-wed couple worked as physician assistants. Two bathroom taps were on when investigators arrived — one sink was overflowing with water; the other had blood on the faucet.
The defendant also previously worked as a physician assistant. That medical knowledge became a “weapon of killing,” Shaw Rabadi mournfully said on Friday, according to the Times Union.
“Our lives are forever damaged, our futures forever dimmed,” the victim’s mother, Victoria Rabadi, said, the paper reported. She described her son’s killer as a “worthless psychopathic criminal.”
Radin broke up with the since-condemned man in 2017. In the years that followed, the killer nursed an ever-worsening obsession.
In the days before the slaying, Klein drove his personal vehicle from his residence in Franklin County, Virginia, to the Albany area. Then, the killer rented a truck from an Enterprise Rent-A-Car location in Albany and used it to spy on both the Rabadi residence and the hospital.
The couple was unaware of the stalking that preceded the murder. Rabadi is believed not to have known his killer.
According to WTEN, Radin did not attend the hearing.
“Phil was a shining example of what a man and husband could ever hope to be,” Blain-Lewis said, reading from a victim impact statement written by the widow, the TV station reported.
