NEW SCOTLAND, N.Y. (NEWS10) -- Court documents are offering a window into the days before the murder of a widely regarded and much loved physician’s assistant inside his New Scotland home. The documents obtained by NEWS10 contain receipts and other evidence, which are expected to be used by prosecutors to connect the suspect to the killing.
During his arraignment in the Town of New Scotland Justice Court, Jacob Klein appeared to be calm and collected. His general appearance standing in stark contrast to the horrific crime he is now accused of: charged with Murder in the 2nd degree for the killing of 35-year-old Philip Rabadi, a much loved physican’s assistant. Police say Rabadi's body was found bound and stabbed inside the garage of the New Scotland home he shared with his wife.
The Albany County Sheriff says evidence points to days of pre-planning.
Documents filed with the court contain a receipt from an Enterprise Rent-A-Car office on Central Avenue in Albany. Jacob Klein’s name is on the rental agreement for a white 2020 Ram pickup. The scheduled date on the receipt for picking up the truck was April 11, three days prior to the killing.
A statement from a neighbor reads that she saw a white truck outside Rabadi’s home around the time police say the murder took place. Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple said that there appeared to be pre-meditation. “There’s stalking going on. There’s documentation," said Apple.
Klein is said to have deep ties to the Capital Region, and according to the Sheriff, Klein had previously dated Rabadi’s wife before the couple married. Apple said he did not want to speculate on motive but added, "It could have been as simple as he never got over it.”
Klein had been living in Virginia. His address on court documents matches up with a 2,000-sq. ft. lakeside home in Wirtz, Virginia that sold for $800,000 in June of 2021.
Apple told NEWS10 that Klein had been surveilled while crossing the Tennessee-Virginia state line and that is when police took him into custody with a loaded handgun in the console of his vehicle. He was extradited to New York late Wednesday evening.
Court documents also show how his vehicle was tracked by license plate readers.
Klein is said to be a Marine veteran who never had any previous run-ins with the law. His New York City-based attorney, Mark Bederow, asked that people resist jumping to conclusions about his client.
“It’s far too early to draw any conclusions based upon very piecemeal disclosures of evidence," said Bederow.
The family and friends of Philip Rabadi are remembering him with a legacy fund at Albany Medical College, his alma mater.
His cousin told NEWS10: "Our hope is that his intent to help people can continue to live on in the form of support to other students who want to give back to their own community. We want his legacy to inspire other aspiring people in the medical field to continue his dream of helping others."
