Aunts: Carman refusing to hand over gun
Vt. man suspected in deaths
A Vermont man suspected of murdering his mother at sea is refusing to give her three sisters the assault weapon they contend Nathan James Carman used five years ago to kill their wealthy father, the aunts’ lawyer said yesterday.
Boston attorney Daniel Small, who represents the daughters of late nursing home developer John Chakalos, told Judge David D. King at a probate hearing in 6th Circuit Court in Concord, N.H., that Carman, 24, is trying to hide behind his Fifth Amendment right protecting him from self-incrimination as an excuse not to comply with the discovery demand.
Small said Carman has admitted “he did not lose the assault weapon that we believe to be the murder weapon ... I don’t believe the Fifth Amendment applies to a thing. All we want to do is take the gun the police know he owns and conduct forensic testing.”
Small said Carman, who claims he can’t yet afford an attorney, may force his hand to file a motion with King to compel production of the gun. His legal team is also contemplating hiring forensic experts to recreate the 2013 shooting that left Chakalos dead at age 87 and Carman’s missing mom, Linda Carman, in line to share in his $44 million estate. “We’ll need to have an expert that says Mr. Carman’s story is nonsense,” Small said.
The aunts’ “slayer” petition seeks to have the probate court declare Carman his grandfather’s killer so they can cut him out of the inheritance. Linda Carman, 54, has not been heard from since Sept. 18, 2016, when her son and sole heir claims the boat they were tuna-fishing on south of Block Island sank. He was plucked from the ocean a week later adrift in a life raft.