RIFLE R.S.V.P.

R.I. magistrate orders answers from Carman

A federal magistrate judge in Rhode Island has ordered Nathan Carman to appear at a deposition for questioning about a missing rifle he purchased less than a month before his real estate tycoon grandfather was shot to death.

U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge Patricia A. Sullivan issued her decision yesterday following a hearing Tuesday on National Liability and Fire Insurance Co.’s motion to compel Carman’s attendance.

Sullivan said Carman’s deposition must be completed by Oct. 31, can not exceed 90 minutes in length, and is restricted to questions based on information the company recently gathered about the weapon as a result of a subpoena served on Shooters Outpost in Hookset, N.H.

The Herald reported Monday the company had filed court papers seeking to press the 24-year-old Vermont resident “on the topic of his purchase of that rifle and its whereabouts, including what he did with that rifle after purchasing it, did it kill his grandfather, why was it not found by search warrant, what has happened to it, how long did Nathan Carman possess it, and where is it now?”

The company had insured Carman’s 31-foot boat Chicken Pox until it sank off Block Island in 2016 during a fishing trip from which his mother, Linda Carman, never returned. It is suing Carman to have his $85,000 insurance policy on the lost vessel declared void by the court.

According to documents Shooters Outpost turned over to National Liability and Fire Insurance, Carman paid $2,100 cash for a Sig Sauer 716 Patrol .308-caliber rifle on Nov. 11, 2013.

His grandfather, John Chakalos, 87, was shot to death in his Windsor, Conn., home on Dec. 20, 2013, allegedly with .308-caliber bullets, after he and Carman had gone out to dinner.

Carman has not been charged in connection with his grandfather’s murder or the disappearance of his 54-year-old mother, who stood to inherit a share of Chakalos’ $44 million estate. Carman is her only heir. Linda Carman’s three sisters are suing Carman in New Hampshire to have him declared his mother’s killer to block him from receiving her share of their slain father’s fortune.