State man rescued at sea denied request for sealing of warrant

Middletown (AP) — A judge on Thursday denied a request from a man rescued at sea last year who wants to seal from public view a warrant that reveals he was a suspect in the 2013 unsolved slaying of his millionaire grandfather.

A lawyer for Nathan Carman argued that although the contents of the warrant have been widely reported, it could hurt his client’s efforts to find a job if the document remains in the public domain.

Carman, 23, has been under the scrutiny of several law enforcement agencies since the sinking of his boat during an outing left his mother, Linda Carman, missing and presumed dead. The Vernon, Vt., resident left a Rhode Island marina on the mother-andson trip on Sept. 17. He was found in a life raft eight days later south of Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts.

The warrant says Carman was a suspect in the killing of his wealthy grandfather, John Chakalos, 87, in Windsor, Conn. More recently, police have described Carman as a person of interest. According to court papers, police submitted an arrest warrant to a prosecutor, but it was returned unsigned with a request for more information.

Carman was never charged and has denied any wrongdoing.

The 2014 search warrant says Nathan Carman was the last person to see his grandfather alive and that he discarded his computer hard drive and GPS unit used around the time of the shooting death. The warrant was used to search Carman’s home in Middletown for the gun used to kill Chakalos, but it was not found.

Dan Small, an attorney for Linda Carman’s sisters, said the family does not have a position on the request to seal the warrant.

“The warrant has been public for over two years, and a motion to seal at this point is unnecessary,” Small said.

Carman’s lawyer, Trent LaLima, argued that the allegations in the warrant are “extremely serious” and are unsubstantiated.