Prosecutors: Former Middletown man hid evidence in homicide
The former Middletown man charged with killing his mother at sea and accused of shooting his grandfather to death years earlier, allegedly shut off his cellphone so his movements could not be detected and lied to police about purchasing a gun, according to documents filed by prosecutors hoping to keep him in federal custody.
Nathan Carman was charged by federal authorities in May with four counts of wire fraud in connection with his grandfather’s shooting death in 2013 and murder on the high seas for the death of his mother Linda Carman who disappeared in 2016 while the two were on a fishing trip off Block Island.
He pleaded not guilty to the charges and has been held without bond since his arrest. Carman’s public defenders filed a 42-page motion this month, asking a federal court to vacate a previous detention order. Vermont U.S. District Judge Geoffrey Crawford will hold a hearing on the motion on Aug. 2.
Federal prosecutors contended in previous court filings that the 26year-old committed the crimes to gain access to the family fortune, which is still hung up in probate court to prevent him from accessing his mother’s share of $42 million and they said he is a flight risk and threat to the community.
His family sent the court a letter detailing their fear of his potential release, said Vermont U.S. Attorney Nikolas Kerest in his rebuttal to Carman’s motion to be let out of federal custody on bond. The case is being prosecuted in Vermont where Carman was living.
Carman has not been charged with killing his grandfather, John Chakalos, whose death remains under investigation by a Connecticut State Police cold case unit.
Carman’s public defenders said in their bid to get him released that he is not a flight risk, he has been transparent with the media and police and has no mental health concerns other than a diagnosis of Asperger’s syndrome, a disorder on the autism spectrum.
But Kerest, who is prosecuting Carman, called the claims made by his public defenders “misleading or mistaken.”
“Carman poses a risk of flight; Carman poses a danger; and there are no conditions of release which will mitigate either concern,” Kerest wrote in a 12-page filing opposing Carman’s release on bond.
Kerest alleged that Carman refused to show Windsor police investigating the death of his grandfather the route he took when he “got lost” for an hour in an area he knew with his cellphone off, “foreclosing the possibility that his location could be discerned from cell towers.”
Carman also failed to tell police that six weeks before his grandfather’s death he purchased a Sig Sauer 716 .30 caliber rifle, “the same caliber as the weapon used in the killing of John Chakalos,” Kerest said.
Carman was the last person to see Chakalos alive, one of a few people who had a key to his grandfather’s home and one of a few people who knew his grandfather would be home alone the night he was murdered, the federal prosecutor said.
Carman discarded his GPS and computer hard drive around the time of his grandfather’s death and again discarded his computer hard drive around the time when his mother disappeared at sea, court papers said.
“Carman’s alleged conduct clearly illustrates danger to the community: The evidence shows that he killed not once, but twice,” Kerest wrote in prior filings seeking to have Carman held without bond. “Moreover, the individuals Carman killed were his own family members. For an individual to kill his own family members, nothing is off the table.”
Kerest contends that Carman was treated for mental health disorders as a child, including “social difficulties” and “explosive rages” when he can become “aggressive,” according to the court filing. Carman has been mostly untreated and off medication since he was 17, Kerest said, based on “available” mental health records.
Friends and local clergy portrayed Carman as polite and respectful in letters sent to the judge on his behalf. His public defenders argued in their motion seeking his release that the court could require him to wear electronic monitoring while court proceedings move forward.
But Kerest said in his most recent filing opposing the move that electronic monitoring will not guarantee that Carman won’t flee the country or hurt someone else.
“To begin with, location monitoring in rural Vermont often faces serious technological difficulties,” Kerest said. “But even if it worked, electronic monitoring could not assure the court that Carman would not flee. Carman has the wherewithal to remove a monitoring device and flee before anyone where he has gone.”
He lives within hours of an internal border and more importantly, Kerest said, a tracking device would not prevent him from “retaliating against a witness or others as he flees.”
“The court should therefore conclude that there are no conditions of release which would reasonably assure Carman’s appearance and the safety of the community,” Kerest said.