Attorneys Seek To Have Nathan Carman Answer Questions About Missing Weapon

Jan. 29--Attorneys for the insurer of Nathan Carman's sunken boat asked a federal judge Monday to compel him to answer questions about a missing gun whose bullets matched the caliber used to kill his grandfather.

National Liability & Fire Insurance Co. lawyers wrote in a seven-page motion filed in U.S. District Court in Providence that Carman refused to answer questions about when, where and what happened to a Sig Sauer rifle that he purchased sometime before his grandfather's death in December 2013, during a seven-hour deposition last week at their Salem, Mass. offices.

Nathan Carman and his mother, Linda Carman, were reported missing while on a fishing trip in September 2016. He was rescued at sea and his mother is presumed dead. National Liability & Fire Insurance Co. and Boat Owners Association of the United States have asked for a declaratory court judgment that they do not have to pay the $85,000 policy that Nathan Carman had on the boat.The insurance company alleges changes Nathan made to the boat made it dangerous.

Besides questions about the gun, Attorney David Farrell wrote that Carman also refused to answer questions about whether he was the last person to see his grandfather alive and whether he knew who shot and killed John Chakalos in his Windsor home. Police sought an arrest warrant for Carman to charge him with murder, but a judge refused to sign the warrant.

Farrell wrote that during the deposition, Carman's attorneys instructed him to not answer questions and as in an earlier deposition transcript "shows the defense impeded, delayed, and frustrated" a fair examination of Carman.

"It was also apparent [Carman] tried to run out the seven-hour deposition clock," Farrell said. "Many of his answers can only be described as long-winded."

As part of the motion, Farrell submitted a small portion of the U.S. Coast Guard timeline of the search for Nathan and Linda Carman after his boat the Chicken Pox was reported missing on Sept. 16, 2016.

When the Coast Guard reached out to one of Linda Carman's sisters to inform her Linda was missing, she told the Coast Guard officials she believed Nathan Carman killed his grandfather and stood to inherit a lot of money if his mother was gone.

The sister's name is redacted from the Coast Guard document but it states "the last time Nathan amd Linda went out on the boat was the night the grandfather died."

"She also believes since the estate is being settled this week, Nathan may have killed his mother so he can have the $5 million home left to her," the Coast Guard document states.

The document goes onto describe the initial Coast Guard search for the Chicken Pox off the coast of Point Judith and along the south side of Block Island. But Carman had gone farther out to sea to an area called the Canyons off Long Island to fish tuna.

The boat sank but Nathan was able to jump on a life raft and float in the ocean for seven days until he was rescued by a passing ship off the coast of Martha's Vineyard. Linda Carman has never been found.

Nathan Carman filed an insurance claim for his lost boat and after originally agreeing to pay it the company denied the claim and instead filed the federal lawsuit against Carman in Rhode Island, where the boat was moored at a marina in South Kingston.

In a case separate from the insurance company efforts to block payment to Nathan Carman, Linda Carman's three sisters have filed a petition in New Hampshire probate court seeking to have a judge rule that Nathan killed his grandfather and isn't eligible to get money from his grandfather's estate.

"The family is shocked that Nathan has repeatedly refused to answer questions about his $3,000 assault rifle with the same caliber as the murder weapon used to kill his grandfather," Boston attorney Daniel Small, who is representing the Chakalos sisters.

"Covering up such a dangerous weapon is outrageous and devastatingly incriminating, especially during litigation and court-ordered inquiries," Small said.

Chakalos was shot multiple times with a weapon that used .308 caliber bullets -- the same type of bullets that a Sig Sauer 716 uses.

Nathan Carman didn't tell local police that he owned that gun and when they conducted a search of his apartment several months later it wasn't found. Police said that Carman told them he had lost the gun. The weapon has never been found.

Chakalos was a nursing home administrator who was worth as much as $40 million. As Linda Carman's sole heir, Nathan Carman could inherit her share of the estate which could be as much as $7 million, records show.

Hubert Santos, Carman's defense attorney, could not be reached for comment Monday.

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