Federal Judge Orders Nathan Carman To Answer Questions About Missing Gun

April 02--A federal judge in Rhode Island has ordered Nathan Carman to answer questions about what happened to a gun that has been missing since his grandfather's 2013 shooting death.

The order comes in a case involving an insurance company's efforts to avoid payments on the boat that Carman and his mother were in when it sank off Block Island in 2016. Nathan Carman was rescued at sea and Linda Carman is presumed dead. The insurance company has denied his claim for the boat, alleging that alterations he made caused it to sink.

It also comes on the eve of a scheduled appearance by Carman in a New Hampshire probate court where the same question about the gun is at issue. Carman is expected to argue that he does not have to answer questions about the gun. Police have said Carman was a suspect in his grandfather's slaying but has not been charged. In the New Hampshire case, his aunts are trying to keep him from inheriting any of his grandfather's millions by having a judge rule he killed his grandfather, John Chakalos.

Carman's attorneys in the Rhode Island case stopped his deposition when attorneys for the insurance company tried asking about a specific gun -- a Sig Sauer that uses .308 caliber bullets, the same caliber used to murder Chakalos -- that Carman has claimed he lost.

Carman's attorneys argued in the federal case that the gun issue, and the grandfather's slaying in general, are beyond the scope of the lawsuit, which is in effect a disputed insurance claim.

But federal Judge Patricia A. Sullivan disagreed and issued a seven-page order late Friday reopening Carman's deposition for two more hours. No date has been set for that deposition.

"As Plaintiffs correctly point out, this ship has already sailed -- the Court has already ruled that discovery in this case may focus on facts bearing directly on an alleged scheme to procure a substantial inheritance by murdering, first, his grandfather and then, his mother through the intentional sinking of the vessel," Sullivan ruled.

Attorney David F. Anderson, who is representing Carman in the federal boat case, told Sullivan her order "converts this case into a mini-trial about who murdered his grandfather, as well as that it opens the door to wide-ranging discovery regarding whether (Carman) violated any Connecticut firearm laws."

But Sullivan said her ruling doesn't create open season on Carman's rights but allows the plaintiffs to ask specific questions. She said her order forbids the insurance company's attorneys from opening new avenues of questions during the extended deposition.

Carman is trying to get the insurance company to pay for the loss of his boat, The Chicken Pox, which he told authorities sank while he and his mother were tuna fishing off Block Island in September 2016.

Carman has acknowledged removing the trim tabs from the boat and replacing a bilge pump before setting off to fish for tuna in an area called "the canyon" off the coast of Block Island. Carman has told authorities that his boat took on water quickly during the trip, prompting him to grab an emergency kit and climb onto a life raft. He said he could not find his mother after the boat sank.

Linda Carman's three surviving sisters -- Valerie Santilli, Elaine Chakalos and Charlene Gallagher -- have filed the so-called slayer petition in New Hampshire probate court seeking to have a judge declare that Nathan murdered his grandfather and then was responsible for the presumed death of his mother.

They are asking the judge to bar him from getting any of his grandfather's inheritance. The estate is estimated to be worth more than $20 million, meaning Nathan Carman's portion of that as his mother's only surviving heir would be more than $5 million.

Nathan Carman has denied killing his grandfather and has labeled his aunts as "greedy" and "driven by malice to make the vexatious, false, and insupportable allegations."

Windsor police have identified Nathan Carman as a suspect in his grandfather's murder and tried to obtain an arrest warrant, but it was rejected by a judge. Police alleged that Carman never told them he had owned a gun that shot the same caliber of bullets used in the murder. They obtained a search warrant for his Middletown apartment at that time but never found that gun. They recovered a shotgun and a pellet rifle during that search.

The Sig Sauer has never been recovered.

A team of law enforcement officials from several states has been investigating the boat's sinking and the murder but no charges in either case have ever been filed against Nathan Carman.

___

(c)2018 The Hartford Courant (Hartford, Conn.)

Visit The Hartford Courant (Hartford, Conn.) at www.courant.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.