Nathan Carman trial: Executive says company would not have insured Chicken Pox after Carman altered boat before it sank

Aug. 16--An executive for the company that insured Nathan Carman's boat testified Thursday that if they had been aware of the changes made to the Chicken Pox before it's ill-fated fishing trip they would have refused to insure it.

"We would not have accepted the risk if we knew about the alterations," said Michael Pellerin, vice president of the Boat Owners Association of the United States, one of two insurance companies suing Nathan Carman in federal court in Providence over his attempt to recoup $85,000 from the sinking of the Chicken Pox.

The boat sank off of Long Island on Sept. 16, 2016, a day after Nathan Carman and his mother set out on a tuna fishing voyage. Carman's mother, Linda Carman, has not been seen since. After his rescue, Nathan Carman told the Coast Guard that he realized the boat was quickly filling with water so he told his mother to take in the fishing lines while he grabbed emergency gear and swam to a life raft. He was rescued by a passing freighter after floating on the raft for eight days.

Over three days of testimony in U.S. District Court in Providence this week the insurance companies have argued that the Chicken Pox was not seaworthy because of alterations Nathan Carman made to the boat after purchasing it.

Pellerin also said that they would have expected Carman to notify them he had removed the boat's trim tabs, part of a bulkhead and replaced a bilge pump before departing fishing trip on the evening of Sept. 15, 2016.

The trim tabs are a key part of the case because Carman removed them and left holes that insurers say he didn't properly fill. Trim tabs assist in stability and control of the boat.

Pellerin spent most of his time on the stand going over the insurance policy that Carman got and changes that were made to it.

The Boat Owners Association agreed to insure Carman and the Chicken Pox for $66,000 in December 2015. Carman returned the signed documents on Feb. 19, 2016.

About a month later Carman asked to increase the insurance to $85,000 because he had purchased a new life raft and added electronic equipment. The new life raft was the one Carman floated to safety on less then six months later.

Two months after the Chicken Pox sank, Carman e-mailed the insurance company asking for a policy handbook as well as possible payment options for a claim.

Earlier this week witnesses for the insurance companies blamed the sinking of the boat on Carman's decision to remove the boat's trim tabs and his improper installaton of a new bilge pump.

Bernard Feeney, a marine surveyor who signed off on the condition of the boat for the insurance companies, told Judge John J. McConnell, said the boat was "seaworthy" when Carman bought it -- but "not seaworthy after ... what he did to this boat."

Carman has acknowledged drilling holes dangerously close to the water line to remove the trim tabs and filling them with an epoxy. He also has said he replaced a bilge pump before that trip. Carman also didn't activate the emergency beacon on his boat.

Police in Connecticut still consider Carman a person of interest in the murder of his grandfather, John Chakalos, in December of 2013 in his Windsor home. The investigation is now being led by the cold case squad at the Chief State's Attorney's office.

Judge McConnell has barred any evidence about the murder of Chakalos in December 2013 in his Windsor home. After the murder, Carman was considered a suspect by Windsor police, who tried to get an arrest warrant but a judge would not sign it.

Carman's three aunts have accused Nathan Carman of sinking the boat to kill his mother, and the murder of their father John Chakalos three years earlier, under a scheme to inherit $7 million from the Chakalos estate.

In June, a probate judge in New Hampshire dismissed a "slayer petition" filed by the aunts -- Valerie Santilli, Elaine Chakalos and Charlene Gallagher -- that accused Carman of killing his grandfather in 2013 and of orchestrating the disappearance of his mother in 2016, in order to get all of the inheritance.

Chakalos was found in his Windsor home shot in the back of the head. The bullets used in the murder are similar to what a Sig Sauer rifle would fire. Carman paid more than $2,000 for a Sig Sauer rifle a month before the murder and has said that he has since lost it.

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