Nathan Carman trial: Lobster boat captain says he saw no sign of Carman’s boat or life raft

Aug. 17--For 10 hours on Sept. 18, 2016, Alex Aucoin testified Friday, his lobster boat trawled back and forth through Block Canyon off the coast of Long Island and not once did he see the familiar silver captain's perch of Nathan Carman's boat, or any life rafts.

"I knew his boat personally because I thought it was an attractive boat," Aucoin said. "I would have remembered a life raft because I would have gone to assist it."

Aucoin took the stand on the fourth day of Carman's federal civil trial where two insurance companies are fighting his effort to recoup $85,000 for the sinking of the boat. They have argued alterations he made to the boat -- including drilling holes dangerously close to the water line to remove the trim tabs and filling them with an epoxy -- meant it wasn't seaworthy when he and his mother left Point Judith, R.I., on an ill-fated fishing trip.

The boat, the Chicken Pox, sank and his mother, Linda Carman, 54, of Middletown, did not escape and is presumed dead. Carman said he made it onto a life raft and was rescued by a passing freighter after floating for eight days off the coast of Martha's Vineyard.

There's been intense interest in the insurance trial because Carman's three aunts have accused him of murdering his grandfather John Chakalos in Windsor three years ago and then sinking the boat to kill his mother to inherit a $7 million estate.

Police in Connecticut still consider Carman a person of interest in the murder of his grandfather, but he has not been charged. He also has not been charged in connection with the boat's sinking.

Aucoin, the fisherman who testified at the trial Friday, said he trawled for lobster throughout Block Canyon from 5 a.m. to about 3 p.m. on Sept. 18, 2016, going back and forth about nine times. At one point Judge John J. McConnell asked Aucoin to draw three- and six-mile circles on a nautical chart showing where he believes he fished that day.

Aucoin told the judge he would have recognized Carman's boat because they sailed out of the same marina and he was sure he didn't see it that day.

Attorneys for the insurance companies believe Aucoin, who was only recently located, raises questions about Carman's story of where the boat sank. Block Canyon is a large area off of Long Island that is considered one of the deepest parts of the Atlantic Ocean.

Carman told Coast Guard officials his boat sank on the morning of Sept. 18, 2016 while tuna fishing.

Aucoin has been lobstering for 17 years and his testimony broke up what was mostly a day of experts providing more technical testimony about the changes Carman made to his boat the day before the trip.

The first witness Friday was Jon Klopman, a marine surveyor, who testified that repairs Carman made to his boat were both risky and not needed.

Klopman said Carman removed the boat's trim tabs and improperly sealed holes he created in the hull.

"It doesn't make any sense to me. It was an unnecessary repair made the day before the boat was going offshore," Klopman testified. "It leaves you with holes in the boat just above the water line."

Klopman also testified that he wasn't sure why Carman purchased a fiberglass repair kit and then didn't use it to repair the holes he made when removing the trim tabs.

"The instructions are very clear and all laid out but it appears he just ignored them," Klopman said. Trim tabs provide stability and control for a boat.

Carman stuffed the trim tab holes with paper towels and filled it in with an epoxy.

"There's no proper repair of a boat where putty would be used to repair a hole near the water line," Klopman said. "If I saw that I'd tell the boat owner to take the boat out of the water."

The insurance companies' other expert witness, naval architect Eric Greene, recreated how Carman removed the trim tabs to see how it would work. Greene said on almost every test he did the epoxy sealant either fell out completely or failed to provide a watertight seal.

"It was a woefully inadequate way of filling those holes," Greene said.

Greene also cast doubt on Carman's story that the Chicken Pox sank so fast he barely had a chance to grab emergency gear let alone find his mother.

After his rescue, Nathan Carman told the Coast Guard 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.

But Greene said it would take very unusual circumstances for the Chicken Pox to sink quickly.

"I don't see anyway this boat could rapidly sink short of striking a huge object in the ocean or a rogue wave going over the top of it," Greene told the judge.

Greene will return to the witness stand Wednesday when the trial resumes. Carman is also expected to be called as a witness Wednesday.

McConnell, the judge, barred evidence related to Carman's grandfather's murder from being introduced at the trial. Chakalos was found in his Windsor home shot in the back of the head in December 2013. 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.

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

Dave Altimari can be reached at [email protected].

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