Grandson of NH developer charged with killing mother, fraud to get inheritance
May 11—A Vernon, Vt., man has been arrested and charged with killing his mother off the Rhode Island coast in 2016, which federal prosecutors allege was part of a scheme meant to get the family's money and property.
Nathan Carman, now 28, was arrested Tuesday and charged with murder on the high seas in the death of his mother Linda Carman in 2016, and seven counts of fraud that the U.S. Attorney's Office in Vermont allege was meant to obtain his mother's inheritance following the 2013 murder of Carman's grandfather, New Hampshire nursing home developer John Chakalos, at Chakalos' home in Connecticut in 2013.
Carman will be arraigned Wednesday in Vermont. If convicted of the murder charge, he could face life imprisonment, and each of the fraud charges carry penalties of up to 30 years in prison.
In the indictment unsealed Tuesday, federal prosecutors also accuse Carman of shooting his grandfather, John Chakalos, in Connecticut in 2013 with a rifle he bought at Shooter's Outpost in Hooksett, but Carman has not been charged with that death. Police in Connecticut were denied a warrant to arrest Carman for the murder in 2013, according to news reports. Carman has denied involvement and his attorneys have alleged another person was at Chakalos' house the night of his death.
The U.S. Attorney's Office in Vermont declined to make any comment about the indictment, or about why prosecutors accuse Carman of his grandfather's murder, but have not charged him. The office of the federal public defender, which is representing Carman, did not return a message seeking comment Tuesday.
Carman received about $550,000 after his grandfather's murder in 2013. According to prosecutors, Carman moved to Vermont in 2014, and was largely unemployed.
In 2015, prosecutors said, Carman bought a boat, naming it the Chicken Pox, and in September 2016 invited his mother to go on a tuna fishing trip. Mother and son had taken many fishing trips together since 2012, prosecutors said.
The Chicken Pox left a marina in South Kingstown, R.I., just after 11 p.m. on Sept. 17, 2017, prosecutors said. Linda Carman told friends she would be back the next morning.
But prosecutors said Carman intentionally damaged his boat before they left, removing parts that help keep the boat level and keep water from flowing in.
Out on the water, prosecutors allege, Carman killed his mother and sank the Chicken Pox.
The Coast Guard started looking for the boat on Sept. 18 after it had not returned on schedule.
Carman was found in an inflatable life raft by another boater on Sept. 25, about 600 miles off the coast of Martha's Vineyard.
Linda Carman's body was never recovered, but she is presumed dead.
Years in court, but first time charged
The fight over John Chakalos' multimillion-dollar estate has kept Carman and his family in court for years, with Linda Carman's sisters filing an action in 2017 to stop Nathan Carman from inheriting up to $7 million from his grandfather, and his mother's share of his grandfather's fortune.
The probate fight, and a case against the company that insured the Chicken Pox, have stretched on for years, but this week marks the first time Carman has faced criminal charges.
Prosecutors have charged Carman with killing his mother, "with malice aforethought" and "willfully, deliberately, maliciously and with premeditation" off the coast of the United States in 2016.
Six of the fraud charges date from 2018, alleging Carman used email, the mail and UPS to receive documents prosecutors say he used as he tried fraudulently to get money from his grandfather's estate.
The last charge alleges Carman was trying to defraud the boat insurance company.
Carman filed an $85,000 claim for the boat with his insurance company in October 2016. A judge in Rhode Island ruled in 2019 that Carman had contributed to the sinking of his boat, and was not entitled to any money from the insurance company.
Carman will be arraigned in federal court Wednesday in Vermont.
