RUTLAND — Nathan Carman walked into a federal courtroom in Rutland in handcuffs Wednesday, nearly six years after prosecutors say he created a ruse about going on a 2016 fishing trip off the coast of Rhode Island to hide a plot in which he killed his mother.
Outside the courthouse, a throng of reporters and photographers waited along a chain-link fence as Carman was whisked from a transport vehicle through a door into the building.
When he was asked his reaction to the charges against him, he shouted his reply: “Not guilty!”
During the hearing inside, an attorney entered not guilty pleas on Carman’s behalf to charges contained in an eight-count federal indictment.
The charges include fraud and “murder on the high seas” in the death of Linda Carman, his mother, on that supposed fishing trip. He is also accused of sinking the boat and lying to authorities about what happened.
When he was rescued in an inflatable life raft, he told authorities that he had spent about a week floating in the ocean, according to reports.
Nathan Carman’s goal in the scheme, according to prosecutors, was to collect millions in inheritance and insurance money. The indictment also alleged that Carman shot and killed his wealthy grandfather, John Chakalos, 87, in 2013 at Chakalos’ Connecticut home, with the same intent.
Carman, 28, a resident of Vernon, does not face a criminal charge related to his grandfather’s death. Instead, prosecutors alleged both slayings were part of the larger fraud scheme Carman concocted to keep him flush with cash.
In court Wednesday, Judge Geoffrey Crawford ordered Carman held without bail, and scheduled a hearing Monday to determine if prosecutors can continue to hold him while the case against him is pending.
Reporters, lawyers and law enforcement officials filled many of the seats in the courtroom on Wednesday. There was no outward sign that any of Carman’s family members were in attendance, and he did not appear to acknowledge anyone in the crowd.
Carman was represented by Steven Barth, a federal public defender. Barth declined comment following the arraignment.
During the brief hearing, Carman asked the judge several questions, including how he could gain the use of a phone while behind bars to reach out to a private attorney, and how he could research and seek out a lawyer to represent him.
Crawford advised Carman to discuss those matters with Barth.
The indictment against Carman was returned May 2, but was sealed until Tuesday afternoon, after he was arrested at his Vernon home.
Prosecutors submitted a new court filing Wednesday, presenting arguments to keep Carman locked up while the case against him proceeds. That seven-page document provides additional details into Carman’s background and the reasons prosecutors believe he’s a flight risk.
“The very real prospect of Carman spending the rest of his life in prison provides him with a compelling incentive to flee,” prosecutors wrote in the filing. “Moreover, Carman’s offense involved detailed planning over the course of many years, as well as deceit, deception and subterfuge.”
If convicted of the federal charge of murder at sea alone, Carman faces life in prison.
“Carman’s mental instability, which has gone untreated for the past decade, provides further reason to believe that he poses a danger,” prosecutors wrote.
Carman was first treated by mental health professionals at age 5, and had received medication from age 7 until about age 17, according to the documents.
“Records indicate that medication was, in part, intended to help manage anger,” prosecutors wrote. “At the age of nine, evaluators expressed concern about Carman’s ‘social difficulties’ and ‘explosive rages,’ highlighting episodes ‘in which he can become aggressive.’”
In April 2011, after a “tumultuous” incident at his school, Carman was taken to a facility for an emergency evaluation, prosecutors wrote. Carman was diagnosed at that time with “potential mood and psychotic disorders,” according to the document.
From that point on, prosecutors wrote, Carman started refusing to take medication, and in 2014 police in Middletown, Connecticut, obtained a “risk warrant” leading to his evaluation at a local hospital.
According to the filing, Carman denied that he needed psychiatric observation. It appeared he hadn’t received any mental health treatment since then.
According to prosecutors, Carman told his mother they would be going fishing on his boat Chicken Pox for the day in September 2016. But he told authorities that, after heading out on the ocean, the boat suddenly sank. He said he was able to escape on an inflatable life raft.
“I looked around and called out for her while I was in the water and after getting on board the life raft,” Carman wrote in a document related to his $85,000 insurance claim on the boat, according to The Hartford Courant.
“I continued to try and locate my mom, looking for her and calling out and listening for a reply until dark,” Carman added, “then I made myself rest.”
Prosecutors said there have been no sightings of Linda Carman in the years that followed.
The indictment also alleges that Carman “altered” the boat before heading out to sea with his mother by removing two forward bulkheads and trim tabs from the transom of the hull.
Carman’s case has attracted national attention, including coverage of the years of litigation that followed his mother’s disappearance, as other relatives contested his right to any family money.
It was not clear after the hearing why no murder charge had been filed in connection with Carman’s grandfather’s death, or why it took prosecutors years to secure the indictment.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Nate Burris, a prosecutor in the case, declined to answer questions after Carman’s arraignment.
