BURLINGTON — A lawyer for Nathan Carman told a judge Friday she “firmly” believed that her client was capable of understanding and participating in his defense against federal charges of fraud and murder at sea in the death of his mother.
U.S. District Court Judge Geoffrey Crawford said he called the hearing to find out if either the prosecution or defense attorneys in the case would be seeking a mental health evaluation for Carman.
Mary Nerino, a federal public defender representing Carman, said in court she had no plans to ask for one.
“We will certainly let the court know should any issues arise,” Nerino told the judge.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Van de Graaf, a prosecutor, told Crawford he wasn’t seeking a mental health evaluation for Carman either.
“We don’t think there’s grounds to ask for that,” Van de Graaf said.
Carman, 28, of Vernon, pleaded not guilty earlier this month to charges brought in an eight-count federal indictment, including multiple fraud counts as well as first-degree murder in the 2016 death of his mother, Linda Carman.
According to court filings, Carman asked his mother to go fishing with him, but his mother was never seen again after they departed in Nathan Carman’s boat from a marina in Rhode Island.
Carman was rescued a little more than a week later in an inflatable raft floating off the coast of Massachusetts. He has told authorities that his boat sank and only he was able to survive, according to court records.
Prosecutors alleged Carman killed his mother, and had also killed his 87-year-old grandfather, John Chakalos, at his home in Windsor, Connecticut, in 2013.
Carman has not been charged in the death of his grandfather, though prosecutors alleged in charging documents that he committed both killings as part of a scheme to collect millions of dollars from inheritance and insurance accounts.
Carman, who is currently in custody, said little during the hearing that lasted less than 15 minutes.
Crawford said Friday that if a mental health evaluation was going to be requested by either side, he wanted to know earlier rather than later, since it can be a time-consuming process.
“I wanted to get out ahead of it,” the judge said.
An earlier filing by prosecutors seeking to keep Carman detained while the case was pending outlined some of his mental health history, starting when he was first treated by mental health professionals at age 5.
“Records indicate that medication was, in part, intended to help manage anger,” prosecutors wrote. “At the age of 9, evaluators expressed concern about Carman’s ‘social difficulties’ and ‘explosive rages,’ highlighting episodes ‘in which he can become aggressive.’”
Carman was also previously diagnosed with “potential mood and psychotic disorders,” according to the prosecution filing.
If convicted of murder at sea, Carman faces up to life in prison.
