A federal judge has set a trial in October for the millennial real estate heir accused of killing his World War II hero grandfather and mother in a bid to inherit millions and defrauding an insurance company for more cash.
Federal prosecutors charge Nathan Carman, 29, with shooting his grandfather, John Chakalos, a former Army paratrooper and self-made billionaire, as part of a scheme to raise the family trust fund.
He received $550,000 after his grandfather’s death in 2013 and reportedly spent it over the next three years. That’s when, prosecutors say, she sank her own boat, killed her mother at sea and filed an $85,000 insurance claim.
Judge Geoffrey W. Crawford scheduled the trial on charges of murder and federal wire fraud for October 2-20.
VERMONT MAN ACCUSED OF SHOOTING WWII HERO GRANDPA, MURDERING MOM AT SEA DEMANDS GRAND JURY MINUTES
John Chakalos, left, served with distinction in the US Army during World War II and later built a real estate empire in New England. His grandson, Nathan Carman, right, is accused of killing him in 2013 to claim an inheritance and then killing his mother as part of an alleged insurance scam. (Patrick Raycraft/Tribune News Service via Getty Images, AP Photo/Steven Senne)
Chakalos, in an online obituary, was described as a “self-made man” and real estate developer with a passion for philanthropy and family. One month before his alleged murder, his wife of 59 years died of cancer.
During the war, Chakalos served in the Philippines, where he “participated in numerous high-risk missions.”
Carman, on the other hand, failed out of community college while Chakalos paid for his truck and apartment, according to court documents. Grandpa also footed the bill for riding lessons and room and board for a pony.
“Simply put, the accused scheme involves money, murder and misrepresentations.”
Prosecutors accused Carman of shooting his grandfather with a rifle in December 2013. In 2016, prosecutors allege, Carman invited his mother, Linda Carman, to go fishing in his 31-foot boat called the Chicken Pox.
VERMONT MAN NATHAN CARMAN, CHARGED WITH MURDERING MOTHER LINDA CARMAN AT SEA, PLEADS NOT GUILTY
Nathan Carman is accused of killing his mother, Linda Carman, in 2016 while she was at sea on a fishing trip to make up her millions. (Facebook)
Sank down. His mother was never found. And a private vessel recovered Carman floating in a lifeboat in the Atlantic a week later.
Carman then filed an $85,000 insurance claim for the sunken boat, which the insurer denied and fought in court.
“Simply put, the charged scheme involves money, murder and misrepresentations,” wrote Assistant U.S. Attorneys Paul van de Graaf and Nathanael Burris in a dismantling of Carman’s arguments in a pair of documents filed this week.
VERMONT MAN ACCUSED OF MURDERING MOM AT SEA FOR INHERITANCE MONEY AFTER SHIP SANK OFF RHODE ISLAND COAST
Nathan Carman arrives at the Coast Guard base in Boston on September 27, 2016, after surviving the sinking of his 32-foot fishing boat near Block Canyon off New York in the Atlantic Ocean. (Suzanne Kreiter/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
Carman’s lawyers took the unusual step of demanding the grand jury minutes last week, requesting a list of details about his federal indictment.
Grand jury proceedings are generally kept secret, and there is a high burden to force the court to compel their disclosure, according to authorities.
Prosecutors argued that the assertions in their motions were insufficient.
“It does not offer specific evidence that anything inappropriate occurred during the grand jury proceedings,” van de Graaf and Burris wrote. “Rather, it is based on faulty readings of the charges and the law.”
VERMONT MAN ACCUSED OF MURDERING MOM AT SEA FOR INHERITANCE MONEY AFTER SHIP SANK OFF RHODE ISLAND COAST
They added that routine discovery practices would also provide the defense with copies of grand jury testimony from federal agents.
Read the government’s opposition to Carman’s motion for grand jury minutes (app users go here)
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While Carman has only been charged with one count of murder in his mother’s death, prosecutors said he is still charged with killing his grandfather.
“The fraud scheme outlined in Counts One through Six charges Carman with committing two murders, the murder of his grandfather and the murder of his mother, in order to gain access to millions of dollars in a trust fund and conceal his responsibility for those murders. they said. he wrote her.
