Nathan Carman, a 29-year-old Vermont man who was set to go on trial for the murder of his mother during a 2016 sea fishing trip off Rhode Island, has died in jail, prosecutors said in court papers on Thursday.
Marshals reported that Carman died “on or about” Thursday. No cause of death was given. Vermont News First reported that Carman killed himself.
NBC5, a Vermont affiliate, said Martin Mannella, an attorney, “said Carman and his legal team were looking forward to going to trial in October and having his story told in court”, adding that Carman “was confident that he would be vindicated with an acquittal”.
Mannella told NBC5 he had “no indication” Carman could kill himself.
Carman, of Vernon, Vermont, was accused last year of fraud and first-degree murder in the death of his mother, Linda Carman of Middletown, Connecticut, a killing he was alleged to have carried out “willfully, deliberately, maliciously, and with premeditation”.
In an eight-count indictment, prosecutors alleged that Carman planned his mother’s death in order to obtain an inheritance.
He was also suspected, though never charged, of shooting dead his grandfather, John Chakalos, in Windsor, Connecticut, in 2013, as part of a $550,000 insurance swindle.
The indictment said Carman arranged the 2016 fishing trip with his mother and planned to kill her, then report to authorities that the boat sank and his mother disappeared.
On 25 September 2016, eight days after sailing from Rhode Island, Carman was found in an inflatable raft off Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. His mother was never found and is presumed dead.
Prosecutors alleged Carman altered the boat, a 31ft vessel named Chicken Pox, to make it more likely to sink. The killing of his mother is alleged to have taken place “within the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States”.
Carman, who was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, denied doing anything to intentionally make the boat unseaworthy. He told the US Coast Guard that when the boat filled quickly with water, he swam to a life raft and called for his mother but never saw her again.
During a hearing on an $83,000 insurance claim, which was denied, Carman was asked if he had warned his mother the boat was sinking.
“I didn’t know the boat was going down until I was in the water,” Carman said. “I treated my mother like a passenger. She was more of a problem than a solution.”
