WATERBURY, Conn. — Nathan Carman vowed to prove that he was innocent. That he never fatally shot his wealthy grandfather, or killed his mother at sea and deliberately sank his boat to make it look like an accident — all part of an elaborate scheme to collect a multimillion-dollar inheritance.
But on Thursday, during the 29-year-old’s funeral service, held a week after he was found dead in his cell at a New Hampshire jail, his lawyer, Martin Minnella, said his death ended the defense’s search for the truth and meant: “The real story of Nathan Carman may never be told.”
During a eulogy at Our Lady of Lourdes church, Minnella said it was unfortunate that his client, whom he described as “an intelligent, sensitive, caring, and non-violent young man,” would never get the chance to show that he loved his mother and grandfather and didn’t harm them.
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About two dozen people, including Carman’s lawyers, a close friend of Carman’s mother, and a handful of journalists, gathered inside the historic church for a Catholic Mass. Two of his maternal aunts and one uncle were also seated in the pews, according to an attorney representing the family.
A funeral director carried Carman’s cremated remains into the church in a gray urn with silver trim and placed the urn on a table adorned with a bouquet of white and red roses in front of the altar.
A burial that had been scheduled immediately after was postponed until sometime next month, when Carman’s father is able to make the trip from his home in California, Minnella said.
Authorities have not released details of how Carman died at the Cheshire County Jail in Keene, N.H., but Minnella said he was told that the state medical examiner’s office found that he hanged himself while alone in his cell.
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“Rejection by one’s family can become completely unbearable,” Minnella said as he looked out at many empty pews. He said that he and his co-counsel were Carman’s only contact with the outside world while he was jailed without bail; he was awaiting trial in October on murder and fraud charges in federal court in Vermont. Minnella said he paid for Carman’s funeral because he felt he owed him a proper burial.
Carman was estranged from his mother’s three sisters, who filed a civil suit accusing him of killing her and his grandfather and had tried to prevent him from collecting an inheritance.
Bill Michael, the family’s attorney, said two of the aunts went to the service to “pay their respects and bring closure to the events over the last several years.”
In September 2016, Carman and his mother, Linda, of Middletown, Conn., set sail from Point Judith, R.I., for a fishing trip on his 31-foot aluminum boat. A week later, he was alone when he was rescued from a life raft by a passing freighter about 115 miles off Martha’s Vineyard. His mother is presumed dead.
Suspicion was immediately cast on Carman as it was revealed in court filings that he had been identified by police as a suspect in the murder of his wealthy grandfather, John Chakalos, who was shot to death in 2013 at his home in Windsor, Conn. However, nobody was ever charged in that slaying.
Carman received approximately $550,000 from his grandfather’s estate, authorities said. Carman, who had grown up in Middletown, Conn., and was living there at the time, used some of the money to buy a house in Vernon, Vt., and relocated there.
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In 2019, Carman went to trial in federal court in Rhode Island in a civil case after two insurance companies accused him of fraud for trying to collect $85,000 for the loss of his boat. They alleged in court filings that he killed his mother during the fishing trip and intentionally sank his boat.
“The reason I am not walking away, no matter what, is because I am innocent and I want my day in court,” Carman wrote to the Globe in a 2019 e-mail on the eve of the Rhode Island trial.
Carman testified over two days at that trial, offering a dramatic account of how his mother disappeared with the boat when it took on water and sank suddenly, while they were fishing about 100 miles offshore in an area off Long Island known as Block Canyon. He said he managed to make it safely into a life raft, which automatically deployed with a bag of dry clothes and enough food for two weeks.
A judge ruled that Carman was not entitled to collect any money for the loss of the boat because he “made improper and faulty repairs” that contributed to its sinking.
Before he was arrested on federal charges last year, Carman was living a quiet life in Vermont, where he attended Bible study and made a living buying construction materials online and reselling them at a profit, according to his lawyers.
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An eight-count federal indictment unsealed in May 2022 charged Carman with first-degree murder for allegedly killing his mother, as well as fraud counts related to his effort to obtain inheritance and insurance funds.
The indictment also alleged that Carman shot and killed his grandfather, but didn’t charge him with that slaying.
Prosecutors alleged that Carman’s grandfather had been supporting him but threatened to cut him off financially if he failed to keep his grades up in college. Two days before Chakalos was killed, Carman received his grades for the semester, which showed he flunked every subject.
Prosecutors alleged he killed his mother because he wanted more money, and Chakalos, a real estate developer, left a $44 million estate to his four daughters, including Carman’s mother.
On Thursday, as he stood on the altar, Minnella said Carman’s mother and grandfather were “the two most important people in his life” and he idolized his grandfather. He said the defense had identified five suspects “who had both motive and opportunity” to kill Carman’s grandfather and that the indictment was “full of untruths and fiction.”
Now, he said, Carman’s indictment has been dismissed and he remains presumed innocent.
Shelley Murphy can be reached at shelley.murphy@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @shelleymurph.