Colorado dentist on trial, accused of killing wife with poisoned shakes – National

A Colorado dentist is standing trial for allegedly killing his wife by poisoning her protein shakes after he’d fallen in love with another dentist.

But not only did James Craig, 47, allegedly kill Angela Craig, his wife of 23 years and the mother of his six children — he’s also accused of trying to sabotage the case against him, including allegedly placing a hit on the lead investigator in the case from behind bars.

According to The Associated Press, the case dates back two years, when Craig allegedly used cyanide and tetrahydrozoline, an ingredient in over-the-counter eye drops and nasal sprays, to kill his wife in suburban Denver.

In a courtroom earlier this week, Assistant District Attorney Ryan Brackley said Angela Craig had been in and out of the hospital over several days in March 2023. Her worsening symptoms, including dizziness, vomiting and fainting, perplexed doctors. Craig gave his wife a final dose of poison after she had already been admitted to the hospital, Brackley said while outlining the case.

Brackley also argued that Craig’s motivation may have been to collect his wife’s life insurance payout.

“He went in that room to murder her, to deliberately and intentionally end her life with a fatal dose of cyanide,” Brackley said. “She spends the next three days dying.”

A 52-page probable cause affidavit, as reported by NPR, accuses Craig of buying various poisons online in a deliberate effort to kill his wife, alleging he was feeling the pressure of financial troubles and in the throes of an affair with a Texas orthodontist.

The affidavit cites text messages, browser history, witness interviews and other evidence.

“Based on the totality of the investigation, James has shown the planning and intent to end his wife’s life by searching for ways to kill someone undetected, providing her poisons that align with her hospitalized symptoms, and working on starting a new life with Karin Cain,” Det. Bobbi Olson wrote in the affidavit, referencing the woman Craig was allegedly seeing behind his wife’s back.

Prosecutors also allege that in 2023, following Craig’s arrest, the dentist sent a letter to his daughter, offered a fellow inmate US$20,000 to kill the lead investigator on the case and offered another person US$20,000 to give false testimony that his wife had planned to kill herself.

Craig’s lawyer, Ashley Whitham, said they aren’t disputing that Angela Craig was sick, hospitalized or that poison was found in her system. But Whitham argued the evidence didn’t prove he poisoned and killed her.

Whitham seemed to suggest that Angela Craig may have taken her own life. Whitham repeatedly described Angela Craig as “broken,” partly by Craig’s infidelity and her desire to stay married, since they were part of The Church of Jesus Christ and Latter-day Saints.

Hospital staff had said Craig had been caring and “doting” while Angela Craig was in the hospital, said Whitham.

Whitham said the prosecution overdramatized Craig’s financial problems. She refuted prosecutors’ suggestion that Craig was so enamoured with the woman he was allegedly having an affair with at the time that he was motivated to kill Angela Craig.

“That’s simply not the case,” Whitham said, adding that Craig had many affairs over the years that his wife knew about. “He was candid with Angela that he had been cheating.”

Prosecutors said Craig searched Google for “how to make a murder look like a heart attack” and “is arsenic detectable in an autopsy,” and that he tried to make it appear his wife had killed herself.

On Wednesday, Craig’s office manager, Caitlin Romero, testified that while Angela Craig had been in and out of the hospital, the dental office where they worked received a personal package addressed to Craig — something she had never seen before, reports Fox News.

She said that on March 6, 2023, Craig had told her a package would be arriving and instructed her not to open it. When it arrived a week later, another staff member opened the box before bringing it to Romero, who described the contents of the box as a sealed “foil package” and a paper invoice.

She checked the invoice to make sure it was the personal package that Craig had discussed with her and saw that it was. On the invoice, she read that the box contained potassium cyanide, which she immediately Googled out of curiosity.

Two days later, Angela Craig was admitted to hospital for the final time.

In addition to first-degree murder, Craig has pleaded not guilty to the other charges, including solicitation to commit murder and solicitation to commit perjury.

— With files from The Associated Press

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