After nearly nine hours of deliberation, an Arapahoe County jury convicted a Colorado dentist of first-degree murder Wednesday afternoon in the poisoning death of his wife.
The jury found James Craig, 47, guilty on all six felony charges in the death of Angela Craig: first-degree murder, solicitation of first-degree murder and two counts each of solicitation of tampering with physical evidence and solicitation of perjury, according to the 18th Judicial District Attorney’s Office.
Angela Craig died on March 18, 2023, during her third trip to the hospital in a little over a week. She died from lethal doses of cyanide and tetrahydrozoline, an ingredient found in over-the-counter eyedrops.
James Craig was arrested in March 2023 on suspicion of poisoning his wife. From the beginning of the case, police called her death “a heinous, complex and calculated murder.”
Prosecutors claimed Craig purchased nearly 20 bottles of eyedrops containing that lethal ingredient during a two-day span that aligned with his wife’s symptoms. He also tried to order other poisons online.
Craig told others that his wife was suicidal and had asked him to order the poison.
While James Craig’s defense team tried to claim that Angela Craig killed herself, calling the poisoning “an ongoing game of chicken” that went too far, the jury disagreed.
“Angela Craig was innocent,” Arapahoe County prosecutor Michael Mauro told jurors during Tuesday’s closing arguments. “She had no part in her death, and the only person who says otherwise is this man, a person guilty of the ultimate betrayal: her murder.”
James Craig poisoned his wife’s smoothies and cups, and replaced a bottle of prescription pills with poison, prosecutors said.
They said he also encouraged Angela Craig’s brother to give her the deadly capsules under the guise of medication and used a communal work computer to conduct hundreds of internet searches about poisons.
James Craig tried to convince his daughter to create a deepfake video of Angela Craig asking him to order the poison and saying she planned to take it, Mauro said during the trial.
Prosecutors said the Aurora dentist also asked people to forge additional journal entries to plant with his wife’s journal, arrange fake witnesses to testify on his behalf and kill key players in the case, including the lead detective and a jail informant.
The prosecution and defense both rested their cases on Monday and delivered closing arguments on Tuesday, two weeks after the trial began.
James Craig’s attorneys did not present a defense before resting and called no witnesses to the stand, but suggested Angela Craig played a role in her own death. Prosecutors called nearly 50 witnesses throughout the trial.
Craig was originally scheduled to stand trial in December 2024, but multiple attorney mishaps — including one withdrawing over ethical concerns and another being arrested on suspicion of arson — delayed the case.
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