Colorado Dentist Found Guilty of Murdering Wife with Poisoned Protein Shakes

ARAPAHOE COUNTY, Colo. (Scripps News Denver/Court TV) A Colorado dentist has been found guilty of murdering his wife by poisoning her protein shakes.

James Craig faced multiple charges, including first-degree murder, for the death of 43-year-old Angela Craig. Her cause of death was determined to be lethal doses of cyanide and tetrahydrozoline, a decongestant found in over-the-counter eyedrops. The jury found him guilty of all charges.

James Craig talks with his family from his seat before opening arguments in his murder trial, as he is accused of killing his wife, at the Arapahoe District Court, Tuesday, July 15, 2025, in Centennial, Colo. (Stephen Swofford via Denver Gazette, Pool)

A 52-page arrest affidavit for James detailed how his wife became sick multiple times in early and mid-March 2023 and was hospitalized, but doctors could not determine what was causing her symptoms. On March 15, James business partner, Ryan Redfearn, alerted a nurse that he believed Angela had been poisoned, possibly by James, according to the affidavit.

Angela was pronounced brain dead on March 18, 2023, at 4:29 p.m., according to the affidavit.

An investigation revealed poison-related internet searches on devices seized at James dental office, including How many grams of pure arsenic will kill a human? and Is arsenic detectable in autopsy? The affidavit also claims James made multiple orders for arsenic and cyanide. Detectives also uncovered that James was having an affair.

According to the affidavit, an office manager at the dental practice told authorities they knew James made protein shakes for Angela every morning before they exercised and that she felt faint and dizzy after drinking them. Police said in the affidavit that they believe the poison was in those shakes.

TRIAL HIGHLIGHTS

DAY 12 7/30/25

DAY 11 7/29/25

Prosecutor Michael Mauro delivered the States closing argument.
- WATCH: James Craig Wanted Out Of His Marriage, Not Willing To Do It With Divorce
- Insisted Angela had no role in her death.
- Said Craig lied and fabricatied false narratives.
- Said Craig wanted out of marriage due to affairs, and had a financial motive to avoid losing money in divorce.
- Argued Craig preferred being a widower than leaving the mother of his children.
- Pointed out that Craig acquired poisons over 10 days, indicating intent to kill.
- Described Angela as resilient and unaware of the plot against her.
- Said Craig was monitoring his poison delivery while messaging with his mistresses.
- Concluded by driving home his argument that Angela is innocent and Craig is guilty.
Defense Attorney Lisa Moses delivered her closing argument.
- WATCH: Defense Attorney: James Craig Was a Crappy Husband, but Not a Killer
- Said Crag and Angela had a complex but loving relationship.
- Argued there was no financial motive because they were not in financial distress and has existing life insurance policies.
- Argued its unclear how Angela ingested the poison, says theres no definitive evidence.
- Acknowledged Craig was a flawed husband but not a wife killer.
- Urged jury to find Craig not guilty due to insufficient evidence.
State Rebuttal Closing.
- Argued Craig deserves to be found guilty.
- Said theres a lack of evidence that Angelas cause of death was suicide, said evidence points to Craig as perp.
- All evidence points towards Craig as the perpetrator.
- Affirmed that Angela fought to live, had no intent to die.
- Final Assertion: Craig is unequivocally guilty of murdering Angela Craig.

DAY 10 7/28/25

APD detective Bobbi Olson returned to the stand and discussed the four-page iPhone note James allegedly wrote before detectives seized his cell phone. Part of the note talks about cyanide, capsules and a syringe.
- She told me she intended to drink eye drops again and then do the cyanide. She asked me to put it into a capsule, the note reads. I got her a Clindamycin (prescription) and filled it with 200mg each of potassium cyanide. She asked me to do something like a dozen capsules. The note also says James reserved four capsules that were not tainted and used those as her first two doses.
- In the note, James admits to preparing a syringe with cyanide and details his time at the ER.
  - In the ER, it looked like she was probably going to pull through and be okay, he wrote. In that moment, when no one else was in ear shot, she asked me to help finish the job.
- Olson testified to entries found in Angelas journal, dating as far back as 2009. Some of the entries acknowledge that James is having affairs. One entry says, Last night was so hard. Jim has been having an affair for six months. I know he wont admit it, and Im not sure he recognizes it&
- The jury saw a text James sent his former business partner, Ryan Redfearn, after Redfearn confronted James about the package of cyanide delivered to the dental office.
  - I want to make an urgent plea to you. If we were ever friends, please do this favor for me. Please dont talk to anybody about what we talked about last night, including law enforcement&you will do more damage than good&Angela is gone, and I am devastated. There is nothing that can bring her back, and I want desperately to tell you all the details&There is so, so much that you dont know, that I wish you did. If you knew everything, it would make so much sense to you&
- Olson testified that after seizing James laptop, the following internet searches were found, dated March 9, 2023:
  - What does it mean when the systolic and diastolic are close together
  - How to raise blood pressure
  - Is low blood pressure dangerous
  - What to know about low blood pressure
Prosecutors rested their case after calling nearly 50 witnesses.
The defense rested its case without calling any witnesses.

DAY 9 7/25/25

Aurora Police Detective Bobbi Olson returned to the stand. He served as lead investigator on the case.
- Olson said he received a letter from someone alleging that Angela had paid someone $66,000 to frame James for her murder.
- Evidence found in the Craig home included a shaker bottle that tested positive for tetrahydrozoline.
- Olson touched on the couples life insurance policies, which included one from Kansas City Life and Lincoln Life; the combined worth of the policies was $4 million.
- Prosecutors presented surveillance footage from the Craig home. Detectives viewed more than 1,000 hours of footage between February and March 2023.
  - James defense took issue with the video, which they said skipped parts and noted large clips had lapses in time not recorded by the cameras.
  - A piece of surveillance video recorded in the early hours of March 6, 2023, shows James microwaving and mixing something. Prosecutors called attention to a cup with a pink lid on the counter. The footage then jumped to Andela drinking something and the couple chatting in the kitchen.
  - In a series of text messages, Angela accused James of trying to tell people she had suicidal ideations.
  - Phone data showed James going from his dental office to Midland Scientific, a lab chemical and supply distributor, to pick up an order for cyanide. A note from James said, Hopefully this is in stock and I can pick it up on March 9.
  - Another surveillance video on March 9 showed James handling a shaker bottle and white cup in the kitchen around 5 a.m. Another clip shows James bringing the bottle to Angela, who as sitting on the couch, about an hour later.
- Olson testified about an email James sent asking about an order of oleandrin, a drug used in folk medicine but which the National Institutes of Health warns can be fatal.
- A four-page iPhone note written on March 16 at 1:03 a.m., a first-person statement James presented to investigators about what allegedly happened to Angela. The note references James opening a Seeking.com account and asking Angela for a divorce. According to the note, Angela responded by saying She was just going to end her life. According to the note, Angela started talking about poisons and asked James to research ones that would kill her. It was at this point, I had a change of heart, I was not trying to back her out of it, the note read. And so I bought a bunch of eyedrops and arsenic online. The note then walks through a timeline of how Angela allegedly poisoned herself before dying.
  - I told her there was no way I was going to administer these to her, this was her idea&all I would do is prepare the dosing so she could choose what to do.
  - I told her our next conversations needed to be loving and sweet, and we had to put on a show in public that we were a happy, loving couple, and she agreed.
  - Two Mondays ago she tried the eye drops, that was our first ER visit. I must have not calculated the dosage correctly or she didnt use all the eye drops.
  - A couple days later she decided to try arsenic.
  - She told me to put it in her protein shake in the morning so she wouldnt taste it, and she chugged it down.
  - I did not want to tell the physicians what she had taken because she wasnt telling them what she had taken either.
  - In the hospital, she asked me to research what the fastest-acting poisons was (sic) and what the maximum dosage was.
  - I figured it was potassium chloride but that would hurt a lot going into the IV or it would be cyanide.
  - She said she wanted to try cyanide next, but read somewhere it tasted awful.

DAY 8 7/24/25

Elizabeth Gore, a data analyst who met James through Seeking.com, which she described as a dating website geared toward finding a sugar daddy, told the court they met in-person about three or four times.
- Gore said while they were on a trip in Bozeman, Montana, James stopped the car and took a call from Angela that lasted nearly two hours. After the call, James told Gore he needed to go back home. She testified that they purchased new tickets to Denver and then went to the airport.
- Gore told the court that she knew James was married, but she asked for no further details, as she didnt want to know about it. She would later find out that Angela knew James was with another woman in Montana, which is why they left.
- Testified James gave her primarily monetary gifts, totaling about $8,000. She also testified there was a sexual component to their relationship.
- On cross, the defense questioned Gore about James intentions for ending the trip: He wanted to go home and fix this, that was the messaging you got? asked Moses. To my knowledge, Gore replied.
Angelas brother, Mark Pray, said his sister was kind of a Type A personality very in control, an organizer& took charge in instances, but also was really good at cooperating among the family. He also described her as very strong, very dependable, and always happy& been that way since she was a kid, he said.
- Before her death, Pray said Angelas physical state was that of a strong woman who was always working out and who loved biking. Describing her mental state, Pray said Angela was sharp but positive. Pray also said Angela loved being mother and it was her number one priority.
- Theres only one person in this world who would say shes suicidal, and thats the person who murdered her, Pray said evoking a quick objection from the defense, with the judge striking that statement from the record.
- Pray and his family decided to drive from Utah to Colorado and help out with the Craig kids while his sister was struggling with her health.
- Pray took Angela back to the hospital on March 15 after she had a bad reaction to pills that James told him were Clindamycin, an antibiotic.
- At some point, does James Craig kind of get rid of you? Mauro asked Pray. He does, he replies, saying James essentially told Pray he could go home for a while, since he had been at the hospital for most of the morning. Pray said the only reason he left the hospital was because he felt like spouses trump brothers, and maybe he wanted to be alone with Angela, and he wanted to respect that.
- Pray said he didnt make it 15 minutes away from the hospital when he got a call from one of his other sisters, Toni, who said Angela had crashed, so he turned around the car and went back to the ER immediately.
- He said that at some point after her crash, no one was allowed to see her when she was moved to the ICU, and Pray noticed that James was nowhere to be found. Pray was the only one who was sitting by his sisters side before she was rolled to the ICU.
- On the night of March 15, 2023, Pray testified that he talked with Ryan Redfearn, James former business partner, for a time before he texted James the following: I think they view Angies passing as suspicious because they cant find a reason and thats why its taking so long, wrote Pray. At least your partner (Redfearn) had talked to a nurse, and thats what he was telling me.
Angelas older sister, Toni Kofoed, testified that in 2018, Angela called her crying after discovering that James was having an affair. About a month after the call, Angela told her that James had drugged her.
- Despite the affair, Angela told her they were going to work on their marriage but in Dec. 2022, she told Kofoed she found something on James computer that made it impossible for her to stay. A couple of days later, Angela explained that she had thought James was cheating, but it wasnt what I thought it was, and so she decided to stay and fight for her marriage, Kofoed said, adding that James told her he had not been having an affair.
- Angela visited Kofoed in Utah days before her death and showed no signs of illness. Kofoed said Angela texted her on March 6, the day after she returned home, and said she didnt feel well and her body was sluggish. Angela told Kofoed over the next few days that her symptoms were getting worse and she was hospitalized on March 9.
The jury heard about cellphone data and internet searches:
- On March 1, search history from James dental practice showed:
  - Is barium acetate soluble?
  - Buy barium carbonite Aurora Colorado
  - Does barium carbonite have a taste
  - How long does it take to die from barium poisoning
  - How long does it take to die from arsenic poisoning
READ MORE: Angela Craigs family recalls James odd behavior during her hospital stay

DAY 7 7/23/25

Kasey Bohannon, who was incarcerated with James in March 2023, underwent cross-examination. Bohannon previously testified that James asked him to plant forged evidence related to Angela and suicide in and around the family home.
- Defense attorney Lisa Moses pressed Bohannon, asking if he knew when he first contacted prosecutors in the summer of 2023 with these allegations that a probation violation was coming his way.
- Im not 100% certain. I knew I wasnt doing what I should be, according to terms of probation, Bohannon told the jury.
- Still, he agreed with Moses said that he knew the following day about the probation violation when he spoke with Aurora Police Detective Bobbi Olson.
- In the redirect examination, prosecutor Osama Magrebi asked Bohannon if he came forward with information about the Craig case to get some kind of benefit from the prosecution, to which Bohannon replied, absolutely not, and said the information he was providing in court Wednesday was the same information he initially gave prosecutors in July of 2023 when he was out of jail and sent them an email.
- He testified that James said he would rewrite what Angela had written on a few pages from her journal regarding alleged suicidal ideations that were apparently misplaced. Bohannon said James told him about cameras in his house and the code to unlock his vehicle, and Bohannon was given a map of the Craig home. Bohannon said he destroyed the map within minutes after receiving it.
Registered nurse Michael Foti said Angelas condition was very poor when he began treating her on March 15, 2023.
- There was a lot of chaos, he recalled. Her status, medically speaking, she was brain-dead.
- Foti said he took some blood draws around 8:20 p.m. on March 15. A blood sample from that time was previously testified about within the trial, and showed cyanide levels in Angela had more than doubled while she was hospitalized, when compared to another sample taken at 11:50 a.m. that day.
James former cellmate, Nathaniel Harris, said he came to testify Wednesday at the request of his wife, who asked me to be here because of the situation, and he had not signed a cooperation agreement with the District Attorneys Office.
- Harris was housed with James in November of 2024 at the Arapahoe County Jail.
- James told Harris he was in custody for allegedly murdering his wife, helping her commit suicide.
- Harris said James told him in jail that his wife was suicidal and that he was ordering poisons to help her commit suicide, and that the Arapahoe County Sheriffs Office was stacking the case against him.
- Harris testified James was interested in Harris past in prison and reportedly told Harris he wanted to find someone to deal with the last person he tried to hire in the medical unit, who James allegedly asked to fabricate things about his case.
- Harris said he told James how his ex-wife had fabricated documents and photos in a past case of his. James was trying to find someone to fabricate stories that supported his conduct and pointed investigators in the other direction, Harris testified.
- James allegedly gave Harris a letter intended to be mailed to the woman he referred to as his ex-wife, Kasiani Konstantinidis. That letter was discovered by law enforcement and detailed in later testimony.
- Harris testified that James wanted him to find someone who could kill Aurora Police Detective Bobbi Olson. Due to his past in prison, James figured I knew where to find those people, Harris said.
- He wanted me to source out somebody, Harris told the jury. And before things got out of hand, I told him Id handle it.
- When asked what he meant by handle it, Harris testified that he was concerned James would find someone who would actually handle it. James allegedly told Harris there was a blank check involved.
- James also talked about a specific sheriffs deputy who was horrible to him, Harris said. According to Harris, James wanted him to take photographs of the deputys son getting off the school bus for intimidation.
- On cross, Harris testified that James followed him around like a puppy while they were in jail together. Harris, who admitted he did not care for James, had his wife call the jail and request that their cell be searched for the letter referenced earlier. That letter was kept within Harris possessions in the cell, he said.
- Harris admitted that he was offered something by prosecutors in exchange for his testimony, which he did not take. Harris continued to claim the offer didnt work for me, and that he just learned of it at the beginning of July.
Sgt. Nicholas Hudson, who searched James and Harris cell, testified that on Nov. 9, 2024, Harris wife called the jail about the letter.
- Sgt. Hudson testified he was concerned for Harris safety and wanted to protect him from any kind of speculation that he was handing over a letter. So, Hudson came up with a plan to search the cell under the guise that he was looking for illicit substances.
- On Nov. 10, 2024, an 11-page letter was found in the cell. It was in a legal envelope and addressed to an attorney, but Harris testified James wanted him to mail it to his ex-wife.
- Hudson asked Harris for permission to take the letter and open it, since it appeared to be related to legal matters. The sergeant said that if he had not asked Harris about the location of the letter, he would have likely missed it due to the way it was disguised.
- Hudson, prompted by prosecutors, read portions of the letter allegedly written by James:
  - Hey Kasi [Harris ex-wife], I know you dont know me, and I dont know you& I would never normally be this trusting, but I have been unjustly accused of a truly horrible crime& thus fighting fire with fire to clear my name and return me to my kids.
  - & Favor I am asking of you, there will of course be a financial incentive, but I know you do not need my money. But its worth it to me& so Id like to offer $20,000 to each witness& Id like for you to be one of the witnesses, and your sister& after I pay you, you can pay the others in accordance to what you feel is appropriate& I can pay you once Im out and my assets are unfrozen&
  - & My attorney is Harvey Steinberg, who I think you know& but I think it might be best if you went directly to the DA to execute this plan& First, someone in jail set me up& I wrote letters to his family and friends offering to pay them& instead of sending them to his family and friends, he sent them to the DA in an effort to negotiate his own case&
  - & I also want to give you a lot of latitude in these stories. Nate has expressed tremendous confidence in you& I would rather you do what seems natural to you, instead of sticking rigidly to a plan I devised& Nate also said you go above and beyond using photoshop& these additional proofs may be necessary to effectively sell your story& You essentially have, within reason, a blank check here&
  - I think now is a good time to share with you several details about my wife Angela&
  - The letter then provided a phone number, date of birth, address, and a Facebook for the couples joint account: Role one, this one is for you: You are a friend of Angs, how you met and how far back your friendship goes is up to you. You knew, because Ang confided in you, about the threat of suicide&
  - This next part is crucial. The worst, dirtiest, detective in the world is on my case. Her name is Bobbi Olson. We have to discredit her. I need you to say that after Ang died, you reached out to APD to share the above details& You told her this whole story. When you finished, Detective Olson berated you, said she didnt believe you. Accused you of lying, and told you to keep quiet& Obviously, you need to refuse to communicate with Olson& if no one will listen to you, you need to go to the media&
  - & Role 2, for your sister I hope. Also go to the DA. Your sister used to visit the family history library Ang volunteered at& Often, there was nobody there except your sister and Ang, so they became casual friends. If youre worried about the DA linking you and your sister, you can use a fake name& Make sure Harvey can contact you both after your statements make it into discovery& because Im sure the DA is not going to call you as witnesses& Harvey will need to call you as defense witnesses&
  - & Role 3. Someone who can say they were either there with your sister at the family library& or even better, if the third witness can corroborate your story& if your sister feels comfortable incorporating more of the details from your own into her story, the better&
  - & Role 4. Go to Harvey about this, not the DA. This person is either a friend of, or somehow overheard Caitlin Romero, my former office manager& shes about 25 years old, plump, pretty face. Caitlin was recently heard bragging that she has been subpoenaed& it sounded like she fabricated evidence or testimony, something about the search history at work. Also something about how she ordered the cyanide that killed Ang. Caitlin said she did what she did because her bosses& pushed her to do it. Said they gave her a huge financial incentive to help them&
- Kasiani Konstantinidis, the wife of Nathaniel Harris, testified she received a letter at her home from Jimmy in Nov. 2024.
  - Konstantinidis was on the phone with Olson when she pulled the letter out of her mailbox. She testified that she started to open the letter but then stopped after being told by Olson.
  - Konstantinidis testified that she did not know Angela or James Craig, and she had never met or spoken with either of them. She said she did not help James with his case and never met with his attorney, Harvey Steinberg. She said she has no control over what Harris tells people in jail.
- Carrie Hageseth, who had an affair with James in 2022, testified she met James on a sugar dating website.
  - The two met roughly four times in person, according to Hageseth. She testified that there was a sexual component to her relationship with James, and she at first thought that he had separated from his wife.
  - Hageseth said James provided her with money and resources. She testified that James paid for meals when they got together, bought a $9,000 Honda Accord for her daughter, and gave her $100 for each of her children for Christmas. She also said James helped pay for an attorney, as Hageseth was going through a separation at the time. The attorneys retainer was between $2,500 and $3,000, according to Hageseth, who could not recall the exact amount.
  - Hageseth testified that James told her he was not happy in his marriage and was trying to figure out how to get a divorce. James allegedly said that financial separation from Angela was near impossible in his eyes. He also said it would make him completely broke and destitute, such as the situation that [Hageseth] was in.
  - One day, the two were discussing the movie The Purge, in which there is a day when everyone can kill whoever they want without consequence. According to Hageseth, James said he would purge his wife if that were reality. He also allegedly told Hageseth that he knew how to get away with murder, though he did not specifically mention his wife. James reportedly talked about just injecting somebody in the neck with a substance.
  - Text messages between James and Hageseth discussing Angela discovering their relationship were read to the jury. Hageseth said she and James last talked on February 18, 2023.
- READ MORE: Former cellmate testifies against James Craig, says he wanted investigator killed

DAY 6 7/22/25

Dr. Mark Simon, an emergency medicine physician, recalled walking into the ICU where Angela Craig was on a ventilator, and remembered seeing her not responsive, not talking, unable to really interact at that point.
- Just based on seeing the patient, based on her labs, based on her presentation even without those rumors of cyanide, this looked highly unusual& stack that together with the rumors, I think that made my suspicion even higher, he said.
- Since it was just a suspicion at that point, he asked the team to obtain a test for cyanide concentration and other labs, as well as testing for similar substances that could have caused a reaction like the one he observed in Angela Craig.
- Simon then explained how the body creates energy and what happens when that energy source is impacted by cyanide.
- He then went on to testify that Angela Craigs symptoms were consistent with cyanide exposure, and that readings of pressure in her brain were unusually high, remarking hed never heard of a patient surviving with those [intracranial] pressures.
- Im not sure that any antidote would have saved her, Simon said, admitting before the court that administration of the antidote was briefly beneficial. He added that he was not asked to consider if arsenic, tetrahydrozoline, or oleander exposure was also to blame for Angela Craigs condition. He told the court, however, he believed exposure to enough tetrahydrozoline could cause death.
James Craigs affair partner, Dr. Karin Cain, testified she met him at an annual continuing education course in Las Vegas in Feb. 2023.
- James Craig allegedly told Cain that he and Angela Craig were nearing the end of their divorce, and they had informed the children about the divorce as well.
- He was just this amazing father, the way that he talked with them and handled their emotions& it was the same way he had dealt with me, he had this incredible gift of making people feel so understood, Cain said, adding her attraction toward James Craig felt right& he was very honest and vulnerable.
- Testifying about her time in Las Vegas, Cain said she and James Craig shared a ride to the airport where they had a goodbye kiss before she flew back home.
- Cain said she came to Denver to meet with James Craig in March of 2023, but on the day she left March 19 she met with Bobbi Olson, the lead detective of the case with the Aurora Police Department, before she flew back home. She said she gave Olson her cell phone, and Olson took photographs and videos of roughly 4,000 texts between James Craig and Cain.
- Cain said in court Tuesday that, reading those texts back again, she could see some red flags in her interactions with James Craig, which she did not notice at all when those conversations took place.
- Cain also testified that James Craig told her he wrote her a song called Enough that he later sent to her.
- Prosecutors tried to submit a recording of the song as evidence in court but the defense objected, saying theres no relevance for the court to hear the song. The judge agreed, and the song was not played for the jury.
- READ MORE: James Craigs affair partner testifies in his murder trial
James former cellmate, Kasey Bohannon, testified the defendant asked him to place a fake journal allegedly belonging to Angela inside their home.
- At first, James Craig allegedly told Bohannon that Angela Craig had passed away, but would later tell him she died by suicide because Angela Craig was unhappy and killed herself using cyanide she had ingested with a workout shake.
- When Bohannon questioned James Craig about why Angela Craig did not use a more common method for suicide, he said James Craig didnt have an explanation for using cyanide.
- He also testified that when he was about to be released from jail, James Craig asked him if he was going to be bonded out, to which he replied that no one was bonding him out.
- Prosecutors then asked Bohannon if James Craig asked him to do anything once he bonded out. Yes, he was going to rewrite a journal. It was supposedly (Angelas), about committing suicide and how bad life was and how she wanted to take her life. And so, he had asked if I would be able to go and either get into his home and put this into his garage, or put it into his pickup truck that was parked in the street, Bohannon told the court.
- Bohannon said James Craig then drew a map of his home with the layout of where cameras might be. He said James Craig handed it to him, but he later ripped it up and flushed it as he didnt want to be part of James Craigs alleged scheme. Once I realized what was going on, I was like, No,' he said.
- Once out of jail, Bohannon was asked by prosecutors if he reached out to law enforcement about what James Craig had allegedly asked him to do, which he said he did.
- I just had this feeling, almost like sick. Like, I knew something. It wasnt right that I knew what he told me and I felt like I needed to reach out and tell someone, Bohannon said.

DAY 5 7/21/25

Angelas friend, Nicole Harmon, recalled an incident on March 9, 2023, when Angela asked her to come over and test her blood sugar. Angela didnt explain why she needed the test. When Harmon arrived at the house, she found Angela on the couch not looking well. She noted a protein shake next to the couch, which Angela said her husband made for her.
- Harmon testified that the Craigs visited her home in 2019, and during the visit, James said he had been dealing with sexual addiction and said he was planning to inject himself with something to kill himself and he had drugged Angie to make sure that she didnt wake up and stop him. Only James spoke about the drugging incident. Angela never said anything about whether or not she was drugged.
A nurse who treated Angela said she was very critically ill on March 15, 2023, the last time she was admitted to a hospital.
Dr. Peter Sottile recalled caring for Angela on March 15, 2023, and said she was incredibly sick.
- Her exam seemed pretty normal, with normal lab results and she was being considered for discharge when she suddenly became drastically ill with low blood pressure and oxygen. Just before that, James had been in the room with his wife and reported she had arm pain. When medical staff came in, Angela was unresponsive.
- Sottile described James reaction to hearing Angela was likely brain-dead as somewhat unusual. He said it was a very lackluster response, for lack of a better description, to hearing that your wife, who had been healthy, was now likely dead.
Nurse Rose Spychala treated Angeala while working in the emergency department at UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital in 2023. She said that James never intervened in her care of his wife and never tried to stop anyone from helping her. She noted he was taking pictures from the hallway.
Dr. Karla Walker, a toxicology expert, testified that Angela Craig had nearly twice the lethal amount of cyanide in her system.
- Angela had 5.865 mg/L of cyanide in her blood. In a non-smoker, Walker said she would expect to see levels of 0.025mg/L and 0.2mg/L in someone exposed to the toxin for their job.
- Toxic levels of cyanide are reached when the range is 1.0-2.5 mg/L, Walker testified. Death occurs when levels reach 3 mg/L or greater.
Forensic toxicologist Dr. Justin Brewer showed the cyanide levels in Angelas blood rose after she was admitted to the hospital.
Arapahoe County Coroner Dr. Kelly Lear testified that Angelas death was acute cyanide and tetrahydrozoline toxicity and ruled the manner of death as homicide.
VIDEO: Assistant Testifies About Cyanide Delivered to James Craigs Office

DAY 4 7/18/25

Angel Amerine, who worked as a dental assistant in James office for six months, testified about a package that was delivered to the office, which was labeled as containing potassium cyanide.
- Texts between James and Amerine, as well as staff group texts, were read in court. One exchange had James saying he was expecting a priority package and asked Amerine to ensure the front door stayed open.
Aurora police detective Molly Harris testified that she examined the Google records associated with James email and Google voice number ([email protected]).
- The account was created on February 27, 2023, and records showed arsenic metal was purchased and shipped the next day.
- On the browser of the hard drive collected from exam room 9 at James dental practice, history showed a search for how many grams of pure arsenic will kill a human, but Harris said it cant be determined who was using the computer at the time.
- Other searches performed from exam room 9 on February 27 and 28 as well as March 1 and 6:
  - I there such a thing as undetectable poison
  - How to make poison from oleander
  - Is arsenic detectable
  - How many grams of pure arsenic will kill a human
  - How to make murder look like a heart attack
  - A dose of tetrahydrozoline is fatal
  - How long does it take to die from arsenic poisoning
  - Visine
  - Tetrahydrozoline poisoning timeline
- There were no searches on Angelas phone for poison, self-harm or depression. Searches prior to March 6 on Angelas browser were benign. After March 6, the searches changed.
  - In the days leading up to her death, Angelas phone searched:
    - Why too. Much vitamin b
    - Preworkout supplement made me dizzy and eyes are blurry an hour later
    - Side effects of high blood pressure
    - Dizziness, slow focus, tired, head pressure, hearing distortion
    - Mini seizures
    - Can the flu cause vertico
    - Nutrition label for Carnation High Protein
    - Is there an app for monitoring vital stats I can share with a loved one
- Texts shown to the jury showed struggles in Angela dnd James relationship. Angela was saved in James phone as Mom, James was saved in her phone as The Boy.
  - On December 9, 2022, Angela texted James, Dont come home, I dont want you here. & I was there you know. I was finally in that place where I could feel that maybe all of this was worth it. & Then last night was bad, and I told you it was bad, and you were just going to go on your day with her. You know why you did this& you cant fix this. Theres nothing left for you to break& Well do what we need to do to get through Christmas with the kids.
  - In a text, James told Angela, she was not worth it and he used another woman to build up my own ego.
    - Prosecutors have claimed that James met a dentist at a conference in Las Vegas in February 2023 and began an emotionally involved relationship.
Ryan Redfearn, James former business partner and good friend, took the stand and described financial issues that persisted in their business.
- Redfearn, driving to the hospital when Angela was crashing, received a call from employees at Summerbrook Dental Group saying that a package of potassium cyanide was delivered to the office. While sitting in the ICU, Redfearn looked up symptoms of potassium cyanide poisoning and told a nurse and Angelas brother his suspicions.
- Redfearn said James told him it was a game of chicken he was playing with Angela, and then later received a lengthy text from James asking him not to speak about the discussion.

DAY 3 7/17/25

Lead detective Bobbi Olson testified that she obtained a search warrant for the Craigs cell phones after Angela was declared brain-dead. She also collected the Summerbrook Dental Group credit card in James name and the hard drive from exam room 9 at the dental practice.
Cassie Rodriguez, a cell support specialist with Midland Scientific, testified to a web order of potassium cyanide placed by a person named James Craig using the email [email protected].
- Rodriguez said that orders placed with Gmail addresses typically raise red flags.
- Rodriguez said the buyer wanted to pick the chemical up in person, but their facility does not allow that. The buyer then asked that the order be shipped that night because of a type of seminar he was presenting.
Crime scene investigator Darvin Harrell walked the jury through photos of the Craig home, including a smoothie shaker.
- Photographs included protein drink shaker bottles freshly run through the dishwasher and a bottle of Clindamycin. Prosecutors have insinuated that James filled the capsules in the bottle with poison. A closer view of the bottle shows it was prescribed by Dr. Craig DDS.
One of the Craig children took the stand. Their identity is being withheld at the request of the trial judge.
- The oldest daughter said that Angela loved being a mom, exercising and animals.
- When asked if her mother may have been depressed, she said no and that they were making plans to fix up a house together someday.
- She said her daughter described feeling dizzy and nauseous before she died and was less stable on her feet.
- The Craigs daughter said she asked James to do an autopsy on Angela to find out what was wrong, but her dad told them he didnt want to satisfy their [doctors] curiosities. James allegedly told her, If they couldnt figure it out, figure it out when she was alive, they shouldnt poke around when shes gone.
The third-oldest Craig child testified. She had been the oldest child living at home at the time of her mothers death.
- She said protein shakes were common in the home for everyone except the youngest children.
- She said her mother did not appear depressed, and that her mother frequently spoke about the future.
- After her fathers arrest, she said he called her to ask if she would bail another inmate out of jail. In the call, he said it was best if she didnt tell anyone about this, but the inmate would have important information for her. James told her the inmate was her cousin, Jonathan, but the daughter did not recognize the name.
- She drove out to bail the cousin from jail and he handed her pieces of printer paper with writing on them that were taped together. She said the letter was in her fathers handwriting and in it he asked his teen daughter to create a fake piece of evidence: a deep fake video of Angela saying she asked James to order the chemicals. The letter included detailed step-by-step instructions of how to do it, including buying a cheap laptop that would later be destroyed and making transactions from the dark web. The letter stressed the importance of the metadata for the deep fake to show it was created on Feb. 27. James told her to call his The Memories Project and laid out code words to use to discuss it.

DAY 2 7/16/25

Blaine Cullen, an RN at Parker Adventist Hospital, treated Angela Craig when she was admitted in March 2023, suffering from low oxygen levels. While working, Cullen said she received a call from a person monitoring Angela, and found her to be pale, sweaty and nonresponsive. James was also in the room.
- During cross-examination, James attorneys pointed out that he appeared to be sleeping when Cullen came into the room.
Summerbrook Dental Group office manager Caitlin Romero testified that she saw James working on a computer in an exam room after hours and wondered why.
- James was in Exam Room 9, working on a computer used for X-rays, patient notes and patient charts. On her drive home, James texted to say he had ordered a personal package to be delivered to the office and not to open it.
  - The personal package arrived on March 13, 2023. It had biohazard markers and was addressed to Jim Craig. The invoice indicated it was potassium cyanide, which she had never seen delivered to the office before.
- Romero said on March 6, 2023, James arrived late to a staff meeting, saying his wife didnt feel well after he made her a shake. She recalled him mentioning that he may have added too much protein.
- Romero said James initiated an emotional relationship with her and shared personal information and struggles with her.
Dr. Michelle Redfearn, who was friends with Angela and whose husband was James business partner, took the stand looking directly at the defendant.
- In a text exchange with Redfearn, James referred to his wifes illness saying, If it wasnt my wife, this would be kind of a fun puzzle to try and work out.
- The evening Angela was pronounced brain-dead, James called her while Redfearn and her husband, Ryan, were in the car. Ryan asked about the potassium cyanide, to which James responded, Oh Ryan, what have you done? James then claimed he purchased it for Angela because she was suicidal and the purchase was a game of chicken between the two of them.
King Soopers asset protection specialist Oleg Gamzelev testified that investigators asked him to look into records tied to two credit cards in the name James T. Craig.
- The records showed a March 8 purchase for 12 packages of eye drops and a March 9 purchase for seven packages of eye drops.
Jennifer Herriman, an employee at the Arapahoe County Detention Facility, testified that in April 2024 she opened a letter returned to James with suspicious contents in it. The letter offered the recipient free dental care and money for getting people to be witnesses in James case. The letter included advice for avoiding detection, like using burner phones.
- A letter within the letter contained a description of roles for attractive women to play as witnesses.
- The letter features code words, like Harry Potter and Captain America, to the recipient.

DAY 1 7/15/25

VIDEO: Prosecutor: Dentist poisoned wife with cyanide to be with mistress
ADA Ryan Brackly delivered the prosecutions opening statements on Tuesday, July 15, 2025.
- Angela Craig, a 43-year-old mother of six, died March 18, 2023, after repeated hospital visits with unexplained symptoms. Her husband, Dr. James Craig, is accused of poisoning her with arsenic, cyanide, and tetrahydrozoline (Visine) over a 10-day period.
- Prosecutors allege Craig used his medical access to administer a fatal dose while in the hospital with Angela.
- Timeline evidence shows Angela became ill after drinking smoothies made by Craig, beginning March 6.
- Surveillance video and internet searches support a deliberate plan to kill, including purchases of poisons and research into their effects.
- Craig allegedly had financial troubles, multiple affairs, and was pursuing a relationship with Texas dentist Karin Cain.
- Craig texted Cain after Angelas death, claiming hed never drugged her and expressing a desire to start a life with her.
- Prosecutors revealed Craig asked his daughter to destroy a laptop and tried to recruit women to testify falsely about Angela being suicidal.
James Craigs defense attorney, Ashley Whitham, acknowledged Angela was poisoned and died, but challenged the States version of how it happened in her opening statements.
- Argued that the case is built on assumptions, speculation, and tunnel vision.
- Described the Craigs as having a complex but loving marriage, with both partners struggling emotionally.
- Whitham claimed Craig was not in financial crisis, and Angela was aware of and contributed to household finances.
- Suggested Angela was emotionally vulnerable, possibly manipulative, and deeply committed to maintaining appearances due to their Mormon faith.
- Criticized the investigation for missing key evidence (e.g., not searching Angelas laptop or interviewing their church bishop).
- Urged jurors to focus on the burden of proof, not on sympathy or dislike of Craigs behavior.