Colorado dentist James Craig — whose attorney quit one day before his trial was to begin — has previously been accused of trying to plant evidence to create a false suicide narrative of his wife and hire women to claim they were having affairs with him.
Two new charges filed against former dentist James Toliver Craig were not related to the murder of his wife by poison that he’s already been accused of, but rather the attempted murder of a detective investigating that case.
James was hit with two new charges filed against him last Friday, solicitation to commit murder and solicitation to commit perjury. After days of speculation regarding these new charges, Aurora, Colorado police spokesperson Joe Moylan confirmed the intended victim related to these charges was an Aurora police detective.
James was already facing trial for the death of his wife Angela Craig, 43, in March 2023 after 23 years of marriage and six children.
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That trial had been set to begin just one day prior to these new charges, on Thursday, November 14. That trial had already been delayed due to the sudden withdrawal of his attorney, Harvey Steinberg, from his case.
As reported by CrimeOnline, Steinberg’s reason for withdrawing were twofold: “The client persists in a course of action involving the lawyer’s services that the lawyer reasonably believes is criminal or fraudulent,” and the “client insists upon taking action that the lawyer considers repugnant or with which the lawyer has a fundamental disagreement.”
Alleged Investigation Interference
James was also previously charged with attempting to interfere with the ongoing investigation against him, per HuffPost, with prosecutors alleging he smuggled a letter out of jail with an inmate bonded out by one of his adult daughters, asking her to fake a video of Angela asking James to get poisons for her.
Angela’s death was the result of poisoning from a combination of cyanide and tetrahydrozoline, commonly found in over-the-counter eye drops, put into her protein shakes, according to the coroner’s report.
Police have called the alleged plot to kill his wife a “heinous, complex and calculated murder,” per CBS News.
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Prosecutors have detailed additional alleged attempts by James to circumvent their investigation, like asking a different inmate to plant fake journal entries in his home to suggest Angela may have committed suicide — that inmate reportedly declined, per the prosecution.
James previously pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and solicitation to commit tampering with physical evidence in relation to the attempt to have false journal entries place in the family home.
In another instance, court documents allege that James had asked yet another fellow inmate to seek out attractive women who would be willing to lie on the stand and say they’d been engaged in an affair with James and after Angela found out about these affairs, they’d refused to help her frame him.
Murder of Angela Craig
James was first arrested in March 2023 at the age of 45 after the death of his wife Angela. Per a press release from the Aurora Police, he was accused of committing “a heinous, complex and calculated murder,” after his wife Angela died in the hospital following multiple trips for care in a short period of time.
The Daily Beast obtained James’ arrest affidavit, which revealed details about the investigation — including alleged text messages between James and his wife, allegations of an affair, as well as some very suspicious internet searches and online orders.
According to the documents, Angela first became sick on March 6, went to the hospital and was released — before she was admitted and released again from the 9th-14th. She returned again on the 15th with a severe headache and dizziness, had a seizure and “began to rapidly decline mentally.” She was then placed on a ventilator, declared brain dead and was taken off life support on March 17.
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Authorities started to dig into Angela’s husband, James, after a business partner of his from the same dental group told one of the attending nurses about “his suspicion that Angela was the possible victim of poisoning.”
He claimed James “recently ordered Potassium Cyanide for their dental practice,” saying that “there was no medical reason to purpose to order” it for their office. The business partner also said James admitted to having “marital problems” with his wife. The nurse then reported those suspicions to the police.
The business partner said James confronted him over whether he “said anything to the hospital staff” — with the man saying he “was aware of the package that James had ordered.” James, however, allegedly claimed the package was “a ring for Angela,” which he was hoping to surprise her with.
Aurora Police Department
After obtaining a search warrant, authorities discovered a new email address under James’ Google account, where they found internet searches from the month before Angela’s death for queries including “how many grams of pure arsenic will kill and human,” “is arsenic detectable in autopsy,” “Top 5 Undetectable Poisons That Show No Signs of Foul Play” and “how to make poison.”
The account was also reportedly linked to records for a Potassium Cyanide delivery to the office on March 13, an arsenic delivery to his home on March 4 — two days before Angela’s first hospitalization — and orders for oleander.
Text messages also showed alleged exchanges between James and Angela, including one from March 6 in which she thanked him for making her a shake, before she later said, “I feel drugged.”
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On top of this, investigators say they found “intimate” emails between James and another woman, who he allegedly had “visit him while his wife was in the hospital sick.” Angela’s sister reportedly told police he’d had “multiple affairs,” and that Angela had told her previously she believed he’d “drugged her.”
She also claimed James said he “would not allow hospital staff to conduct an autopsy” on Angela — adding that if doctors “couldn’t figure out what was wrong with her when she was alive he wouldn’t let them poke her more when she was dead.”
“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 [the other woman],” concluded the affidavit.
James was arrested shortly after the decision was made to take Angela off life support. He is next scheduled to appear in court with a new lawyer on December 16.
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