AURORA, Colo. — A former Aurora dentist accused of fatally poisoning his wife in March 2023 is facing new charges after he allegedly tried to convince a fellow inmate to kill a detective on the case.
James Craig, who practiced dentistry at Summerbrook Dental Group, was arrested after his wife, Angela Craig, 43, died on March 18, 2023 from lethal doses of cyanide and tetrahydrozoline, a decongestant found in over-the-counter eyedrops. She suffered through several bouts of sickness where doctors could not determine the cause. James Craig was arrested early the following day on a charge of first-degree murder after deliberation and is accused of poisoning her protein shakes. Additional charges have been added since.
According to court documents, two new counts were filed on Nov. 22, 2024. They were for solicitation to commit first-degree murder and solicitation to commit first-degree perjury.
Regarding the solicitation for murder charge, the court documents read that James Craig allegedly committed the crime between Oct. 19 and Nov. 15. Joe Moylan, public information officer with the Aurora Police Department confirmed to Denver7 that the plot involved killing an Aurora police detective who was working on the case. James Craig is accused of trying to convince another Arapahoe County Jail inmate to kill the detective.
The second charge, solicitation to commit perjury, allegedly happened between the same dates.
This brings the list of charges against James Craig to:
- First-degree murder
- Solicitation to commit tampering with physical evidence (two counts)
- Solicitation to commit perjury in the first degree (two counts)
- Solicitation to commit murder in the first degree
James Craig pleaded not guilty to the murder charge in October 2023.
He has not yet entered a plea for the new charges.
Count 4, which was initially filed as a "tampering with physical evidence" Class 6 felony charge, was amended to a perjury charge, which is a Class 5 felony, according to the 18th Judicial District Attorney's Office.
One day before these charges were filed, on Nov. 21, a judge allowed James Craig’s latest lawyer, Harvey Steinberg, to withdraw from the case after he cited a professional conflict, the Associated Press (AP) reported on Nov. 28. The Denver Post reported that Steinberg said James Craig was persisting in a course of action that he “reasonably believes is criminal or fraudulent,” and that Craig was insisting on action he “considers repugnant or… has a fundamental disagreement (with)."
This change forced a delay in James Craig's jury trial. He is expected to appear with new counsel on Dec. 16 at 8:30 a.m.
A 52-page arrest affidavit for James Craig detailed how Angela Craig became sick multiple times in early and mid-March 2023 and was hospitalized, but doctors could not determine what was causing her symptoms. During one of the visits, a person alerted a nurse that he believed she had been poisoned, possibly by James Craig, according to the affidavit. Around 12:30 a.m. on March 16, 2023, a detective learned about the decline of Angela Craig’s health. As of that time, she was still on life support with no brain activity.
She was pronounced brain dead on March 18 at 4:29 p.m., according to the affidavit.
The couple had been married for 23 years and had six children, according to the AP.
During a search warrant at the dentist office, police seized computers and they found from a single device that a user had searched many poison-related inquiries, including “How many grams of pure arsenic will kill a human” and “Is arsenic detectable in autopsy?” and also searched for chemical suppliers in Aurora. A user had also searched for YouTube videos about making poison, including one titled “Top 5 Undetectable Poisons That Show No Sign of Foul Play."
They also found messages, including travel plans, with a woman that was “intimate in nature and contained sexually explicit conversations,” according to the affidavit.
According to the affidavit, James Craig made multiple orders for arsenic and cyanide.
Through the investigation, police noticed many similarities between Angela Craig's symptoms and the effects of ingesting cyanide and arsenic, as outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A person told authorities they knew James Craig made protein shakes for his wife when they exercised and that she had felt faint and dizzy after drinking them. The protein powder and shakers were seized in a search warrant. Police said in the affidavit that they believe the poison was in those shakes.
After the March 2023 arrest, a judge set James Craig's cash-only bond at $10 million.
In April 2024, the Denver Post reported that court records showed that James Craig had allegedly asked his daughter and another person to help cover up the crime.
The following month, he was accused of allegedly asking a fellow inmate to plant evidence in exchange for free dental work. Aurora Police Detective Bobbi Olson, lead detective on the case, testified in May that James Craig told the other inmate about the charges against him and asked the inmate, who was going to bond out, to place letters in his garage and truck at his home. Olson testified that the letters were written from inside the jail and were meant to appear as if Angela Craig had written them.
According to Olson, the letters were supposed to convey that Angela Craig was not happy with life, was suicidal and had learned her husband was having an affair. The intent was for law enforcement or defense attorneys to find the letters, Olson testified.
The inmate was allegedly under the impression that James Craig wrote the letters. According to the detective, in exchange for placing the letters, James Craig offered the inmate free dental work or money for their bond. The inmate did not take James Craig up on the offer, Olson said, and instead contacted law enforcement. Defense attorneys argued that the inmate was not a credible witness.
In addition, the AP reported that prosecutors "said he asked another former fellow inmate to find attractive women who would agree to testify at his trial that they had affairs with him and, after Angela Craig found out, they had refused to help her frame him."
James Craig's next court date is Dec. 16.
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