CENTENNIAL, Colo. (AP) — A Colorado dentist accused of killing his wife by gradually poisoning her wanted out of a marriage he felt trapped in, but didn't want to get a divorce to protect his money and image, a prosecutor said Tuesday.
During closing arguments in the trial of James Craig, Senior Chief Deputy Michael Mauro disputed Craig's claim that Craig's wife wanted to kill herself rather than get divorced. Mauro said Angela Craig was a hopeful person who had survived and pushed forward through
Craig’s infidelity for years while leaning on her faith.
After other poisonings of his wife's smoothies failed, prosecutors allege, Craig gave her a fatal dose of cyanide as she lay in her hospital bed on March 15, 2023, as doctors tried to figure out what was ailing her. She was declared brain dead soon afterward.
“She is the ultra-marathon runner of dealing with this man’s betrayal, but she couldn’t outrun it at University Hospital on March 15,” said Mauro, pointing repeatedly at Craig and referring to him as “this man.”
James Craig is charged with murder in his wife's death in suburban Denver in 2023. He is also accused of trying to fabricate evidence in the case to make it look like she killed herself and of asking a fellow jail inmate to kill the detective who led the investigation into his wife's death.
Angela Craig, who had six children with James Craig, died during her third trip to the hospital in a little over a week. Toxicology tests later determined the 43-year-old died of poisoning from cyanide and tetrahydrozoline, an ingredient found in over-the-counter eye drops.
James Craig didn't testify, and his lawyers didn't present any witnesses — and it wasn't required. Instead, in opening statements and in their questioning of prosecution witnesses, Craig's lawyers faulted police for focusing solely on James Craig as a suspect.
In notes that police found on James Craig's phone, the dentist said Angela Craig asked him to help kill her with poison when he sought a divorce after he had affairs. In the document, which was labeled “timeline,” Craig said he eventually agreed to purchase and prepare poisons for her to take, but not administer them. Craig said that he put cyanide in some of the antibiotic capsules she had been taking and also prepared a syringe containing cyanide.
According to that timeline, Craig wrote that just before she had to go to the hospital on March 15, 2023, she must have ingested a mixture containing tetrahydrozoline, the eye drop ingredient, because she became lethargic and weak. Then, he wrote, she took the antibiotic laced with cyanide that he prepared for her.
Mark Pray, who was visiting to help the Craig family because of his sister's mysterious illness, testified that he gave Angela Craig the capsules after being instructed to do so by James Craig, who was not at home. Pray said his sister bent over and couldn't hold herself up after taking the medicine. He and his wife then took Angela Craig to the hospital.
The lead investigator, Detective Bobbi Olson, testified that James Craig's timeline account differed from statements he had made to others about what happened, including accusing Angela Craig of setting him up to make it look like he had killed her.
The defense introduced into evidence Angela Craig's journal in which she talked about struggles in their marriage in previous years and her husband's infidelity. In one entry she wrote, “He doesn't love me and I don't blame him.” The journal ended in 2018 and did not include any mentions of suicide, Olson said.
In opening statements, one of Craig's attorneys, Ashley Whitham, repeatedly described Angela Craig as “broken,” partly by Craig’s infidelity and her desire to stay married, since they belonged to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Angela Craig's sister, Toni Kofoed, pushed back against that suggestion. She testified that her sister had a “broken heart” because of the affairs, but not a “broken mind."
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Associated Press writer Colleen Slevin contributed to this report from Denver.
