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Posted at 2:25 pm, October 10, 2023
From: Stephanie Butzer
ARAPAHOE COUNTY, Colo. (Scripps News Denver) – An Aurora dentist accused of killing his wife by poisoning her protein shakes pleaded not guilty to the charges against him Monday afternoon.
James Toliver Craig, 45, entered the plea in Arapahoe County District Court around 4 p.m. Monday before Judge Shay Whitaker, who accepted it after discussing a possible continuation of the trial.
The jury trial is set for three weeks in the spring of 2024: April 23 through May 7.
James Toliver Craig was charged with first degree murder in his wife’s death. (Aurora Police Department)
James Craig was arrested on March 19, 2020, on charges of first-degree murder after discussing the death of his 43-year-old wife Angela Craig, who died at a hospital the day before. He practiced dentistry at Summerbrook Dental Group. He was formally charged with first-degree murder on March 23, and in mid-July a charge of solicitation to commit tampering with physical evidence was added.
His bond was set at $10 million on June 28.
Angela Craig’s family set up a GoFundMe to support her children and honor her life.
A 52-page arrest affidavit detailed how Angela Craig became ill several times in early and mid-March and was hospitalized, but doctors could not determine what was causing her symptoms. During one of the visits, a man notified 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, a detective learned of Angela Craig’s declining health. At the 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.
During a search warrant at the dentist’s office, police seized computers and they found a user who had checked multiple poison-related questions from a single device, including “how many grams of pure arsenic will kill a man” and “Can to detect arsenic in the autopsy?” There were also searches for chemical suppliers in Aurora.One user had also searched YouTube for poison-making videos, including one titled “Top 5 Undetectable Poisons That Show No Signs of Foul Play.”
Photo by: Aurora Police Screenshot View
According to the affidavit, James Craig placed numerous orders for arsenic and cyanide.
Investigators also found communications, including travel plans, with a woman that were “intimate in nature and contained sexually explicit conversations,” according to the statement. That woman, a Texas orthodontist identified as Karin Cain, spoke to Scripps News Denver in July when she said their relationship was built on lies.
Through the investigation, police noticed many similarities between Angela Craig’s symptoms and the effects of ingesting cyanide and arsenic, as described by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. One person told authorities they knew James Craig made protein shakes for his wife when they worked out 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 a statement that they believe poison was in those swings.
A coroner testified in July that Angela Craig’s manner of death was homicide and the cause was exposure to poison, namely acute cyanide and tetrahydrozoline poisoning. Other contributing factors were subacute arsenic poisoning.
This story was originally published by Scripps News Denver, an EW Scripps Company.
