Jury begins deliberations in murder trial of Colorado dentist accused of fatally poisoning wife

By Andi Babineau, Eric Levenson, CNN
Centennial, Colorado (CNN) — The fate of James Craig, the Colorado dentist accused of killing his wife with poisoned protein shakes, doctored pills and a lethal injection, is now in the hands of the jury.
Jury deliberations in his murder trial began Tuesday afternoon after the prosecution and defense took turns laying out their closing arguments in the case.
The prosecution argued Craig, 47, poisoned his wife, Angela, in an attempt to escape his failing marriage and then tried to falsely portray her as suicidal, even asking his daughter to help in the plot.
“Angela Craig was innocent. She had no part in her death, and the only person who says otherwise is this man. The person guilty of the ultimate betrayal – her murder,” prosecutor Michael Mauro said.
“There are so many false statements by this defendant that it’s tough to keep track,” he added.
Defense attorney Lisa Moses acknowledged Craig repeatedly cheated on his wife and was “completely dishonest” about his affairs, but she said that wasn’t proof of murder. Further, she cited Angela Craig’s old journal entries to raise the possibility that she may have killed herself and challenged the thoroughness of the investigation.
“This case is really about broken people, broken marriage, broken perceptions, broken investigation,” Moses said.
The closing arguments and jury deliberations come over two years after the death of Angela Craig on March 18, 2023. The 43-year-old mother of six had been hospitalized three times over 10 days for symptoms including severe headaches, dizziness and vomiting.
An autopsy report shows Angela had “lethal concentrations of cyanide” and tetrahydrozoline, an ingredient in eyedrops, in her system when she died. Arsenic poisoning was listed as a “significant condition” related to her death.
Craig has pleaded not guilty to charges including first-degree murder, solicitation to commit first-degree murder, solicitation to commit tampering with physical evidence, and solicitation to commit perjury. If the jury acquits him of first-degree murder, they can also consider lesser-included charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide.
Inside court Tuesday, three of Craig’s children attended the trial and sat on the prosecution’s side of the room. James Craig was seen getting emotional and wiping away tears several times during the closing arguments.
What happened in the trial
Prosecutors called 48 witnesses over the past two weeks as they sought to prove Craig poisoned his wife’s protein shakes, gave her prescription capsules he had emptied and refilled with cyanide, and injected her with a poisonous substance using a syringe.
In addition, the prosecution argued Craig tried to hatch a murder-for-hire scheme from behind bars, targeting the murder case’s lead investigator, an unidentified officer and two inmates housed with him in the detention center’s medical unit. They also accused him of asking others, including his daughter and a prison inmate, to fabricate evidence and lie in court.
Investigators say Craig ordered arsenic and potassium cyanide online and made searches online for “how to make poison” and “Top 5 Undetectable Poisons That Show No Signs of Foul Play” in the weeks leading up to Angela’s death.
Several witnesses also reported he had made unsubstantiated claims that Angela was suffering suicidal ideations.
Two of Craig’s daughters took the stand for the prosecution during the trial. One testified that he asked her to make it seem like her mother wanted him to order the poisonous ingredients.
Craig gave step-by-step instructions in a letter for how to create a deepfake video of his wife, the daughter testified. Deepfakes are inauthentic images, videos or audio recordings created by artificial intelligence that appear real but have been digitally manipulated, or faked.
Another daughter testified that Craig did not want an autopsy conducted on her mother. She also said that while her mother struggled “like anyone else,” she wouldn’t have taken her own life. “We were making plans,” the 21-year-old woman said.
Text messages between the couple, included in a probable cause affidavit, show Angela told her husband the only thing she had consumed the morning of her first hospitalization was her protein shake. She denied feeling nauseated when he asked, and texted him, “I feel drugged.”
“Given our history I know that must be triggering,” Craig wrote back. “Just for the record, I didn’t drug you.”
The message was an apparent reference to an incident years prior when Craig allegedly drugged his wife to prevent her from stopping his attempt to commit suicide, one of Angela Craig’s sisters told investigators, according to the probable cause affidavit.
Defense says to take ‘blinders’ off
Craig’s defense did not call any witnesses. In cross-examination of prosecution witnesses, defense attorneys tried to portray Angela Craig as a woman who was battling depression and suicidal ideation, in contrast to the prosecution’s portrayal of her as a woman trying to figure out what was making her ill.
“All I want to do when that happens is crawl into bed and cry myself to sleep,” Angela Craig wrote in a 2018 journal entry. “I haven’t figured out yet if I should give in or push through.”
In closing arguments, Moses, the defense attorney, said investigators had “blinders” on and did not look at all the evidence closely enough.
“We ask that you look at the evidence that they have provided you, and look at the evidence that they have not provided you, and we ask that you find him not guilty,” Moses said.
As for the solicitation charges, Moses said they were the actions of a “desperate, scared, innocent man,” and she challenged the trustworthiness of the other jail inmate who testified about the allegations.
In a rebuttal, prosecutor Ryan Brackley argued the only evidence of Angela Craig’s suicidal ideation comes from James Craig – and he is not trustworthy.
“Angela Craig was not broken. Her spirit was not broken,” he said.
This story has been updated with additional information.
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