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A Colorado dentist was found guilty of methodically poisoning his wife to death.
Dr. James Toliver Craig, 47, a Colorado dentist, faces life in prison without parole after being found guilty Wednesday of first-degree murder for poisoning his wife, Angela Craig, along with multiple charges of solicitation to commit murder, perjury, and evidence tampering. He was found not guilty of manslaughter.
Angela Craig, 47, died in 2023 during her third trip to the hospital in a little over a week. Her official cause of death was ruled acute poisoning by cyanide and tetrahydrozoline, an ingredient found in over-the-counter eye drops.
Throughout the three-week murder trial, prosecutors alleged that the Colorado dentist killed his wife due to mounting financial pressures and an extramarital affair with a Texas orthodontist. The defense argued that Angela Craig was depressed and suicidal.
COLORADO DENTIST’S LOVER REVEALS STAGGERING ‘4,000 TEXTS IN 18 DAYS’ DURING MURDER TRIAL TESTIMONY
Angela and Colorado dentist James Craig in a family portrait. James was charged with first-degree murder for allegedly poisoning his wife. (Faceboook)
The alleged murder plot
According to court documents obtained by Fox News Digital, Angela Craig began experiencing mysterious symptoms, including dizziness, vomiting and severe headaches, in March 2023.
Her symptoms progressed between March 6-16, 2023, court documents allege, including blurred vision, feeling “drugged,” seizures and rapid medical decline.
She was hospitalized several times before slipping into a coma and being declared brain-dead on Aug. 18, 2023.
Her official cause of death was ruled acute poisoning by cyanide and tetrahydrozoline.
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Angela and James Craig pose for a photo. Craig is accused of killing Angela by poisoning her protein shakes. (Angela N Jim Craig (Facebook))
Throughout the trial, medical staff testified about Angela’s decline, saying that the once-healthy mother rapidly deteriorated.
Her friend, Nicole Harmon, took the stand and testified that her lifelong best friend never expressed wanting to die.
“She wasn’t a risk-taker. She wasn’t manipulative,” Harmon told the jury. “And she never said anything—ever—about wanting to die.”
On March 9, 2023, approximately one week before the 43-year-old was pronounced brain-dead, Angela texted Harmon asking for help checking her blood sugar. When she arrived, she found Angela curled up, she testified.
“She hadn’t eaten. She couldn’t stand,” Harmon said, testifying that James Craig had given Angela a shake that morning.
When the friend texted and asked what was going on, she said James Craig brushed off Angela’s ailment: “Post-COVID. Not diabetes.”
COLORADO DENTIST’S ALLEGED INTERNET SEARCH HISTORY TAKES CENTER STAGE AS MURDER TRIAL BEGINS
Ashley Whitham, a lawyer for the defense, delivers her opening arguments during the murder trial for James Craig at the Arapahoe District Court on Tuesday, July 15, 2025, Centennial, CO. (Stephen Swofford/Denver Gazette via Pool)
In opening statements in Colorado, defense attorney Ashley Whitham acknowledged the couple’s rocky 23-year marriage but described Angela not as a victim of betrayal, but as someone who was emotionally broken, deeply private and at times manipulative.
In the trial, two of Craig’s children took the stand and testified against their father.
“She would talk to me about how fun it would be when I had kids of my own and when she could meet them,” their daughter said. “She was so excited to be a grandma.”
She described Angela as her “best friend” and said Angela had hobbies, including woodworking and exercise. She also loved animals, and, above all, her children.
Craig’s daughter testified that while her mother was in the hospital, she was frustrated she could not be with her children.
“She wanted to get back home,” she said. “She just wanted to get back to her girls.”
She told the jury her parents struggled in their marriage several years before the alleged murder but said things had gotten better before Angela’s death.
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James Craig tears up during opening arguments in his murder trial at the Arapahoe District Court on Tuesday, July 15, 2025, Centennial, CO. Craig was accused of murdering his wife. (Stephen Swofford/Denver Gazette via Pool)
Central throughout the trial was Craig’s extramarital affairs with women, including a Texas orthodontist and women he met on a dating website. Dr. Karin Cain, the Texas orthodontist, testified that she and James Craig exchanged over 4,000 messages in just 18 days after meeting at a dental conference in Las Vegas.
“This was the first man I had a one-on-one convo with in 30 years,” Cain told the jury. “It felt exciting, like a high school girl… It felt like love.”
She said their texts turned romantic and spiritual, with some becoming sexts.
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Cain said Craig claimed he was newly divorced and living in an apartment. But under cross-examination, she acknowledged that wasn’t true.
“Yes, a lot of what the defendant told me wasn’t true,” she admitted.
Just three days into their relationship, Craig wrote, “I’ve fallen in love with you so deeply that the list of attributes has become endless.”
Prosecutors argued Craig’s lies and secret relationship were key to his motive.
Another woman, Carrie Hageseth, also took the stand, describing how she met Craig on the dating site Seeking.com. She said their relationship was transactional. He paid her daughter’s car bills.
Angela and James Craig pose for a selfie. James was accused of murdering Angela by spiking her protein shakes with potassium cyanide. (Angela N Jim Craig (Facebook))
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During one dinner, she testified, Craig referenced the movie “The Purge,” in which there is one day when everyone can kill whomever they want without consequence.
Craig, she testified, said that if he could “purge” someone, it would be his wife. He went into detail, Hageseth testified, describing how a person could be killed via injection without consequence.
Together, the women’s accounts painted Craig as a man leading a double life. Prosecutors used the volume and tone of his communications to argue this was a calculated scheme.
Fox News Digital’s Peter D’Abrosca contributed to this report.