CENTENNIAL — James Craig was on the clock.
A woman he’d met days earlier at a Las Vegas conference — a woman he said he might be in love with — was coming to visit Denver. This woman, Karin Cain, thought he was living separately from his wife, Angela Craig, 43. She thought the married couple were in the middle of a divorce.
They weren’t, and that was a problem, 18th Judicial Assistant District Attorney Ryan Brackley said during opening statements at James Craig’s murder trial Tuesday.
“They’re living as husband and wife, but he’s got a problem, he’s got a situation, he’s trapped,” Brackley told the jury. “And he’s got eight days. He’s got a countdown.”
Craig, 47, is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Angela Craig on March 18, 2023, from lethal doses of cyanide and tetrahydrozoline, a decongestant found in over-the-counter eyedrops.
Prosecutors allege James Craig bought arsenic, eyedrops and cyanide days before his wife was poisoned to death, searched online about how to poison someone, was having an affair and faced financial difficulties.
Evidence shows that Craig put poison in a smoothie he made for his wife, Brackley said, and that he later opened up a bottle of prescription capsules, replaced the contents of the capsules with cyanide and encouraged a family member to give the deadly pills to his wife.
Brackley alleged during Tuesday’s opening statements in Arapahoe County District Court that James Craig poisoned his wife to get rid of her so he could start a new life with his paramour.
Craig’s defense attorney, Ashley Whitham, dismissed the prosecution’s theory and said Craig had been having affairs for the duration of the couple’s marriage.
“This cheating had been happening for 23 years,” Whitham said. “There were lots of women. This wasn’t just about three women or four women, this is something that had been going on throughout the whole entire relationship. And there is nothing new about Ms. Cain. I know the prosecution is going to argue that and tell you she is some sort of motive, she is just like all the rest of the women that Dr. Craig was having affairs with.”
Whitham accused police of conducting a biased investigation that wrongly focused on James Craig as the only possible suspect, and implied that Angela Craig died by suicide, suggesting she was isolated, overwhelmed and unhappy.
“She was broken,” Whitham said. “She was struggling.”
James Craig is also charged with two counts of solicitation to commit tampering with evidence, two counts of solicitation to commit perjury and solicitation to commit murder. He is accused of asking two different people — including his daughter — to cover up evidence in the case. Prosecutors allege he tried to pay another inmate $20,000 to kill the lead detective on the case and pay the inmate’s ex-wife to falsely testify that Angela Craig was suicidal.
Before Angela died, James Craig used a communal computer at his workplace to conduct numerous searches about poison, prosecutors said.
The searches on YouTube and Google included: “how many grams of pure arsenic will kill a human,” “Is Arsenic Detectable in Autopsy,” “Top 5 Undetectable Poisons That Show No Signs of Foul Play,” “how to make poison,” and “The Top 10 Deadliest Plants (They Can Kill You),” according to a police affidavit.
James Craig ordered arsenic from Amazon.com on Feb. 27, the same day that Cain booked a trip to Denver for March 8, Brackley said. She later pushed her trip back to March 16, Brackley said.
“I might be completely in love with you after 3 days,” James Craig texted Cain, whom he’d met at a conference that started Feb. 22. Over roughly three weeks, the two exchanged 4,000 texts, 80 expressions of love and planned a future together, Brackley said.
“Maybe she will decide to stay gone for a long time,” James Craig texted Cain about his wife on Feb. 28, 2023. “It would be hard for me to figure out how to manage with the kids, but it would definitely make my life easier.”
James and Angela Craig shared six children and were Mormon, Whitham said. She said Angela Craig’s faith was important to her and she wanted to keep the family together for religious reasons, despite long-standing trouble in her marriage.
James Craig received the Amazon package of arsenic on March 4, and two days later, his wife was admitted to a hospital with symptoms that aligned with poisoning, according to a police affidavit. James Craig bought 12 bottles of Visine on March 8, 2023, then bought more the next day, Brackley said.
Angela Craig was released from the hospital on March 6 but returned between March 9 and 14, 2023. While she was hospitalized, James Craig ordered two additional poisons — cyanide and oleandrin — from medical suppliers, according to the affidavit. (He never received the oleandrin because the package was intercepted by police.)
Angela Craig conducted a number of Google searches on her phone about what might be causing her illness, Brackley said. Those searches included: “Internal shiver causes,” “Fall asleep, deep snore, internal tremors,” “Obstructive sleep apnea,” and “Internal tremors & chills.”
On March 15, while Angela Craig was home, James Craig texted a family member and reminded them to give Angela Craig a prescription medication. Within 25 minutes of Angela Craig taking that medication, she became very sick and was rushed back to the hospital, where she was put in intensive care and on a ventilator.
Angela Craig was declared brain dead and taken off life support on March 18, 2023.
“He put cyanide in the capsule,” Brackley told jurors.
Both he and Craig’s defense team showed jurors images and video recorded by a surveillance camera installed inside the Craigs’ home that pointed at the couple’s living room and kitchen. In one photo from March 9, the footage showed Angela Craig crawling on the ground when she was overcome with pain. In another clip, after her first hospital visit, the couple argued.
Angela Craig accused her husband of undermining her during the visit by implying to the doctors that she’d harmed herself, and said she thought it was odd that he didn’t ask for more details about her medical care.
“No one in their right mind would ever think I would kill myself before I killed you,” Angela Craig said during that argument. “No way. Name one person.”
Craig was charged with his wife’s murder hours after Angela Craig was taken off life support and died. The case was scheduled for a jury trial in December 2024, but was delayed when Craig’s defense attorney, Harvey Steinberg, withdrew from representing Craig over ethical concerns on the day the jury trial was scheduled to start.
Another of Craig’s attorneys, Robert Werking, withdrew from the case on July 1 after Werking was arrested and accused of setting his own home on fire. Werking is receiving mental health treatment, his attorney said, and Werking’s wife, who is also an attorney, is continuing to represent Craig during his jury trial.
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