Opening statements are set for Tuesday after jury selection on Monday in the case of James Craig, an Aurora, Colorado, dentist accused of fatally poisoning his wife.
Craig’s late wife, 43-year-old Angela Craig, died in March 2023 after being admitted to the hospital three times in 10 days. Her cause of death was found to be a combination of lethal doses of cyanide and tetrahydrozoline.
The couple had six children together.
At the forefront of the case are alleged online searches Craig made on a dental-office computer prior to his wife’s death that could be used as possible evidence against him. Questions like “how many grams of pure arsenic will kill a human” and “Is Arsenic Detectable in Autopsy” were purportedly found in the search history of an email account with Craig’s information by Aurora detectives, per his arrest warrant.
It also showed items allegedly purchased on the same account, including arsenic metal, 99.9999% crystalline metalloid, 10 grams, for element collection.
Also, YouTube searches of “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)” were reportedly discovered.
The alleged online searches are problematic for Craig. That’s why his defense attorney, Lisa Fine Moses, has already pushed two motions: a motion to suppress electronic evidence and a motion to dismiss the charges, according to Fox News.
The judge overseeing the case will have to decide whether the online evidence is probative or prejudicial — is it essential to the case, or is it unfairly biased?
Since Craig’s arrest in 2023, prosecutors have alleged that he’s taken further illegal actions to destroy the case against him.
“After Craig’s arrest in 2023, prosecutors alleged that he offered a fellow jail inmate $20,000 to kill the case’s lead investigator,” per NBC News, “and offered someone else $20,000 to find people to falsely testify that Angela Craig planned to die by suicide.”
The arrest warrant concluded that through their findings that “not one person has suggested or even seen any source of suicidal ideations from Angela.”
The arrest warrant also said that Craig had “been recently communicating with a woman named Karin Cain about what appears to be a sexually intimate relationship. It appears James was flying this woman into Denver while his wife and the mother of his children was dying in the hospital.”
“Based on the totality of the investigation, James has shown the planning and intent to end his wife’s life by searching for ways to kill someone undetected, providing her poisons that align with her hospitalized symptoms, and working on starting a new life with Karin Cain.”
Craig has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder, solicitation to commit murder and solicitation to commit perjury.