Affair Poison, Deception, and a Chilling Plot: Colorado Dentist Faces Trial for Wife’s Murder
Affair Despite multiple evaluations, doctors couldn’t pinpoint the cause of her illness. But Angela herself seemed suspicious.
Affair “I feel drugged,” she texted her husband, James Craig, a local dentist, during her first hospital stay. According to court records, she told him the only thing she’d had that morning was a protein shake he had prepared. Three hours into her third hospital visit, Angela began having seizures and was moved to the ICU.
Affair Now, over two years later, James Craig is preparing to stand trial for her murder. Jury selection began Thursday in a case that has shocked the local community and gained national attention for its disturbing mix of deceit, poison, and a tangled web of lies and betrayal.
Affair A Mounting Case Against the Husband
Affair The investigation into Angela Craig’s sudden death quickly unraveled what prosecutors describe as a carefully calculated plan to kill. It includes everything from witness interviews and text messages to damning internet searches and records of suspicious online orders.
Affair The case suggests that Craig was leading a double life: while presenting himself as a family man, he was allegedly carrying on an affair and plotting his wife’s murder by poisoning her with a combination of dangerous chemicals, including cyanide, arsenic, and tetrahydrozoline—commonly found in eye drops.
Affair Craig is facing six felony charges, including first-degree murder, solicitation to commit murder, and solicitation to tamper with physical evidence. If convicted, he could be sentenced to life in prison without parole.
A Dental Partner Sounds the Alarm
The first person to suspect foul play wasn’t a doctor, but Craig’s business partner, Dr. Ryan Redfearn. According to court documents, Redfearn received a call from an office manager alerting him that a package of potassium cyanide—an extremely lethal substance—had been delivered for Craig at their dental office just days earlier.
Alarmed, Redfearn rushed to the hospital where Angela was being treated and informed a nurse of the suspicious package. He also pointed out that there was no reasonable explanation for a dental office to possess potassium cyanide. The hospital contacted law enforcement shortly after.
That same evening, James Craig called Redfearn to ask if he had mentioned the package to hospital staff. Redfearn confirmed he had. Craig initially tried to fabricate a story, claiming Angela had asked him to order the poison because she was suicidal. But when pressed further, he admitted to purchasing the cyanide—one of several inconsistent and unsubstantiated claims he would make in the days to come.
Redfearn’s final advice to Craig that night, according to the affidavit, was simple and foreboding: “Stop talking and get a lawyer.”
Text Messages Hint at Suspicion
Angela Craig’s final communications with her husband are particularly telling. In her texts, she frequently described feeling like she had been drugged and expressed fear over her deteriorating condition.
Her husband responded, “Given our history, I know that must be triggering,” then added, “Just for the record, I didn’t drug you.”
But investigators later learned this wasn’t the first time Craig had allegedly drugged his wife. One of Angela’s sisters told police that years earlier, Craig had sedated Angela so she couldn’t interfere with his attempt to commit suicide.
A dental office employee later told authorities that after Angela was discharged from her second hospital stay, she directly accused her husband of poisoning her.
Coroner’s Findings and Poison Purchases
Angela’s cause of death was confirmed by the coroner: acute poisoning from cyanide and tetrahydrozoline, with subacute arsenic poisoning also noted.
Further investigation into James Craig’s online activity turned up more red flags. Authorities discovered a secret email account accessed only from a computer in a dental exam room. That account had been used to research various poisons and their detectability during autopsies. Search history revealed disturbing queries such as “how many grams of arsenic will kill a human” and “Top 5 Undetectable Poisons That Show No Signs of Foul Play.”
According to receipts, Craig ordered arsenic on February 27, which was delivered to his home on March 4—just two days before Angela’s first hospital visit. Potassium cyanide was purchased on March 8 and delivered to the dental office on March 13—the same day the office employee discovered the package.
An Affair and a Suspected Motive
According to court records, Cain flew from Texas to Colorado to visit Craig while Angela was in the hospital.
She denied any involvement in the alleged murder plot, saying they had only been seeing each other for three weeks.
Courtroom Drama: A Revolving Door of Lawyers
James Craig’s case has been fraught with legal turbulence. His initial legal team of three lawyers was replaced in May 2024 by prominent Denver attorney Harvey Steinberg.
However, just as jury selection was about to begin on November 21, 2024, Steinberg requested to withdraw from the case. He cited violations of professional conduct rules—though the exact nature of those violations has not been publicly disclosed.
Adding to the drama, one of Craig’s previous lawyers was accused of setting fire to his own home. And in a shocking twist, Craig himself has reportedly been accused of trying to orchestrate a murder-for-hire plot from jail—targeting the lead investigator on the case.
In a complex and increasingly bizarre murder case, James Craig—the Colorado dentist accused of fatally poisoning his wife—has seen not only his personal life unravel but also his legal defense team fall into chaos. As Craig prepares to stand trial for the alleged murder of Angela Craig, new charges and courtroom shake-ups continue to complicate an already deeply troubling story.
Craig’s original attorney, Harvey Steinberg, abruptly withdrew from the case in November 2024—just as jury selection was set to begin. In his motion to withdraw, Steinberg cited two specific ethical rules.
Steinberg did not respond to requests for comment.
Following his departure, the court appointed two new lawyers to represent Craig: Lisa Moses and Robert Werking. The trial was postponed and rescheduled for July. But even this new legal pairing was short-lived.
Just weeks before the new trial date, Werking found himself entangled in serious legal trouble of his own. On June 14, he was cited for a misdemeanor weapons charge. According to the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office, deputies arrived at the scene of a house fire to find Werking sitting calmly on the front porch.
Ironically, in a full-circle twist, Werking turned to two attorneys—Liz Delay and David Beller—who had originally represented James Craig, to help with his own legal defense.
Werking has not entered any formal pleas related to the charges against him.
As of now, Lisa Moses remains on Craig’s defense team, and a third attorney, Ashley Whitham, has joined the effort to represent him.
A Disturbing Jailhouse Plot Emerges
As if the case couldn’t get more shocking, prosecutors dropped a bombshell just one day after Steinberg’s withdrawal: James Craig was charged with solicitation to commit murder and an additional charge of solicitation to commit perjury—this time for allegedly trying to orchestrate a murder-for-hire plot from inside jail.
Prosecutors allege that Craig tried to recruit a fellow inmate, Nathaniel Harris, to kill Detective Olson, as well as an officer referred to only as “Officer Hillstrand”—a person authorities say they have not yet identified. Two other inmates in the medical unit of the detention facility were also reportedly on the hit list.
But Craig’s alleged efforts didn’t end there.
He also wrote to Harris’ ex-wife, Kasiani “Kasi” Konstantinidis, trying to convince her to help him fabricate evidence to weaken the prosecution’s case. One of the letters, intercepted by law enforcement during a jail cell search, reportedly included what investigators described as “essentially a blank check.” Craig allegedly asked Konstantinidis to create fake text messages, phone records, and photos to support a false narrative that she and Angela Craig had been close friends—and that Angela had been suicidal.
In another intercepted letter, Craig reportedly wrote that his entire defense might rest on finding “someone to say Angela was suicidal.”
Investigators said the second letter—still unopened—further emphasized his desperation to create a backstory that would cast doubt on his motives. Craig allegedly believed that if he could convince both the district attorney and his own defense team that his wife had been mentally unstable, it could change the course of the case.
One of the more alarming implications of the plot was that Craig allegedly hoped to manipulate his own attorney at the time—Harvey Steinberg—into believing the fabricated story. It was shortly after these efforts that Steinberg withdrew from the case.