Dentist suspected of poisoning his wife now accused of plotting to kill cop from behind bars
Craig allegedly asked a former cellmate to help him craft a fraudulent defense shortly after his arrest in 2023
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James Craig, the Colorado dentist who has been accused of poisoning and killing his wife ¡ª has now been charged with allegedly plotting the murder of a detective working on his case.
Craig was charged with the murder of his wife, Angela, who died in 2023. Prosecutors said Craig used lethal doses of cyanide and tetrahydrozoline to poison Angela, 43.
His trial was slated to begin this week with jury selection, but has now been put on indefinite hold after his attorney abruptly withdrew from the case. Shortly after his attorney left, prosecutors files two new charges against Craig, including one for murder solicitation.
While the victim of the alleged murder plot was not listed, sources close to the case told 9News that the intended target was a detective with the Aurora police who worked on Craig's case.
The broadcaster obtained records alleging that Craig had twice asked his cellmate to kill the detective. The cellmate is not facing charges and is not suspected of any wrongdoing, according to the outlet.
This isn't the first time Craig landed in hot water for allegedly trying to plot with a former prisoner. In September, prosecutors revealed that they had found a letter in April 2023 ¡ª just after Craig's initial arrest ¡ª where he tried to allegedly convince a man who was briefly incarcerated with him to help him craft a fraudulent defense.
The scheme was complicated; according to prosecutors, Craig wanted the former inmate to find some "attractive 25-to-45-year-old females" and to convince one to pose as his former mistress. The fake mistress would have been instructed to weave a tale about how she and Craig were together, but he called it off out of a sense of loyalty to Angela. The fiction continued with Angela learning of the affair and approaching the spurned mistress with a plot to frame Craig with an assault or an "attempted homicide."
In other words; Craig was allegedly trying to lay the groundwork to argue that his dead wife had framed him.
He offered the former cellmate $60,000 in dental work for his mother in payment. The cellmate reportedly told Craig he'd consider the offer, but then went to investigators because he was afraid of getting roped up in a felony for the dentist.
Craig's next court date was scheduled for December 16, but without an attorney and with new charges looming it¡¯s unclear when his case will actually make it before a judge.
The dentist first faced trouble with the law in 2023, when he allegedly determined he was going to kill his wife.
According to his arrest affidavit, Craig plotted the murder from his office, searching terms such as "undetectable poisons" online and later ordering crystalline metalloid arsenic from Amazon.
Five days before Angela died, Craig received a package at his office containing the "potassium cyanide," but an office worker opened the item and saw its contents, including a bright biohazard sticker.
On March 6, 9 and 15, Angela fell ill and went to the hospital to seek treatment. She reported feeling faint and dizzy during each visit. By her third visit, Aurora police were becoming suspicious of what kept putting her in the hospital. Angela died on March 18.
Shortly after her death, the office worker who found Craig's poisons became suspicious and reported their findings to the police.