Colo. Dentist Found Guilty of Fatally Poisoning Wife with Smoothies, Sentenced to Life in Prison: Report

The Colorado dentist accused of fatally poisoning his wife’s smoothies has been found guilty of murder.

According to NBC News, James Craig was sentenced to life in prison without parole on July 30 following the guilty verdict during his trial, which began on July 15.

Craig, 47, was charged with first-degree murder in connection with the March 2023 death of 43-year-old Angela Craig. Along with first degree murder, a jury in Arapahoe County also found the dentist guilty on five other counts, including solicitation to commit tampering with evidence, solicitation to commit perjury and solicitation to commit murder, per the outlet.

Authorities said Angela, a mother of six, died by poisoning via cyanide and tetrahydrozoline, a substance found in over-the-counter eye drops.

“The evidence, the crime, the verdict and the sentence all speak for themselves,” Judge Shay Whitaker said during sentencing, per NBC News. “Dr. Craig unleashed a path of destruction as wide as a tornado and just as devastating – damage to his children, damage to Angela’s family, damage to his own family.”

Craig allegedly began plotting his wife’s murder in late February 2023, when investigators said he purchased arsenic online and searched “how many grams of pure arsenic will kill a human” and “Is Arsenic Detectable in Autopsy?,” according to a probable cause affidavit previously obtained by PEOPLE.  

Angela, a choir director and family history consultant for her local church, was first hospitalized on March 6 complaining of dizziness and weakness. She then fell ill again and returned to the hospital on March 9, staying for six days. During her third visit, she was taken off life support after suffering a seizure and died on March 18.

Prosecutors alleged during their opening statements of the trial that on one of Craig’s visits to the hospital to visit his sick wife he poisoned her with cyanide.

“He didn’t go into that room to save Angela’s life,” prosecutor Ryan Brackley alleged, according to CNN. “He didn’t go into that room to fight for her life or support her. He went into that room to murder her, to deliberately and intentionally end her life with a fatal dose of cyanide.”

According to the probable cause affidavit, Angela allegedly told her sister Toni Kofoed that Craig was obsessed with pornography, had multiple affairs and tried to drug her years earlier. When she discovered he tried to poison her, Craig – an elder in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints – allegedly told her he planned to die by suicide and drugged her because he didn’t want her to attempt to stop him.

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Angela also allegedly told her sister that Craig had recently lost more than $2,000 gambling in Las Vegas and had “run the dental office into the ground,” per the probable cause affidavit. Craig’s business partner Ryan Redfearn told police that Craig had previously filed for bankruptcy and was on the verge of doing so again.

If you are experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or go to thehotline.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.