Colorado dentist James Craig found guilty of murdering wife in poisoning plot

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Dr. James Toliver Craig, 47, a Colorado dentist, faces life in prison without parole after being found guilty Wednesday of first-degree murder for poisoning his wife, Angela Craig. 

He was also convicted on five additional counts: two counts of solicitation to commit tampering with physical evidence, two counts of solicitation to commit perjury in the first degree, and one count of solicitation to commit first-degree murder. He was found not guilty on one lesser charge of manslaughter.

Angela Craig, 47, died in 2023 during her third trip to the hospital in a little over a week. Her official cause of death was ruled acute poisoning by cyanide and tetrahydrozoline, an ingredient found in over-the-counter eye drops.

Throughout the three-week murder trial, prosecutors alleged that the Colorado dentist killed his wife due to mounting financial pressures and an extramarital affair with a Texas orthodontist. The defense argued that Angela Craig was depressed and suicidal. 

According to court documents obtained by Fox News Digital, Angela Craig began experiencing mysterious symptoms, including dizziness, vomiting and severe headaches, in March 2023.

Her symptoms progressed between March 6-16, 2023, court documents allege, including blurred vision, feeling "drugged," seizures and rapid medical decline. 

She was hospitalized several times before slipping into a coma and being declared brain-dead on Aug. 18, 2023.

Her official cause of death was ruled acute poisoning by cyanide and tetrahydrozoline. 

Throughout the trial, medical staff testified about Angela's decline, saying that the once-healthy mother rapidly deteriorated.

Her friend, Nicole Harmon, took the stand and testified that her lifelong best friend never expressed wanting to die. 

"She wasn't a risk-taker. She wasn't manipulative," Harmon told the jury. "And she never said anything-ever-about wanting to die."

On March 9, 2023, approximately one week before the 43-year-old was pronounced brain-dead, Angela texted Harmon asking for help checking her blood sugar. When she arrived, she found Angela curled up, she testified.

"She hadn't eaten. She couldn't stand," Harmon said, testifying that James Craig had given Angela a shake that morning.

When the friend texted and asked what was going on, she said James Craig brushed off Angela's ailment: "Post-COVID. Not diabetes."

In the trial, two of Craig's children took the stand and testified against their father. 

She described Angela as her "best friend" and said Angela had hobbies, including woodworking and exercise. She also loved animals, and, above all, her children. 

"She wanted to get back home," she said. "She just wanted to get back to her girls." 

She told the jury her parents struggled in their marriage several years before the alleged murder but said things had gotten better before Angela's death. 

She said their texts turned romantic and spiritual, with some becoming sexts.

Cain said Craig claimed he was newly divorced and living in an apartment. But under cross-examination, she acknowledged that wasn't true. 

"Yes, a lot of what the defendant told me wasn't true," she admitted. 

Just three days into their relationship, Craig wrote, "I've fallen in love with you so deeply that the list of attributes has become endless." 

Prosecutors argued Craig's lies and secret relationship were key to his motive.

Another woman, Carrie Hageseth, also took the stand, describing how she met Craig on the dating site Seeking.com. She said their relationship was transactional. He paid her daughter's car bills.

During one dinner, she testified, Craig referenced the movie "The Purge," in which there is one day when everyone can kill whomever they want without consequence.

Craig, she testified, said that if he could "purge" someone, it would be his wife. He went into detail, Hageseth testified, describing how a person could be killed via injection without consequence.

Together, the women's accounts painted Craig as a man leading a double life. Prosecutors used the volume and tone of his communications to argue this was a calculated scheme.

Fox News Digital's Peter D'Abrosca contributed to this report.