A spokesperson from the police department has confirmed that a Colorado dentist facing charges for poisoning his wife now faces a new charge of solicitation to commit murder. However, this new charge is not related to his wife’s murder but involves an alleged attempt on the life of an Aurora police detective.
According to Aurora Police spokesperson Joy Moylan, James Craig allegedly tried to persuade another inmate to kill a detective who was investigating his wife’s murder case, as reported by CBS News.
On Friday, new charges of solicitation to commit murder and solicitation to commit perjury were brought against Craig. This action came a day after his trial, which was scheduled to start on Thursday, was postponed due to his attorney suddenly withdrawing from the case, as highlighted by CrimeOnline.
In a hearing on Thursday, attorney Harvey Steinberg cited two reasons for withdrawal: “The client persists in a course of action involving the lawyer’s services that the lawyer reasonably believes is criminal or fraudulent” and the “client insists upon taking action that the lawyer considers repugnant or with which the lawyer has a fundamental disagreement.”
The judge granted Steinberg’s request to withdraw and postponed the trial.
Craig is accused of poisoning Angela Craig’s protein shakes with cyanide and tetrahydrozoline, a substance commonly found in over-the-counter eye drops. The dentist allegedly bought the cyanide but claimed his 43-year-old wife was suicidal and asked him to do so.
She died in March 2023.
Craig has already pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and solicitation to commit tampering with physical evidence. For the tampering charge, prosecutors say Craig asked another inmate to plant forged journal entries at his home that suggested Angela Craig killed herself. The inmate refused. He also allegedly smuggled a letter out of jail with an inmate asking the inmate’s adult daughter to make a fake video of Angela Craig asking her husband to get poisons for her.
Court documents also say he asked another fellow inmate to find women to testify at his trial saying they had affairs with the dentist and Angela Craig found out and asked them to help her frame him for her death.
Prosecutors say Craig was having an affair with an orthodontist from Texas and even flew her to Colorado to be with him while Angela Craig was in the hospital dying.
