Dr. James T. Craig
Jury Trial Postponed, Defendant Waived Right to Speedy Trial
BETRAYAL & THREE BATCHES OF POISON in Colorado
by Jennifer Knight
for Crime Curious
July 9, 2024
What on Earth would motivate Aurora dentist Jim Craig to fatally poison his wife of twenty-four years, 43-year old Angela Craig? Was it greed? Infidelity? Did Angela Craig have life insurance? Did Jim Craig have another woman? Prosecutors say yes, all of the above.
Angela Craig had three separate life insurance policies, and Jim was experiencing major financial difficulties. Jim filed bankruptcy in 2021 and he was on the verge of yet another bankruptcy at the time of Angela's death. This latest threat, however, did not deter Jim from losing $2000 while gambling in Las Vegas during a recent trip.
A family friend of more than twenty years, a fellow dentist named Ryan Redfearn, had recently acquired Jim's dental practice (Summerbrook Dental Group) and was actively trying to keep the business afloat in spite of Jim Craig's involvement.
Jim admitted to drugging his wife approximately five years before her murder. His excuse, at the time, was that he had intended to commit suicide and he didn't want her to stop him from killing himself. He also didn't want her to find his body. His excuse apparently worked, and the couple stayed together for the sake of their family.
Angela was barely an adult when she married Jim, and she gave him six children.
Jim Craig was having an affair with Marble Falls, Texas dentist Karin Cain at the time of Angela's murder. Karin claims they were only romantically involved for about three weeks. She also claims that their relationship was never consummated. The secret emails between the two, however, seem far more intimate than Jim's latest mistress is willing to admit. Karin flew to Denver for a visit with Jim while Angela Craig was in the hospital.
Jim had multiple affairs during his 24-year marriage to Angela. She tried to forgive him each and every time. Jim claimed that he was battling a serious addiction to pornography which began during his teenage years, and he treated it like some terrible sort of mental and physical condition that he needed spiritual help with. According to the affidavit of probable cause in this case, whenever Angela would work up the nerve to leave her husband, Jim would always convince her to stay.
Angela Dawn Pray Craig 1979 - 2023
On February 27, 2023, Jim created a secret email account (jimandwaffles@gmail.com). He only accessed the Google account from a computer in Exam Room 9 at Summerbrook Dental Group.
Aside from romantic messages that were exchanged with his mistress, Jim made several highly questionable searches, such as "how many grams of pure arsenic will kill a human" and "Is Arsenic Detectable in Autopsy?" He then searched chemical suppliers in Aurora, Colorado and made a $13 purchase on Amazon for Arsenic Metal 99.9999% Crystalline Metalloid 10 grams. The package was delivered to his home address (6795 South Robertsdale Way) on March 4, 2023.
Angela Craig fell sick for the first time on March 6, 2023 - two days after Jim received the first batch. She had just returned home from a trip to Utah where she was visiting her sister, Toni. Angela's sister told detectives that Angela was not sick at all during their visit.
Also on March 6, 2023, Jim ordered a second batch of poison. He purchased three Oleandrin 1mg tablets for $330. James never received this batch, because it wasn't delivered right away. Angela passed away before he could get his hands on it. Detectives with the Major Crime Homicide Unit were able to intercept the package before it was delivered, so he actually never received it at all.
On March 9, 2023, however, Jim ordered a third batch of poison that he did receive. This time, he purchased Sigma 207810-25G which is the technical term for potassium cyanide. The cost of this batch was approximately $55. He wanted to pickup the product from Midland Scientific, but it wasn't in stock. The company said they could ship it overnight for Saturday delivery. Jim agreed and had the package sent to his office. Unfortunately for Jim, the package was not delivered until Monday, March 13, which meant that his staff was present when the package was delivered. Jim informed an office manager that he was expecting a personal package and instructed her to not open it. The package was opened anyhow, by a different office manager, and it was repackaged when she realized that she wasn't supposed to open it.
Jim had no idea the package had been opened until after one of the office managers contacted Ryan Redfearn, Jim's business partner, and told him about the curious delivery of potassium cyanide. Ryan and his wife, Michelle, were on their way to visit Angela in the hospital when Ryan received the call. At his earliest opportunity, when Jim stepped out of the room, Ryan pulled a nurse aside and told her that Angela may have been poisoned. The nurse immediately reported the incident to police.
The Department of Human Services spoke with Jim and his children separately. Jim told them Angela was suicidal. He claimed that she had tried to take her own life on several occasions and he had saved or revived her each time. Jim neither reported the suicide attempts nor suggested that Angela get therapy or treatment of any sort.
Jim sent the following message to Ryan after Angela's murder.
"Good morning Ryan. Thank you for taking my patient load today. I want to make an urgent plea to you. If we were ever friends, please do this favor for me. Please don't talk to anyone about what we talked about last night, including any law enforcement officers. You are under no obligation to answer their questions unless you are served a subpoena and you will do more damage than good to my family by continuing to insert yourself into this. Angela is gone and I am devastated. There is nothing that can bring her back and I want desperately to tell you all of the details so that you can better understand what's gone on behind the scenes with her. There is so, so much that you didn't know that I wish you did. If you knew everything this would make so much sense to you but there's no use in telling you right now.
You and I have a history of you and the other partners and Jackie all talking about me behind my back and deciding when you think is best and then you're always the fall guy that has to pull the trigger or tell me what you've all decided about me. In fact, yesterday you didn't even come to me. I had to seek you out. You have never given me the advantage of talking with me first - you just decide and then act and hope I'll pick up the pieces later. This is a pattern in our business dealings and now has become a factor in our personal dealings.
Let me paint a picture for you of what this has done. Yesterday I had to tell my kids their mom was not going to wake up and they were there to say their final goodbyes. That was at 6:45pm. The hospital said we could bring the kids up to say goodbye at that time, but because of the investigation you opened by your incomplete information, the hospital made those poor, grieving, hysterical kids wait until after 10:00 to see their mom. After an hour or so of saying goodbye to her, we went home just before midnight only to have our house sealed against our entry by the police.
Instead of getting to go home and find comfort, they were met with flashing lights and cold, unfeeling cops and the kids, scared and confused, had to go sleep at the home of a ward member. Family is starting to come in to town today and I have to tell them they can't come to my house and try to explain why. I have to hire a homicide attorney to make sure I don't end up being painted in the light that you know some hungry DA is anxious to paint me in because I am most likely going to be charged even though that is absolutely NOT what happened.
Ryan, I understand why you did what you did. I do. I get it. But if you had come to me personally, man-to-man instead of talking to everyone else about what you thought you knew, I might have let you in on some details that would have made you less likely to cause this horrible storm.
Man Ryan, if you had ONLY put me higher on your list of priorities instead of putting everyone else's opinions and gossip ahead of me! For that I am very, very mad at you. I have talked to you about this multiple times but you don't seem to care and now what you thought was responsible has become reckless and so, so destructive.
And so I'm asking, if there was ever any love in your heart for me, please don't make this any worse by talking to any officers or anyone else about this unless you are legally forced to. And whoever else on the team you think is going to be questioned, I would ask that you privately ask them to honor this request, too. Also, please do not respond to this text message until I text you again."
The Craig Family (before March 2023)
Source: GoFundMe
Jim told Angela's sister that he would not allow hospital staff to perform an autopsy. He said that he felt if they couldn't figure out what was wrong with her when she was alive, then he wouldn't let them poke her more when she was dead. An autopsy was performed after his arrest.
The last few weeks of Angela Craig's life were absolutely miserable. Death by poison is an incredibly painful way to leave this world. Angela suffered dizziness, muscle stiffness, general weakness, nausea, vomiting, vision problems, eye discharge, extreme headaches, high and low blood sugar, loss of appetite, and an altered mental state. She had difficulty breathing and eventually suffered a seizure. She was intubated and had a heart attack before she went "brain dead" and her husband made the decision to pull the plug while pretending to care about her death.
Jim Craig was booked into the Arapahoe County Detention Center around 9am on March 19, 2023. He is currently being held on a $10,000,000 bond.
Since his arrest, Jim Craig has been charged with two additional crimes. On top of first degree premeditated murder after deliberation, he has also been accused of attempting to persuade one of his daughters to tamper with physical evidence in order to facilitate a crime, and he's been accused of attempting to persuade a fellow inmate to plant false evidence. Jim offered the inmate free dental work or money toward his bond if the inmate was willing to go to Jim's house and plant letters that were allegedly written by Angela in Jim's garage and vehicle. The letters were actually written by Jim, from jail, but they were meant to corroborate Jim's claims that Angela was suicidal before her death.
Jim maintains that Angela must have poisoned herself, and he complains that any evidence against him is merely circumstantial.
Trial was originally scheduled to begin in April 2024, but it was pushed back to August 2024 after an expert witness for the defense suffered a stroke. Jim has since waived his right to a speedy trial in this matter and the August 2024 trial date has been vacated. We will continue to follow this case and update you as new details become available.
Let's discuss what we know so far. Send questions and/or comments and/or information regarding this case to crimecuriouscolorado@gmail.com.
If you or someone you love is experiencing domestic violence in the state of Colorado, call the 24/7 Crisis Line at (970) 259-5443 to speak with an advocate. The Southwest Safehouse is operated by Volunteers of America. You can also call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at (800) 799-7233.
James Toliver "Jim" Craig