AURORA, Colo. — We're two months away from the slated trial date of an Aurora dentist accused of fatally poisoning his wife, and as of last Friday, James Craig has switched attorneys.
Denver7 is working to learn why Craig made the switch, but have been told the reasoning would break attorney-client privilege.
This change can happen for a number of reasons, legal ethics professor at University of Denver Eli Wald said, including the defendant not being able to pay legal fees or a defendant and attorney disagree or have a lack of chemistry.
This first degree murder case has a substantial volume of evidence already made public that a new attorney now has not only to learn, but also to defend his or her client against.
"When trial preparation is disrupted, of course, delays may be caused and the obvious reason, as you pointed out, when we're dealing with a case with a significant volume of evidence, perhaps many witnesses, expert witnesses, so on and so forth, simply marshaling the evidence and preparing for trial could be very time consuming," Wald said.
However, Wald assures the public that a new attorney will have ample time to learn a case in time for the anticipated August 8 trial.
"I'm confident that the defendant will be able to benefit from and receive excellent representation. And I'm confident that the prosecution will have ample time to prepare for the case and get to know defense counsel, at this point in time, I think that we have no reason to fear that the integrity of the proceedings, or even the perception of it will be undermined," he said.
Craig has a motions hearing slated for 2:30 p.m. Wednesday where his attorney is expected to argue that new evidence, like voice messages between Craig and his mistress, shouldn't be admitted at trial.
Aurora
Aurora dentist accused of killing wife discussed it with mistress, DA alleges
His attorney also wants all the charges against Craig dropped.
Prosecutors have asked the judge to deny that motion without a hearing.
