ARAPAHOE COUNTY, Colo. — The trial of the former Aurora dentist accused of murdering his wife in 2023 continued on Thursday, with two of the couples children taking the witness stand.
James Craig is on trial for one charge of first-degree murder, 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. Five of the charges were added to this case during his time in jail.
He is accused of killing his wife, Angela Craig, 43, by poisoning her workout smoothies. Her cause of death was determined to be lethal doses of cyanide and tetrahydrozoline, a decongestant found in over-the-counter eyedrops. She suffered through several bouts of sickness before her passing, and doctors struggled to determine why she was ill.
He was arrested on March 19, 2023. His bond was set at $10 million on June 28, 2023. That October, he pleaded not guilty to the charges against him.
James Craig's trial began on Tuesday, July 15, 2025.
You can read Denver7's previous reporting on this trial here:
- Opening statements/day 1 - Tuesday, July 15
- Day 2 - Wednesday, July 16
Below is a summary of the third day of the trial.
Lead Aurora PD detective has brief testimony ahead of full version, expected later in trial
The first witness that prosecutor Michael Mauro called on Thursday morning was Bobbi Olson, the lead detective of the case with the Aurora Police Department. Mauro explained that Olson would only provide a short testimony on Thursday, and that her full explanation of the investigation for the jury would come later in the trial.
Olson has more than 20 years of experience in law enforcement, and Mauro described her as the "point person" on the Craig case.
Olson obtained a search warrant to seize the Craigs' cell phones on the morning of March 16, 2023. Angela Craig was declared brain-dead on March 15, 2023.
Olson collected both of the Craigs' cell phones, the Summerbrook Dental Group credit card with James Craig's name and the hard drive from exam room 9 at the former dental practice — where James Craig allegedly purchased poison online. Craig provided the cell phone passwords to Olson, along with handing over the credit card, according to Olson.
On cross-examination, defense attorneys pointed out there was no court order directing Craig to provide the cell phone passwords to investigators. Without those passwords, breaking into a cell phone can take a much longer time, Olson testified.
Digital forensics expert explains retrieving data from Craigs' cell phones
The next witness was David Lee, who currently works for the U.S. Secret Service in cyber-related investigations. Prior to that, he worked in the digital forensics detail with the Aurora Police Department. He was qualified as an expert witness in digital forensic examinations for the trial.
Lee told the court he analyzed both James Craig's and Angela Craig's cell phones, as well as a Dell computer and hard drive, and a Samsung DVR device.
The data retrieved from the cell phones was not detailed during his testimony, but is expected later in the trial. Lee's testimony helped lay foundation for prosecutors to eventually explain that evidence to jurors, who will already know how it was gathered.
During cross-examination, defense attorney Lisa Moses asked Lee if a screenshot of text messages is the "best evidence," and he replied that it depends what it is used for, though from his perspective, it is probably not since it shows just a small portion of a conversation. Moses hammered home that the data cannot definitively prove who was using the phone at the time the message was sent.
Lee told the defense that the warrant was for data between Feb. 16 and March 16, 2023, and he did not pull any information prior to that.
Laboratory product distributor details alleged exchange with Craig regarding cyanide
Prosecutor Ryan Brackley then called Cassie Rodriquez up to the stand as their 16th witness in the trial. Rodriquez is a cell support specialist with Midland Scientific, which is a distributor of laboratory products and chemicals.
She testified about a web order confirmation for potassium cyanide placed by a person named James Craig with the email JimandWaffles@gmail.com, which was the same name prosecutors said he used on a dating website during opening statements. She explained that a Gmail email address typically raises a red flag.
Rodriquez said the buyer requested to pick up the potassium cyanide in person on March 9, but the facility typically does not allow chemicals to be picked up at the facilities because of the hazards associated with transporting the products.
Rodriquez testified that James Craig requested the order be shipped that night, because of "a type of seminar he was presenting." Rodriquez expanded upon the "seminar," testifying that Craig claimed he was teaching a course and would love to demonstrate a certain process using cyanide as part of the lesson.
The defense questioned how Rodriquez knew that James Craig was the person sending the emails, and she confirmed she can only say the emails were coming from JimandWaffles@gmail.com. Prosecutor Ryan Brackley asked if James Craig had ever tried to call Rodriquez, and she said yes, but she was unable to answer the phone at the time.
On March 11, Rodriquez received an email from Jimandwaffles asking for tracking information. The person on the other end of the email chain also told her they would be at the dental office waiting to receive the package.
When the package did not arrive on March 11, Rodriquez received an email stating, in part: "Wow, it's 7:30 at night and I have been waiting at my office all day for the shipment."
During cross-examination, the defense again confirmed that Rodriquez does not know who wrote those emails.
Following a lunch break, Brackley called Ashley Donohue to the stand. Donohue worked as a warehouse manager for Midland Scientific in the past, and told prosecutors he called their HR department after seeing Craig on the news, which caught his attention. Craig, Brackley said, approached him once in the parking lot of the business to ask a question.
According to Brackley, Craig was wearing blue scrubs when he walked through their parking lot and up to the loading dock. In five years of working for the company, Brackley said he had never seen someone come to the dock in scrubs.
Craig allegedly asked Brackley if there was still a storefront for the business, but Brackley told him that was closed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the cross-examination, defense attorney Ashley Witham questioned Donohue about the timing of his conversation with HR. Donohue claimed he called HR before a company meeting where they discussed vetting their customers.
What was, and was not, collected from the Craig home and dental practice
The next witness called was Darvin Harrell, a crime scene investigator with the Aurora Police Department. Prosecutor Osama Magrebi asked the questions this time around.
Harrell told Magrebi he assists detectives with documentation and crime scene processing. He walked prosecutors through several photos of the Craig home, including a smoothie shaker which is how Craig is suspected of having poisoned his wife.
There were also photographs shown of protein drink shaker bottles that had been freshly run through the dishwasher at the home. In addition, a picture of a bottle of a Clindamycin prescription was shown to the jury — prosecutors have insinuated James Craig filled the capsules in that bottle with poison. A closer view of the pill bottle showed it was prescribed by 'Dr. Craig DDS.'"
During cross-examination, Witham asked a series of probing questions as to what types of items Harrell was not directed to collect, suggesting that the criminal investigation into Craig was lacking.
Witham then asked Harrell why he never collected any IV bag or IV port from the hospital where Angela Craig died. It appeared that Witham was preemptively arguing against a point prosecutors will likely delve into during the trial — that James Craig allegedly gave Angela Craig a lethal dose of poison while she was hospitalized.
In the redirect, prosecutors argued before the court that Harrell only collects items as instructed, and it depends on the detective in the case if he is allowed to take items that are not suspected of being relevant to the investigation.
Emotional, pivotal evidence presented by Craig daughters
The prosecution then called their 19th witness to the stand, one of the Craig children — who Denver7 is not identifying as per a request from the judge in this trial.
The testimony instantly turned emotional when prosecutor Mauro asked the daughter what her mother's name was. She choked up as she responded with "Angela."
The oldest daughter of the Craig siblings told Mauro that Angela Craig loved "nothing more than being a mom, and she was really good at it."
She described how Angela Craig didn't have much time for hobbies while raising six children, but loved woodworking to the point she and her daughter would talk about building a home together in the South.
She continued to say that Angela Craig loved exercising and animals, despite being incredibly allergic.
"We had a zoo," the daughter said with a smile. "We had — at the time, back in 2023 when my husband and I got married — at home they had two of the ugliest dogs on the planet. They were the kind of dogs only a mom could love."
Angela Craig was also fascinated by genealogy.
"I'll never understand why she liked it, but she liked boring stuff sometimes," her daughter testified. "I made fun of her for it."
In 2023, Angela Craig was very active. She told her daughter how much she loved riding her stationary bicycle, and was doing "lots of yoga."
When prosecutors asked if Angela Craig seemed depressed at the time surrounding her death, her daughter told the jury that could not have been true because they were making plans together.
"We wanted to fix up a house together some day, somewhere in the South because she liked it there," the daughter said on the stand, adding that her mother was excited to become a grandmother.
Her daughter continued to testify that Angela Craig was not a big "risk-taker" and was not a reckless person. If anything, "she was an over-thinker."
Her daughter also testified that Angela Craig was not deceptive or manipulative.
The woman then told Mauro how her mom would describe her symptoms before she died. She said her mom would say how she felt dizzy and nauseous, and less stable on her two feet. Her daughter never got the impression that Angela Craig knew what was wrong with her.
She testified that her mother wanted to stop sleeping in hospital beds because "she wanted to get back to her girls." As the daughter said this, James Craig was seen nodding his head in the courtroom.
When she died, their daughter recalled asking James Craig to request an autopsy on Angela Craig to find out what was wrong with her. She recalled her dad telling them he "didn't want to satisfy their [doctor's] curiosities."
"If they couldn't figure it out, figure it out when she was alive, they shouldn't poke around when she's gone," she recalled James Craig telling her.
In response, the woman asked her father, "What if it's hereditary? Wouldn't you want to know?" She said James Craig reportedly stayed quiet.
The daughter testified that the last time she visited their family home, for Christmas in 2022, that her father never pulled her aside to discuss a divorce from her mother.
During cross-examination, Witham tried to get at Angela Craig's alleged mental struggles, but her daughter said "she struggled like everybody else, but I wouldn't say she had a mental illness."
If Angela Craig struggled, she kept it separate from the children, her daughter testified.
"That's what every mom does, they don't want to hurt their kids," she said. "She was a fantastic mom."
Religion within the family was brought up by defense attorneys, with the daughter testifying they were members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She claimed Angela Craig tried to live by the church values.
"At the end of the day, we all just loved God," the daughter testified. "That's where my mom and my whole family felt peace."
In 2017, the daughter knew things were different between her parents. She heard her parents fight from within their bedroom, and testified about times when James Craig would pack a suitcase and leave the home for a few days. The daughter believed she was 14 years old at the time. Still, she did not think her parents would get a divorce.
In 2023, she said her parents were doing much better in their marriage. She even modeled her own marriage after theirs, saying "I looked up to them. They were my parents."
In the redirect, prosecutors asked the woman if she ever felt like Angela Craig would do anything to hurt herself.
"Not with the girls at home," the woman said confidently before she was excused from the stand.
Then, the third oldest Craig child took the stand. She testified that Angela Craig did not let the children skip school or stay up late, saying "she was a good mom."
In 2023, the daughter on the witness stand was the oldest child living at home. She testified that protein shakes were common within the home for everyone except the youngest children.
The second daughter on the stand also testified that her mother did not appear depressed in the days or months leading up to her death. She shared a similar testimony as the first daughter, saying Angela Craig was "always talking about her future home," and that she wanted a house with "lots of land and a huge wood shop."
The daughter testified that Angela Craig was considering Montana for the move, and expected she would be able to find her "forever home" within five to seven years.
When Angela Craig was sick, she told her daughter how upset she was that doctors could not figure out what was causing the illness. She recalled her mother believing the symptoms could be related to diabetes.
After James Craig was arrested, he would communicate with the daughter on the witness stand from jail. At one point, he called her and asked if she would bail another inmate out of jail.
James Craig allegedly told his daughter it was best if she did not tell anyone about this, but that the inmate would have "important information" for her. She testified that James Craig said the inmate in question was her cousin, Jonathan. Even though the daughter did not recognize that name, she believed it could be possible she did not know the family member.
She drove to bail out the inmate. That night, her older brother called twice. On the second phone call, she admitted to what was happening. Her brother and uncle rushed to where she was.
The "cousin" was bailed out of jail and handed the daughter "pieces of printer paper with writing on them that were taped together," she testified.
One the daughter, brother, and uncle were in the car together, she read the letter aloud and was shocked. She told prosecutors it was definitely her father's handwriting.
The daughter explained the request within the letter while on the witness stand, saying her father had addressed the letter to her specifically because she was stoic, technologically adept, and most like her mother.
Her father allegedly asked his teenage daughter to create a fake piece of evidence — a"deep fake" video of Angela Craig saying she asked James Craig to order the chemicals.
The letter detailed step-by-step instructions on how accomplish that task. Those included buying a cheap laptop that would be destroyed afterwards, making transactions from the dark web, and obtaining a prepaid Visa gift card for purchases.
He stressed the importance of the metadata within the "deep fake" video needing to show it was created on February 27. The daughter did not understand the significance of that date.
James Craig also apparently gave a guideline of what should be said within the video to make it believable.
James Craig suggested code words for the daughter to use, she testified. She was to tell him the "candy was good" if she agreed to complete the task, and that the "candy was disappointing" if she would not do it.
He allegedly instructed her to call this "The Memories Project."
Within the letter, James Craig claims Angela Craig asked him to order arsenic, cyanide, and oleander, claiming the couple was playing a "game of chicken" — the same phrase he used with the Redfearns on the night Angela Craig was declared brain-dead.
However, the letter admits that James Craig was the one who actually ordered those substances, and the daughter testified that the letter said it was unlikely that Angela "would have killed herself on purpose, intentionally."
The letter ended with "I'm sorry to even have to ask you for this help."
Testimony is expected to resume on Friday at 8:30 a.m.
