AURORA, CO- Bombshell testimony from the office manager at an Aurora, Colorado dental practice revealed that Dr. James Toliver Craig received a package on March 13, 2023, containing a tin foil package with an invoice marked “potassium cyanide,” Fox News Digital reports.
Craig is charged with first-degree murder for the March 2023 death of his wife, Angela. Her cause of death was determined to be lethal doses of cyanide and tetrahydrozoline.
Tetrahydrozoline is a topical decongestant, however, if ingested, it can cause severe symptoms, including coma. Typical over-the-counter brands include Visine and Murine Plus.
Potassium cyanide, however, is a highly toxic compound typically in the form of a white, crystalline salt, which is odorless when dry. As little as 200-300mg can be fatal to an adult if ingested.
Caitlin Romero testified that Angela had been in and out of the hospital, and Craig told her on at least two occasions he didn’t believe his wife would make it through the night.
She said this occasion was the only time Craig had a personal package delivered to the office.
Romero said she turned the package over to Craig, however, she checked potassium cyanide on Google.
After Angela Craig was admitted to the hospital once again, she Googled symptoms of cyanide poisoning.
Thus far, the trial has featured two versions of the couple, one painted by the prosecution and the other by the defense.
The prosecution portrayed Craig as a “calculated killer,” Fox News Digital reported, because he wanted to pursue a new romance. Meanwhile, the defense has tried to portray Angela Craig as “emotionally manipulative and mentally unstable.”
For example, in her opening statement, defense attorney Ashley Whitham admitted the couple was going through a difficult time in their marriage, but said Angela was not a victim of betrayal as much as she was someone who was “emotionally broken, deeply private, and at times manipulative.”
“You’re going to hear her own daughter describe her that she was also manipulating words,” Whitham told jurors.
“Again, that if she wanted to try to get something, she would be manipulative.”
Meanwhile, prosecutors told the Arapahoe County District Court jury that Craig was involved in a relationship with a Texas orthodontist, Dr. Karin Cain, and that was his motivation to kill his wife.
Fox News Digital reached out to Cain for comment; however, she has not responded. The defense, meanwhile, said that Craig, 47, had numerous extra-marital affairs throughout the couple’s marriage.
“Karin Cain was just like the others. This wasn’t some new obsession,” Whitham said.
Craig also used a website, Seeking.com, under the pseudonym “Jim and Waffles,” claiming to have a net worth of $10 million while searching for “sugar babies.”
Whitham said Angela was “extremely private,” a stay-at-home mother of six and a Mormon. Due to her Mormon faith, she was reluctant to share the couple’s marital issues. She described Angela as isolated and said she was “not about to tell people about her marital struggles,” while further describing her as “broken.”
Kelly Hyman, a defense attorney, told Fox News Digital that by painting Angela Craig as manipulative and unstable, they are trying to create reasonable doubt and reframe the context of the relationship.
“By doing so, the defendant implies that [he] wasn’t responsible,” she told Fox News Digital.
“That could go to the heaty [sic] of the defense that Angela killed herself and that it was suicide.”
Hyman also noted that despite prosecutors painting Craig’s Google searches, chemical orders, and romantic messages to Cain as premeditation, she said that attempting to interpret digital evidence doesn’t necessarily give the basis of guilt.
“A way to do this is to challenge admissibility and the reliability of the digital evidence. This can be done on cross-examination or through a defense witness to counter the digital forensic and timeline reconstruction,” she continued.
Defense attorneys said investigators operated from a standpoint of pre-determination of the outcome, employing “tunnel vision” while failing to look at other leads.
The defense also told the jury that Angela’s personal laptop was never seized or examined, despite prosecutors showing images of her using it to research symptoms from her hospital bed.
“The defense could argue that the unexamined laptop may contain information supporting an alternative theory of events or potentially pointing to another person and/or a different timeline,” Hyman said.
“This omission may suggest an incomplete and/or biased investigation.”
Hyman also said there was no direct physical evidence, such as cyanide residue on containers or packages, which could play into the defense’s favor.
“The absence of direct physical evidence like poison residue on the protein shake containers or the victim’s body presents a key argument for the defense to use,” she said.
Fox News Digital obtained court documents where investigators alleged that Craig used a dental office computer to search for “undetectable poisons” and how to obtain them, in the weeks before Angela’s death.
He later purchased arsenic and cyanide by mail and Googled “how many grams of pure arsenic will kill a human” and “is arsenic detectable in an autopsy.”
Aside from the above online searches, investigators found Craig queried YouTube for “how to make poison” and “Top 5 Undetectable Poisons That Show No Signs of Foul Play.”
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