Where Is James Craig Now? Inside His Life 2 Years After He Killed His Wife
NEED TO KNOW
- James Craig was a well-known dentist who was convicted of fatally poisoning his wife, Angela Craig
- Angela was hospitalized three times in March 2023 before she died on March 18
- James was charged with first-degree murder and is serving a life sentence in Colorado
James Craig was convicted of killing his wife, Angela Craig, by poisoning her over the span of two weeks.
At the time of her murder, James was a well-known dentist based in Aurora, Colo., and the couple had been married for 23 years. James and Angela also shared a busy household with six children. That all changed, though, in March 2023 when Angela was hospitalized and later died under mysterious circumstances. Shortly afterwards, James was arrested in connection with her death and pleaded not guilty.
After authorities conducted an autopsy on Angela’s body, they determined that she died by poisoning via cyanide and tetrahydrozoline, a substance found in over-the-counter eye drops.
In July 2025, James was found guilty of first-degree murder in connection with Angela’s death. He was subsequently sentenced to life in prison without parole.
So, where is James Craig now? Here’s everything to know about the former dentist’s life two years after killing his wife, Angela Craig.
Who is James Craig?
Angela Craig/Facebook
James was a well-known dentist at Summerbrook Dental Group in Aurora, Colo. In a 2022 promotional video, he said that he “begins with sincerely listening to the patient and wanting to find out more about where they’re coming from and what they’re looking for and what they want.”
“I love creating an environment where people are surprised at how comfortable they are,” he shared in the video.
While James worked as a dentist, his wife, Angela, was the office manager. Steffan Tubbs, who released a podcast on the subsequent investigation and was a patient and contractor of James’, told 48 Hours in August 2025 that it was “cool” to see the two of them working together.
“I thought he was a great guy. I got incredibly competent friendly care … He was a family man. We talked about his family, his kids,” Tubbs said. He continued, describing Angela: “She was not somebody just sit there and stay quiet. She was engaged in the dental practice. She was somebody who was talking about ideas, and their marketing, their message.”
Chelsea Otoya, who worked at Summerbrook Dental, told 48 Hours that James and Angela were “two peas in a pod” who “would play pranks on each other all day long” and “seemed like the perfect couple.”
James and Angela married on Dec. 18, 1999, and were parents to six children, according to her obituary. When she wasn’t working in the office or parenting her children, Angela was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and served as a choir director and teacher.
How did Angela Craig die?
Angela was first hospitalized on March 6, 2023, after she began complaining of dizziness and weakness, according to a probable cause affidavit previously obtained by PEOPLE. She was sent home but returned to the hospital with similar symptoms for five days beginning March 9. On March 15, Angelea was admitted to the hospital for the third and final time for headaches and dizziness.
Just a few hours after her third visit to the hospital, she suffered a seizure and was placed on life support. Angela was taken off life support and died in the hospital on March 18. At the time, doctors and authorities were unsure what caused Angela’s rapid decline and death.
“Hospital medical personnel could not find a known medical condition that would have caused Angela’s rapid medical decline,” the affidavit said.
However, an autopsy later revealed that Angela had died after poisoning from cyanide and tetrahydrozoline, a substance that’s found in over-the-counter eye drops.
What did James Craig do?
David Zalubowski/AP Photo
Shortly after Angela died, police arrested James in connection with his wife’s death. Authorities alleged that that James began plotting Angela’s murder in February 2023 when he purchased arsenic online, according to the probable cause affidavit previously obtained by PEOPLE.
In addition to his online purchases, investigators also discovered that he had been searching things like, “how many grams of pure arsenic will kill a human” and “Is Arsenic Detectable in Autopsy?”
Authorities arrested James with the belief that he had been poisoning Angela at home via her protein shakes. However, after the poisoning was taking longer and kept putting Angela in the hospital, James allegedly visited her to poison her with cyanide.
“He didn’t go into that room to save Angela’s life,” prosecutor Ryan Brackley claimed, per CNN. “He didn’t go into that room to fight for her life or support her. He went into that room to murder her, to deliberately and intentionally end her life with a fatal dose of cyanide.”
James pleaded not guilty to the murder and later admitted to researching the drugs, but alleged that he never administered any doses, according to a letter obtained by 9News.
What happened during James Craig’s trial?
Stephen Swofford via Denver Gazette
James’ murder trial began in July 2025. In addition to the prosecution’s evidence, they also brought up possible motives for James, including his alleged involvement with a Texas orthodontist named Karin Cain.
The pair met a few weeks before Angela’s death at a dental convention in Las Vegas and struck up a romantic relationship. At the time, Cain alleged that he told her he was separated from Angela and they “hadn’t been living together,” as she told ABC News in 2023.
“It wasn’t until the media started reporting on it that I realized the timeline was so tight, that it was two days after we had left that meeting,” she told the outlet.
Meanwhile, Angela’s sister Toni Kofoed claimed that Angela had confided in her about James’ alleged pornography addiction and past affairs. She also claimed that James had tried to poison Angela in the past.
In addition to his personal life, James was also struggling professionally and financially, prosecutors alleged. Angela’s sister claimed that James was in gambling debt and had “run the dental office into the ground,” per the affidavit. His business partner, Ryan Redfearn, also told authorities that James had filed for bankruptcy.
However, James’ defense attorneys alleged that Angela was suffering from suicidal ideation. They also argued that James’ drug purchases and search history were about his own past depression and not about him murdering his wife. During the trial, James’ attorney claimed that he “made a statement” to a friend that he was going to die by “suicide with something that was not traceable,” per 48 Hours.
James’ trial lasted for two weeks, and the jury reached a verdict after two days of deliberation. They found James guilty of first-degree murder in connection with Angela’s death. In addition, the jury also found him guilty on five other counts, including solicitation to commit tampering with evidence, solicitation to commit perjury and solicitation to commit murder.
Before James was sentenced, Angela’s family members shared emotional victim impact statements. One of the couple’s daughters said that her “life, and the world, will truly never be the same” without her mom, per CNN. Meanwhile, Angela’s sister called James “dishonest, a cheat and a heartless excuse of a human being.”
On July 30, 2025, James was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
“The evidence, the crime, the verdict and the sentence all speak for themselves,” Judge Shay Whitaker said during sentencing, per ABC News. “Dr. Craig unleashed a path of destruction as wide as a tornado and just as devastating – damage to his children, damage to Angela’s family, damage to his own family.”
Where is James Craig now?
David Zalubowski/AP Photo
After James was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole on July 30, he was placed in the Bent County Correctional Facility in Las Animas, Colo., per the Colorado Department of Corrections.
As for James and Angela’s six children, three of them are now adults living on their own, according to 48 Hours. Meanwhile, as of January 2025, the younger three are living with James’ brother.
Credit to Nypost AND Peoples