A Colorado dentist accused of fatally poisoning his wife earlier this year was granted a $10 million cash only bond after the state Supreme Court ruled last week that judges must set bond in first-degree murder cases.
James Craig, 45, was arrested for poisoning and killing wife, 43-year-old Angela Craig, in March, as CrimeOnline reported. She was hospitalized at UCHealth in Aurora but deteriorated rapidly before doctors declared her brain dead and removed her life support. Craig asked doctors not to perform an autopsy after his wife’s death.
In a 52-page affidavit, detectives said they found searches on James Craig’s electronic devices for ways to kill someone undetected, how to make poison, “how many grams of pure arsenic will kill a human?” and “Is arsenic detectable in autopsy?”
Detectives also determined that Craig had ordered poisons and put them in his wife’s protein shakes, telling people around him that she was suicidal and addicted to drugs. Meanwhile, he made plans to meet with a Texas orthodontist, with whom he was believed to be having an affair, while his wife was dying in the hospital.
Craig appeared in court on Wednesday for the bond hearing, which came about after the state Supreme Court ruled that first degree murder is now bail eligible since the legislature had repealed the death penalty, KUSA reported.
District Attorney John Kellner, whose office is prosecuting Craig, said that judges have been setting high bonds for those accused of first degree murder and that most of them, like Craig’s, require a defendant to pay the full amount.
The idea that Craig could pay the bond and be out of jail has unnerved some people, however, including Ryan and Michelle Redfearn, longtime friends of the Craigs who also helped turn him int to police.
“The people who are in Colorado who are tied to this case, us and others, definitely are unsettled,” Ryan Redfearn said.
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[Featured image: James Craig/Aurora Police Department]
