James Craig was leading a double life balancing his wife of 23 years with his mistress of 23 days, prosecutors said during opening statements in his murder trial Tuesday. They contend that the defendant poisoned Angela Craig to get her out of the way.

In their opening statement, defense attorneys admitted that Angela Craig had poison in her system but had no explanation as to where it came from.

“What we’re disputing is how,” said defense attorney Ashley Whitham, who asked the jury to not speculate on what happened.

18th Judicial Assistant District Attorney Ryan Brackley gave jurors a roadmap of the evidence they planned to submit during the expected three-week trial in District Judge Shay Whitaker’s courtroom.

As Whitaker read the initial instructions to the jury before the proceedings began just after 9 a.m. Tuesday, Craig slightly rocked back and forth in his chair and stared at the jurors who will decide his fate.

Brackley described Angela Craig’s last days of increasing dizziness and fainting spells as she and her doctors frantically tried to explain her mysterious illness.

He said that when Craig entered the hospital room where his wife lay in a coma, he wore medical scrubs so that he looked familiar in a clinical setting and injected her with a fatal dose of poison.

“Craig didn’t go into that room to save Angela’s life,” he said. “He didn’t go into that room to fight for her or support her. He went into that room with a fatal dose of cyanide.”

Brackley told the 15-person jury that Craig had two motives to kill his wife: His dental practice was spiraling down financially and he had met a new love. At one point, prosecutors showed a photo of Angela Craig attached to ventilators in the hospital during her final few days

Twelve jurors will decide the case once testimony has concluded, and three are alternates for the trial expected to last three weeks. 

In her opening statement, Whitham admitted that the couple’s 23-year marriage was over, but said Angela Craig was struggling.

Further, Whitham said, Angela Craig knew about the dental office’s financial problems.

“She loved to spend,” Whitham said.

She spoke of trips to Disney World, loving texts between the two of them and called Craig “a doting husband.”

As Whitham said this, Craig looked down and wiped eyes which appeared to be puffy and watery.

A few minutes later, as Whitham said that one of Angela’s daughters would describe her as “manipulative” and “wanting attention,” a red-haired woman in the gallery, her mouth agape in an apparent expression of shock, turned around to look at others before fiercely whispering to two people sitting on either side of her.

In a nod to Angela Craig, some family and friends wore purple Tuesday — her favorite color.

Even Craig wore a purple tie with his dark suit. His graying hair — often pulled back in a bun throughout the years — is now cut short. He smiled at his children, some of whom sat in the front row on the prosecution’s side and others who sat behind him.

Angela Craig’s sisters and her brother sat behind the Craigs’ children and Craig’s parents sat behind him.

After opening statements, seven medical personnel from AdventHealth Parker hospital were called to the stand to describe their treatment of Angela Craig. All of them saw Craig when she was admitted to the hospital on two occasions — March 6 and March 9, 2023. Several nurses testified that she complained of dizziness, weakness and a feeling of heaviness on March 6. When she returned three days later, she told the staff members that she had fainted and that her symptoms were getting worse.

Drug screens did not show anything unusual present in her system, medical personnel testified.

Angela Craig told several admitting nurses during required psychology assessments that she felt safe at home, did not wish she was dead and did not have thoughts of harming herself.

Dr. Arthur Levene, an AdventHealth Parker cardiologist, noted that her demeanor was one of concern, and that she mainly wanted to get better so that she could go home to her six children.

During cross-examination, Whitham noted that these psychological assessments are administered routinely and quickly.

Craig’s murder trial was rescheduled three times and almost suffered a fourth delay when one of the defendant’s attorneys allegedly tried to burn his own house down.

Craig, 47, went through three attorney teams since he was arrested a day after his wife was taken off of life support in March 2023.

Prosecutors said in previous hearings and court documents that Craig had multiple affairs including one with a Fort Collins single mother of three whom he met on a “sugar daddy” website. Further, several former inmates who were housed with Craig are expected to testify that the former dentist tried to get them to help him cover up the alleged murder of his wife once they were on the outside.

Craig stands accused of trying to convince one of his own children to plant evidence, according to court documents.

“I love you (name removed). I’m sorry to ever have to ask you this,” Craig wrote his daughter. Prosecutors said she turned him in.

The father of six faces six felony counts: murder in the first degree; two counts of solicitation to commit tampering with physical evidence; and three counts of solicitation to commit perjury in the first degree. He faces life in prison without parole should he be convicted of the most serious first-degree murder charge.

Angela Craig, 43, died March 18, 2023 at University Hospital from lethal doses of cyanide, arsenic and tetrahydrozoline, which is found in over-the-counter eyedrops. Tetrahydrozoline is the chemical which “gets the red out,” according to testimony from Arapahoe County Coroner Kelly Lear, who conducted Angela Craig’s autopsy.

In the week before she collapsed, Angela Craig had four visits to emergency rooms complaining of everything from dizziness and vertigo to lightheadedness.

Prosecutors said that James Craig switched her medication with toxic pills, which she took thinking they would alleviate her symptoms of dizziness and nausea. Instead, Angela Craig’s condition worsened.

On March 15, 2023, she was rushed to the University Hospital emergency room, lost consciousness, was put on a ventilator, and was pronounced brain dead that night. She was taken off life support on March 18.

It was during his final visit, prosecutors said Tuesday, that Craig administered the dose of poison which he hoped would rid him of what he referred to as “his problem.”

The arrest affidavit reported that James Craig’s dental business was spiraling downward and he was starting up a relationship with a Texas orthodontist. That woman, Karin Cain, will testify during the trial that she fell in love with Craig after just three weeks, but that he lied to her about his marriage.

Craig was arrested early on March 19, 2023, on a charge of first-degree murder after deliberation in connection with Angela Craig’s death.

Courtroom 201, Arapahoe County’s largest, was chosen to accommodate Craig’s high-profile murder trial. It has attracted national media, including several crime shows and podcasts. It seats 160 people at a time and is the same room where the 11-week Aurora theater shooting trial was held in the summer of 2015.

Denver Gazette reporter Michael Braithwaite contributed to this story.