"THE POISONED SHAKE AFFAIR: How a Vegas Romance Turned Deadly"

0:03 Calarogus Shark Media. Good morning, I'm Read Carter, and welcome to Celebrity Trials on this Sunday, July twenty seventh. Today we're diving into one of the most calculated and cold blooded murder cases currently unfolding in American courtrooms. It's the story of James Craig, a Colorado dentist who allegedly used his medical knowledge and access to poisons to slowly kill his wife while carrying on a passionate affair with another woman. This isn't a crime of passion or a moment of rage. This is the story of systematic poisoning carried out over ten days, disguised as loving gestures like making his wife her mourning protein shake. It's a case that proves how the most trusted people in our lives, medical professionals, spouse's parents, can become the most dangerous when their secrets are threatened.

0:56 Let me paint you the picture of the Craig family before everything unraveled. James Craig forty seven was a successful dentist in Aurora, Colorado, with his own practice and a reputation in the community. Angela Craig, forty three, was a devoted mother of six children and an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints. From the outside, they looked like the perfect Mormon family. James was described as a loving father who was amazing with his children. Angela was the devoted wife and mother who kept the family together. They had been married for twenty three years and seemed to have built a life that many would envy. But beneath this carefully constructed facade was a marriage built on lies, infidelity, and ultimately murder. James Craig had been cheating on his wife throughout their entire marriage, not just casual affairs, systematic calculated relationships with multiple women that he managed like a part time business. He used dating websites, maintainecks, great email accounts, and spent thousands of dollars on these relationships while telling his wife he loved her.

2:07 Angela knew about the affairs. She had caught him cheating before, but as a devout Mormon, she was committed to keeping the family together. The defense would later describe her as broken by his infidelity but determined to preserve their marriage for religious and family reasons. This dynamic a serial cheater who wouldn't divorce and a religious wife who wouldn't leave created the perfect storm for what prosecutors say became premeditated murder. In February twenty twenty three, James Craig attended a dental conference in Las Vegas. It was there that he met doctor Karen Kane, a Texas orthodontist who was going through her own divorce. What started as professional networking quickly became an intense romantic affair that would change both their lives forever.

2:56 Craig told Cain he was getting divorced and living separately from his wife. He painted himself as a devoted father who was handling the end of his marriage with grace and consideration for his children. It was a complete lie, but Cain believed every word. That was the thing that drew me to him. Cain testified through tears. The conversations were very deep and honest and vulnerable. We talked a lot about faith. That was one of our primary connections. Over the next three weeks, Craig and Cain exchanged over four thousand text messages, numerous FaceTime calls, and love letters. Craig told her things like I love you so much, say the word, and I'm yours and suenya cunmigo, dream with me my eternal love, and may Heaven let us bloom together forever. But here's where this romance becomes deadly.

3:52 Craig had promised Cain she could visit him in Denver in mid March. He had painted himself as a man who was free to start a new life. The only problem was that Angela Craig was very much still his wife, still living in their family home, and still committed to their marriage. As the date of Caine's visit approached, Craig faced a problem that many cheating spouses encounter. How to make his lies match reality. Most people would confess, cancel the visit, or face the consequences of their deception. James Craig chose murder. On February twenty seventh, twenty twenty three, just three days after returning from Vegas, James Craig created a new email account with the handle Jim and Dwaffles using a computer in exam Room nine at his dental practice.

4:42 This wasn't for patient care or business purposes. This was the beginning of a murder plot. Using this secret email account, Craig began researching how to kill his wife without detection. His search history reads like a how to manual for murder. How to make murder look like a art attack. A dosage of tetrahydrosylene that is fatal? How long does it take to die from arsenic poisoning? Top five undetectable poisons that show no signs of foul play. These weren't idle curiosities. These were research queries for a man planning his wife's death, and he was using his medical background to make those searches more precise and deadly. On February twenty eighth, just one day after creating the secret email account, Craig ordered arsenic on Amazon. The timing is crucial. This was during his intense romantic correspondence with Cain, when he was promising her a future together and she was planning her visit to Colorado. The evidence shows that Craig began poisoning his wife on March sixth, twenty twenty three, exactly nine days before Cain was scheduled to arrive in Denver. As prosecutor Michael Morrow told the jury, he's got nine days to solve this problem. He's got nine days to be the man he promised to be. March sixth started like any other morning. Angela Craig drank a protein shake her husband made for her, something they often did for each other as part of their healthy lifestyle. She worked out, but then started feeling strange. Angela texted her husband, my stomach

6:16 feels fine, but my head feels funny and dizzy, very strange. Craig missed his usual six forty five am staff meeting at his dental practice, arriving closer to seven am. When questioned by his office manager, Caitlin Romero, he apologized and said his wife wasn't feeling well, possibly because he had put too much protein powder in the shake he'd given her. Think about that for a moment. Craig was already creating cover stories for why his wife was getting sick, and he was doing it with his employees, creating witnesses to his supposed innocence. Angela's condition worsened throughout the day, and Craig took her to advent Health Parker Hospital. Tests including mri CT scan and blood work, showed nothing conclusive, so she was sent home. But here's the most chilling detail.

7:07 While his wife was in the emergency room, Craig texted his mistress Karen Kin, just for the record, I will never drug you. Think about the psychology of that message. While his wife was suffering from the poison he'd given her, Craig was reassuring his lover that he would never do the same thing to her. It's a level of calculated cruelty that's almost incomprehensible. Back in a moment. Angela Craig returned home from the hospital that first time, but her symptoms continued. On March ninth, just three days later, her condition deteriorated dramatically. There's a moment on March ninth where her kids find her passed out fainted, Prosecutor Ryan Brackley said in his opening statement. There's a moment on March ninth where she crawls across the floor because she can't get up, and she goes back to the hospital. This time, Angela was admitted to advent Health Parker Hospital and remained there until March fourteenth. Blood tests taken at eleven twenty four a m on March ninth showed high and toxic levels of arsenic in her system. But even as his wife lay in the hospital with arsenic poisoning. Craig wasn't finished.

8:27 On March eighth, while Angela was fighting for her life, Craig ordered potassium cyanide from a Nebraska based company called Midland Scientific. He told the customer service representative, Cassie Rodriguez, that he needed overnight shipping and that he intended to use the cyanide for some type of seminar. He was presenting it was another lie to cover his true intentions. The potassium cyanide was delivered to Craig's dental office on March thirteenth, the same day Angela was released from the hospital after her second admission. Office manager Caitlin Romero testified that she found the package and was shocked to see it contained potassium cyanide. She had no idea why a dental office would need such a dangerous substance. When she showed it to Craig, he seemed nervous and told her he would take care of it. Angela Craig was readmitted to the hospital for the final time on March fifteenth, twenty twenty three. About three hours after arriving, she had a seizure and unexplained rapid medical decline, which led to her being placed on life support in the hospital's intensive care unit, but prosecutors say Craig wasn't finished with his murder plot even with his wife on life support. They alleged that Craig administered a final fatal dose of cyanide to Angela while she was in the hospital. He didn't go into that room to save Angela's life, Prosecutor Ryan Brackley said, 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

10:00 life with a fatal dose of cyanide. On March eighteen, twenty twenty three, Angela Craig was pronounced brain dead. The Arapahoe County Coroner ruled her cause of death as acute cyanide and tetrahydrosylene poisoning, with subacute arsenic poisoning listed as a significant condition. She was forty three years old. She left behind six children and a community that believed she had died from a mysterious illness. In one of the most callous aspects of this case, Karen Kin arrived in Denver on March sixteenth, just two days before Angela Craig was pronounced dead. Craig had maintained his romantic correspondence with Cain throughout his wife's poisoning, keeping up the pretense that he was a divorced man free to pursue a new relationship.

10:50 Cain testified that she spent several days in Denver with Craig while his wife lay dying in the hospital. She said Craig kept her updated on Angela's condition, portrayed himself as a caring ex husband dealing with his former wife's mysterious illness. At this point, I mean today, in today's world, I really don't know anything, Doctor Karen Kin told the jury about her relationship with Craig. She called her past self foolish and said she now doesn't know what was real and what wasn't in their relationship. When prosecutors read her a text where she had told Craig, I don't want to watch her, meaning Angela's heartbreak, so mine can find joy, Cain choked up and her hand hovered over her heart. On March nineteenth, the day after Angela Craig died, Craig was arrested. Detective Bobby Olsen contacted Cain at her hotel before she flew back to Texas, and Cain learned for the first time that the man she thought she loved was accused of murdering his wife. Perhaps the most heartbreaking aspect of this trial has been the testimony from Craig's own daughters. These young women, who lost their mother and now face the reality that their father may have killed her, took the witness stand to tell the truth about what they witnessed. Craig's oldest daughter testified that her father did not want an autopsy conducted on her mother.

12:15 He didn't want to satisfy their curiosities and have them poking at her. She said he told her after Angela's death, when the daughter expressed concerns about her mother's illness being hereditary and that she might have passed it on to her youngest children, she testified that her father stayed quiet, a telling reaction for a medical professional who should have been able to provide reassurance about genetic versus environmental causes of illness. But perhaps most shocking was the testimony about Craig's attempts to manipulate evidence from behind bars. Craig's daughter testified that her father asked her to create a deep fake video of her mother with step by step instructions in a letter written in his handwriting, I love you.

12:58 I'm sorry to even have to ask ask you for this help. The letter read, Craig wanted his daughter to make it appear that Angela had wanted him to order the poisons that killed her, essentially asking his child to help him frame her dead mother for suicide. The letter included detailed instructions buy a cheap laptop, install a private network and dark web browser, pay for the project using a prepaid Visa gift card, and create a video that appeared to have been made before Angela's death. He wanted his daughter to burn the video to thumb drives, find them in her mother's bag, and then destroy the laptop. During her emotional testimony, Craig's oldest daughter said that while her mother struggled like anyone else, she wouldn't have taken her own life. We were making plans, the twenty one year old woman said, as if murdering his wife wasn't enough.

13:50 Prosecutors say Craig tried to orchestrate additional murders from behind bars while awaiting trial. Craig allegedly tried to pay his cellmate and others to cut his tracks, including offering twenty thousand dollars to kill Detective Bobby Olsen, the lead investigator in his case. During a February twenty twenty five hearing, prosecutors introduced a letter they said Craig wrote to a fellow inmate, calling Olson the worst dirtiest detective in the world. Craig also allegedly offered someone twenty thousand dollars to find people to falsely testify that Angela Craig planned to die by suicide. He tried to convince inmates to create false evidence and testimony that would support his claim that his wife had killed herself. These aren't the actions of an innocent man. These are the desperate moves of a killer trying to escape responsibility for his crimes. The James Craig case represents a particularly chilling form of domestic violence medical murder.

14:50 Craig used his knowledge as a dental professional and his access to controlled substances to slowly torture and kill his wife over more than a week. What makes this case a spec disturbing is the premeditation and calculation involved. This wasn't a crime of passion or a moment of rage. This was systematic, methodical murder disguised as loving care. Craig made his wife's mourning protein shakes, a gesture that should represent love and care between spouses. Instead, he turned this daily ritual into a delivery system for poison. Every morning. When Angela drank that shake, she was trusting the man who was slowly killing her. The digital evidence in this case is overwhelming. Craig's Internet searches show a man researching how to commit undetectable murder. His timeline shows careful planning and execution. His attempts to manipulate his own children and orchestrate additional murders from jail show a complete absence of conscience or remorse. Defense attorney Ashley Withham has argued that Craig loved his wife but was a serial cheater, and that Angela may have taken her own life, but the evidence paid it's a different picture a narcissistic manipulator who saw his wife as an obstacle to his selfish desires and decided to eliminate her rather than face the consequences of his lies. The James Craig trial continues this week and will be following every development as prosecutors present their case against this alleged medical murderer. The evidence we've seen

16:21 so far, the internet searches, the poison purchases, the systematic timeline, the victim's own children testifying against him, paints a picture of calculated evil hiding behind the facade of professional respectability. On Monday, we'll bring you the latest developments from the courtroom, including testimony about Craig's jailhouse murder plot, and any response from the defense. This is a case that shows how the people we trust most medical professionals, spouses, parents, can become the most dangerous when their secrets are threatened. That's celebrity trials for today. I'm read Carter. Remember when someone uses their professional knowledge to commit murder, they're not just taking a life, They're betraying every principle of the profession they claim to serve. Justice isn't always medical, but it's absolutely riveting. Have a great Sunday, and we'll see you back here tomorrow with more developments from the Craig trial.