The daughter of a man found guilty of methodically poisoning her mother with her protein shake delivered a powerful statement in court before his sentencing.
James Craig, previously a dentist in Colorado, received a life sentence without the possibility of parole after being found guilty of murdering his wife by consistently poisoning her beverages. He also faced a range of other alarming charges, including attempting to have a police officer killed and creating a deepfake of his victim.
In the Arapahoe County Court, it was revealed that the 47-year-old was involved in an extramarital affair when he devised a plan to murder his wife, Angela Craig, in March 2023.
Prosecutors described how Craig secretly added arsenic to her protein shakes and later gave her a lethal dose of cyanide while she was in the hospital. The prosecution argued Craig was motivated by financial troubles and a desire to avoid divorce.
The defense argued that his 43-year-old wife had taken her own life due to heartbreak over Craig’s persistent affairs.
Nonetheless, a coroner concluded her death was due to cyanide and tetrahydrozoline, a chemical found in eye drops, while also noting the presence of arsenic in her system.
Taking the stand, the couple’s daughter, Miriam Meservy, confronted her father with poignant words.
“I was supposed to be able to trust my dad,” she stated. “He was supposed to be my hero, and instead he’ll forever be the villain in my book.”
She continued, “And it hurts so bad every day.”
According to CBS News, Craig was visibly affected by his daughter’s remarks, and his emotions were stirred again when his son spoke.
Toliver Craig, the oldest child, expressed, “It’s hard to lose your mom, and then a few days after that, lose your dad. And then after that, you know, having to spend the next two and a half years having to untangle whatever he tells you.
“It’s just been really hard not being able to mourn my mom.”
Testimony in court illustrated how Angela’s health declined due to the regular poisonings by Craig, who also had a questionable internet history, including searches on making a murder resemble a heart attack and how long arsenic poisoning takes to be fatal.
Authorities discovered another search: “Is arsenic detectable in autopsy?”
The police reported that he had also searched for undetectable poisons and ‘how many grams of pure arsenic will kill a human.’
Craig had additionally purchased potassium cyanide, which was sent to his dental practice.
Two days after receiving the delivery, Angela consumed a protein shake that caused dizziness and weakness, leading to her hospitalization in Denver.
Surveillance footage captured Craig holding a syringe before visiting his wife’s hospital room, after which her condition worsened rapidly, and she was declared brain-dead days later.
While a jury found him guilty of first-degree murder on Wednesday (July 30), he was also punished for other offenses, including solicitation to commit murder after attempting to persuade a fellow inmate to kill the lead investigator in the case.
Additional charges included two counts of solicitation of tampering with physical evidence and two counts of solicitation of first-degree perjury.
These charges encompassed an attempt to persuade one of his children to create an AI deepfake video of Angela contemplating suicide.
Arapahoe County District Judge Shay Whitaker remarked, “Dr. Craig unleashed a path of destruction as wide as a tornado, and just as devastating,” before sentencing him to life without parole for the murder charge, plus an additional 33 years for the other offenses.
Assistant District Attorney Ryan Brackley commented, “The evidence never stopped getting worse. Enlisting his daughter, to try to help him cover this case up, to fix this case was probably one of the more heinous things I’ve seen.”
District Attorney Amy Padden remarked that Angela’s death was a ‘slow death’ resulting from the poisonings, stating: “It wasn’t something done in the heat of passion. It was deliberate.”