Dentist gets life in prison for poisoning wife's shakes

A Colorado dentist was sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of killing his wife by lacing her protein shakes with poison before delivering a fatal dose of cyanide when she was in the hospital.

District Judge Shay Whitaker sentenced James Craig to life without the possibility of parole, the mandatory sentence for a first-degree murder conviction in Colorado.

He was convicted of murder and other charges by a jury, which rejected his claim that he had helped his wife kill herself after he said he wanted a divorce following his repeated extramarital affairs.

Prosecutors said at trial that James Craig poisoned his wife Angela Craig over 10 days in March 2023. When those attempts failed, prosecutors said, the dentist gave his wife a final dose of cyanide as she was hospitalised in suburban Denver with symptoms that puzzled doctors. She was declared brain dead soon after.

Craig stood in a hushed courtroom on Wednesday afternoon as the jury delivered a litany of guilty verdicts. His sentencing followed tearful testimony by Angela Craig's relatives about the impact of losing her, including one of the couple's six children who cast her father as a villain.

Angela Craig's older sister, Toni Kofoed, lamented the loss of phone calls, texts and trips with her sister where they could laugh and talk through the night

"You have taken away our opportunity to grow old together," Kofoed said.

"Her life was not yours to take,” Kofoed said in turning to the defendant. "Angela had a love and a passion for life. She loved her children and, unfortunately, she loved you."

James Craig appeared to shake with tears as his oldest daughter spoke about how much she missed being able to talk to her mother about her life and how she felt betrayed by her father.

"I was supposed to be able to trust my dad; he was supposed to be my hero, and instead he'll forever be the villain in my book," the daughter, Miriam "Mira" Meservy, said, inhaling through tears. As Meservy spoke, Craig's attorney patted the defendant's back.

The couple's son Toliver Craig said he and his mother didn't always get along. But two weeks after she died, he set an alarm on his phone that still goes off every night at 10 p.m. It just says "Mom." "I'm sad there's not more time with her," he said.

James Craig declined to make any statement before being sentenced.

Associated Press