The murder trial of former Aurora dentist James Toliver Craig opened Tuesday in Arapahoe County District Court, nearly two years after his wife, Angela Craig, died from what prosecutors say was a lethal mix of cyanide and tetrahydrozoline slipped into her protein shakes. Craig, 47, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and five related solicitation counts. Assistant District Attorney Ryan Brackley told jurors that Craig ordered arsenic and cyanide online, searched for “how to make a murder look like a heart attack,” and administered a final dose of poison while his 43-year-old wife lay hospitalized on 15 March 2023. Prosecutors argue the killing was driven by mounting debt, life-insurance payouts and Craig’s affair with a Texas dentist, noting more than 4,000 text messages exchanged between the pair in the weeks before Angela Craig’s death. The defense portrayed Craig as a devoted but flawed husband, acknowledging his longstanding infidelities yet insisting investigators developed “tunnel vision.” Attorney Ashley Whitham suggested Angela Craig, described as “broken,” could have taken her own life and said tests on the couple’s household items did not confirm the presence of poison. In addition to murder, Craig is accused of offering a fellow inmate $20,000 to kill the lead detective and of trying to enlist others to fabricate evidence that Angela Craig planned suicide. The trial is expected to run several weeks, with jurors hearing medical testimony, digital forensics and accounts from Craig’s alleged mistress and former colleagues.