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Colorado dentist accused of killing wife with poison tried to plant letters to make it look like she was suicidal, police say
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A dentist accused of killing his wife by putting poison in her protein shakes asked a fellow jail inmate to plant letters to make it look like his wife was suicidal, police say.
James Craig asked the inmate to put the letters in Craig’s garage and truck at his home, Aurora police detective Bobbi Olson testified Wednesday at a court hearing on the new allegation against Craig, KMGH-TV reported. The inmate believed the letters were written by Craig but meant to appear as if his wife, Angela Craig, had written them, said Olson, the lead detective in the case.
Angela Craig, a 43-year-old mother of six who was married to her husband for 23 years, died in March 2023 of poisoning from cyanide and tetrahydrozoline, the latter a substance found in over-the-counter eye drops, according to the coroner.
Craig is alleged to have bought poisons online just before his wife began to experience symptoms that doctors could not find a cause for. But his lawyers have argued there is no direct evidence that he put poison in his wife’s shakes and have accused Olson of being biased against him.
According to Olson, Craig offered money to pay for the bond for the inmate to be released from jail or perform free dental work in exchange for planting the letters but the inmate decided not to take him up on the offer, the detective testified.
The inmate instead contacted law enforcement, she said.
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The defense argued that the inmate was not a credible witness.
One of Craig’s lawyers, Andrew Ho, pointed out that the inmate only contacted authorities after an initial hearing to review the evidence in the case last summer, which was widely covered by the media, and that the inmate could not accurately identify the color of Craig’s truck.
However, a judge agreed prosecutors had presented enough evidence for Craig to also be tried on the new charge involving the inmate, filed last month, of solicitation to commit tampering with physical evidence. The inmate’s name was redacted from the document.
“Is arsenic detectable in an autopsy?”
Craig was already charged with first-degree murder and another count of solicitation to commit tampering with physical evidence. He pleaded not guilty to those two charges in November 2023.
Last July, a police detective testified that Craig searched online for answers to questions such as “is arsenic detectable in an autopsy?” and “how to make murder look like a heart attack” a few weeks before she died.
Skye Lazaro, an attorney familiar with cases involving poison, told “48 Hours” contributor Natalie Morales that Craig’s defense might argue that police rushed to arrest him. “It’s essentially a three-day investigation,” she said of the time it took police to charge him with his wife’s murder.
According to a work bio and video posted online, Craig taught as an associate professor at the University of Missouri School of Dentistry for three years and has been practicing dentistry in the Aurora area since 2006.
Neighbors of the family told CBS Colorado they were stunned.
“I keep praying for the kids because they lost both parents at the same time,” said neighbor Karen Lucero.
Craig is scheduled to face trial on Aug. 8.
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Vatican excommunicates ex-ambassador to U.S., Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, declares him guilty of schism
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A firebrand conservative who became one of Pope Francis’ most ardent critics has been excommunicated by the Vatican.
Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, who once served as the Vatican’s ambassador to the U.S., was found guilty of schism. The Vatican’s doctrine office imposed the penalty after a meeting of its members on Thursday, a press statement said Friday.
The office cited Viganò’s “refusal to recognize and submit to the Supreme Pontiff, his rejection of communion with the members of the church subject to him and of the legitimacy and magisterial authority of the Second Vatican Council,” as its reasoning for the ruling.
Viganò, who retired in 2016 at age 75 and was the papal envoy in Washington from 2011-2026, convulsed the Holy See with accusations of sex abuse in 2018, calling on Francis to resign.
Patrick Semansky/AP
In an 11-page letter, Viganò claimed that in 2013 he told Francis of the allegations of sex abuse against former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick. But, he wrote, the pontiff ignored that, and allowed McCarrick to continue to serve the church for another five years publicly. He said the pope should resign and subsequently branded him a “false prophet” and a “servant of Satan.”
In the letter, Viganò also made a number of ideological claims and was critical of homosexuals within Church ranks. He did not offer any proof for his statements.
The Vatican rejected the accusation of a cover-up of sexual misconduct and last month summoned Viganò to answer charges of schism and denying the pope’s legitimacy.
Viganò, who regarded the accusations “as an honor,” said he refused to take part in the disciplinary proceedings because he did not accept the legitimacy of the institutions behind it.
“I do not recognize the authority of the tribunal that claims to judge me, nor of its Prefect, nor of the one who appointed him,” he said in a statement issued last week, referring to the head of the doctrinal office, Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez, and to Francis.
Viganò restated his rejection of Vatican Council II, calling it “the ideological, theological, moral and liturgical cancer of which the (Francis’) ‘synod church’ is the necessary metastasis.”
He had not yet commented on the Vatican’s ruling on Friday.
McCarrick, the ex-archbishop of Washington, D.C., was defrocked by Pope Francis in 2019 after an internal Vatican investigation found he sexually molested adults as well as children.
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Israel says it’s restarting stalled negotiations for a cease-fire deal in Gaza
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Hiring in the U.S. slowed in June, raising hopes for interest rate cuts
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The U.S. jobs market cooled in June but remains solid, raising the odds that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates by year-end.
The economy added 206,00 jobs last month, in line with analyst forecasts, and unemployment edged up to 4.1%. The data follows a surprisingly strong 272,000 increase in May.
A modest slowdown in hiring and wage growth could increase the Fed’s confidence that inflation is trending closer to its 2% annual target, opening the door for policymakers to trim borrowing costs for consumers and businesses.
—This is a developing story.