Dateline NBC - An alleged "murder dentist" in Colorado. Hawaii husband takes the stand at his second murder trial. And Keith talks about his latest podcast series.

Episode Date: February 20, 2025

Listen to this week's episode of the Dateline: True Crime Weekly podcast with guest host, Blayne Alexander. A dentist already facing murder charges for allegedly poisoning his wife is back in court. This time he's accused of plotting to murder four other people from behind bars. In Honolulu, a man accused of murdering his wife's acupuncturist ex-lover takes the stand in his own defense. More from the courtroom ahead of the trials of Karen Read and Bryan Kohberger. Plus, Keith Morrison talks about the unusual clue that broke the case wide open in his latest podcast series, "Murder in the Moonlight".Find out more about the cases covered each week here: www.datelinetruecrimeweekly.com

Hey Jim, is it cold and miserable out? You're listening into a story meeting at Dateline headquarters in 30 Rockefeller Center. It's raining, but it's actually pretty mild. Our editorial team is catching up on breaking crime news around the country. So there's one ex-boyfriend who's a suspect for a while. Out West, Josh pointed this out last night, Josh Minkiewicz. So many crazy things have happened. This is the third defense team he's had.

Welcome to Dateline True Crime Weekly. I'm Blayne Alexander in for Andrea Canning, who's off this week. It's February 20th, and here's what's on our docket. In Hawaii, a man accused of murdering his wife's acupuncturist ex-lover took the stand in his own defense. Did you kill John Tokuhara? No, no, no. And we've got this week's roundup of top crime stories,

including the arrest of the leader of a group called the Zizians, which prosecutors believe is connected to six violent deaths, big rulings on defense motions in Idaho for Brian Koberger, and drama in the latest pretrial hearing in the Karen Reed case. Reed was in court on Tuesday for a motions hearing when all of a sudden the judge suspended it. Plus, Keith Morrison will be here to fill us in on his latest podcast series, Murder in the Moonlight.

Somebody found a gold ring in a place where it didn't belong. Did it belong to the killer? And then you go on a long and winding pathway to find the truth. But before all that, we're heading back to Aurora, Colorado, where a dentist awaiting trial on charges of allegedly murdering his wife was back in court last week facing new charges.

It all started back in 2023. James Craig was arrested for the first degree murder of his wife, Angela. Prosecutors say he poisoned her protein shakes with potassium cyanide and tetrahydrosaline, which is found in eye drops. Now, if this sounds familiar, it might be because we've talked about the case on the podcast here before last November, when Craig was set to go to trial. That is until his defense team withdrew at the last minute on the day that jury selection was set to go to trial. That is, until his defense team withdrew at the last minute on the day that

jury selection was set to begin. Our NBC affiliate, KUSA 9 News in Denver, reported on that development. He told the judge he'd received new records in the case and asked to withdraw as Craig's attorney. Barely 24 hours after that, prosecutors accused Craig of plotting murder and false testimony. At a hearing last week, we finally got to hear more about the murders that the prosecution says that, prosecutors accused Craig of plotting murder and false testimony. At a hearing last week, we finally got to hear more about the murders that the prosecution says Craig had planned. Dateline producer Tim Eulinger was in the courtroom and he joins us now to tell us what he learned and where the case could go next. Tim, thank you so much for being here with us.

Thank you so much for having me. This story is really crazy to say the least. It's got tons of twists and turns. So just to start, can you quickly just remind us, remind our listeners of the original crime that James Craig was accused of, the murder of his wife, Angela. Yes, Blaine. Angela and James had been married for about 23 years.

James had a dental practice where Angela at times worked as an office manager. In March of 2023, about two years ago, she had been feeling sick for several weeks and had been making trips to the ER. And on her final trip, she was admitted in grave condition and then died. According to the arrest warrant, James Craig's business partner told a nurse at the hospital that James had recently ordered potassium cyanide for the dental practice. The nurse called police and called the police. James was then taken at the hospital that James had recently

ordered potassium cyanide to the dental practice. The nurse called police and Craig was arrested the next day. Wow. Okay. So I guess that begs the question. Did Craig have any explanation for why he had that potassium cyanide? Well, according to the arrest warrant, James told his business partner, Angela had asked him to order the potassium cyanide, and he believed she was suicidal. So what are investigators saying about a motive? What are they pointing to there? Well, there were emails with sexually explicit conversations and travel

plans with a woman who was not Angela, first of all. And then according to the arrest warrant, Angela's sister told police the marriage had always been tumultuous and that James had multiple affairs and had drugged Angela in the past. Okay. So fast forward to last fall and Craig is hit with the other charges, solicitation to commit murder and solicitation to commit perjury. What do we know about those accusations? Well Blaine, during the hearing last week, prosecutors revealed that Craig allegedly plotted to have four people killed. Prosecutors said Craig tried to get fellow inmate Nathaniel Harris to kill the lead detective investigating Angela's murder, another officer, and two other inmates who were in the same detention facility.

Those are some mighty explosive allegations. My goodness. Yes, they were. Tim, you were in court for this hearing. What did we learn about the prosecution's case? The hearing took almost three hours and prosecutors called two witnesses. One of the witnesses, a sergeant from the sheriff's office, said in an interview, Harris, that other inmate, had told him Craig offered him $20,000. Craig then allegedly contacted Harris's ex-wife by two letters and offered, quote, essentially a blank check to help make up evidence of texts, Craig then allegedly contacted Harris's ex-wife by two letters and offered, quote, essentially

a blank check to help make up evidence of texts, phone records, photos, et cetera. Okay, Tim. So prosecutors are saying that these letters were part of Craig's plan to fabricate evidence. But I'm curious, through all of this, did James Craig have any sort of visible reaction as prosecutors were talking through all of this new evidence? Well, at one point, Blaine, during the preliminary hearing, he had been referred to as, quote unquote, the murder dentist. And I did see him flinch at that point. Craig is now on his third defense team. What did his lawyers have to say at the hearing? The new attorney said there wasn't any testing or verification of the handwriting in those

letters to tie it back to Craig. But the judge ultimately decided that the prosecution had the evidence that they needed for the burden for the charges to be brought to trial. And what's notable, this is not the first time that Craig has been accused of interfering with his case from jail, right? Prosecutors say that he has allegedly asked other inmates to help him fabricate evidence twice before this. Yes, it's really unusual. Last May, a detective said at a hearing that James Craig had asked a fellow inmate to help

place letters at his house that would seem to have been written by Angela, stating that she was suicidal. James allegedly promised the inmate free dental work or to post bail in exchange for help. The defense said the inmate had glaring credibility issues, including an active arrest warrant when he contacted police. Then last September, a detective testified

that James had sent a letter to a man who had been in jail with him, asking him to help him find women who would be willing to testify that they had had an affair with him. And that when Angela learned about the affairs, she asked the women to help her frame James for a crime. So it seems, Tim, that we know a lot about the prosecution's case from evidence that they've talked about in documents or in hearings in court. What do we know about what James

Craig's defense is going to look like? Well, it's a little difficult on that right now because they haven't really had a chance to present what they might want to do in trial. And we always have to remember, you know, innocent until proven guilty. So far, based on what James has told investigators, he seems to be sticking to his story that Angela was having suicidal thoughts and may have poisoned herself. So there's a lot we don't know. He's pleaded not guilty to first degree murder and to two charges of tampering with evidence. Last week, he also pleaded not guilty to those new charges. But ultimately, we're really waiting for a trial to hear what the defense's

case is. Any idea of when we will actually see a trial in this? Well, you know, as you know, the trial has been moved three different times, but we do think it may start in the middle of July and lead up until probably the beginning of August. So we'll be watching very closely this summer. Tim, thank you so much for following all of this and joining us today. Oh, thank you so much, Brian. Take care.

Up next, a Hawaii man is standing trial for the second time on charges he murdered his wife's ex-lover. Last week, jurors got to hear from him for themselves. In Honolulu, it's the final days of Eric Thompson's murder trial. He's accused of killing John Tokuhara, the acupuncturist his wife had a brief affair with back in 2022. He and his lawyers were undecided until the last minute on Eric taking the stand in his own defense. But Thursday afternoon, he was sworn in.

You saw him in his work, confirmed that the testimony you're about to give should be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Yes. And he stayed on the stand for three days. Dateline associate producer Kelly Moody was inside the courtroom, and she joins me now to tell us what Eric says happened

between him and his wife, Joyce, and what he was doing that January evening when John Tokuhara died. Kelly, thanks so much for joining us today. Yeah, you bet. First, just kind of remind us what Eric Thompson is accused of. Yeah, so Eric Thompson is charged with murder in the second degree. John Tokuhara was killed in January of 2022. It was his mother who actually found him devastating. A month later, Eric Thompson was arrested and the prosecution says that he disguised himself, that he parked his truck down the street from John's clinic and burned the clothes that he was wearing afterward. But he had made a mistake, according to the prosecution, by dropping this white bucket hat.

The hat was then tested, and in the first trial, a criminalist from the Honolulu PD crime lab testified that it was only likely that it was Thompson's DNA that was on the hat, but it wasn't 100% conclusive. What is the defense saying in all of this? So, the defense has argued, and now Eric Eric has testified that he wasn't angry at John and never confronted him about this affair. And then his alibi was that he was actually on a completely different part of the island

dumping construction waste at the time that John was shot. And Eric's first trial back in July to August of 2023 actually ended in a hung jury. So this is the second go around. Yeah. So far, it's been pretty similar to the first trial, right? Are the same witnesses being called here? Yeah. The prosecution has made pretty much the same case and called a lot of the same witnesses, including two of the men whose partners also had affairs with John Takahara. One of the men was the first person

that police had actually looked at, Darrell Fujita. He was dating my ex-girlfriend. It's all good. Whatever. The prosecution is saying we looked at them and we ruled them out, leaving then Eric Thompson as their sole suspect. So one of the big pieces in all of this is that white bucket hat. What's happening with the new testing on that all of this is that white bucket hat. What's happening with the new testing on that hat? Yeah, the white bucket hat is the proverbial glove, if you will. For Eric's second trial, the prosecution asked a new lab called Cyber Genetics to look at the evidence.

And the short story here is that the inside of the crown of the hat and the side of the hat showed that Daryl Fugita did not wear that hat. And Eric Thompson was 16.4 trillion times more likely to have worn the hat. On cross, defense notes that different pieces of evidence were actually stored together. And they're then implying that this could have been cross contamination.

On Thursday, Eric Thompson took the stand in his own defense. Right. So it took a bit for them to actually decide if Eric was going to take the stand himself in the second trial. He did in the first trial. As the defense was questioning him, they talked a lot about his relationship with his wife, Joyce. They were high school sweethearts. They showed their prom photos. Eric said that their relationship was definitely one where opposites attracted, that they each did their own thing, which, of course, was aiming at countering what the prosecution had said

in opening statements, that he was controlling and that they had the surveillance cameras on the house that he was looking at when he was away. I let her do her thing. I probably didn't even pick out that suit myself. I think Joyce took care of everything. And of course, the big elephant in the room is his wife's affair, right? Has Eric testified about it and how has he reacted to that portion of this? So Eric has testified that they were able to put the affair behind them, and they've been able to carry on with normal life. So he talked a lot about what happened

on January 12th, 2022 for him. That's the day that John Tokohara died. So he testifies that he had a pretty normal day. He had been doing a lot of construction around his house, and he was driving a bunch of bricks over to the dump. And then later in the evening, he went to the grocery store to buy the special milk that they give their toddler.

Whole plus DHA. It's good for brain development. So we always try and get it to our user. And he went to buy beer. Where were you going to get beer from? Any longs. I like natural ice beer, 90 ice. 90 ice?

Yeah. And a lot of that movement was captured on the Thompson security cameras as well as neighboring surveillance cameras. What's going on in your mind? How are you and Joyce doing? Better than ever. Pretty good. Were there any triggers at this point regarding John Tokohara? Was he on your mind? Was there any angst or anger? No, not at all. I mean, no, that was, it wasn't an issue at all for months. But then, of course, he faced cross-examination by the prosecution.

Were they able to land any blows, anything major there? Cross has been pretty focused on doing a comparing contrast of Eric's testimony at his first trial and what he's saying now. He made her call up her parents and admit that she was having an affair, correct? Eventually that call did happen. I mean, it's... it was part of... it's complex. In your previous testimony, you said you wanted her to own up to it, right? I'm not sure. If you could please turn to Exhib exhibit 402, page 155.

Let me know when your memory is refreshed. Yes, I did see that. What is left to go in this trial? It's off to the jury, so now we are waiting to see what will be the verdict in the second trial for Eric Thompson. This is truly a fascinating case. Kelly, thanks so much. Yeah, you're welcome.

Coming up, it's Dateline Roundup, big rulings from the judge in Brian Koberger's case, drama at the courthouse before Karen Reed's second trial, and more about the arrest of the leader of a cult-like group called the Zizians, which police have connected to murders from Pennsylvania to California. Plus, Keith Morrison will be here to talk about Murder in the Moonlight, his latest podcast

series. Welcome back. Joining us for this week's Dateline Roundup is Dateline super producer, Rachel White. Hi, Rachel. Hey, Blaine. How are you? I'm good. Glad to have you with us. So we've got a lot to talk about. First up, we are off to Dedham, Massachusetts for an update in the Karen Reed case. And you'll remember she's the woman accused of drunkenly backing her SUV into her police officer boyfriend,

John O'Keefe, back in 2022 and leaving him to die in the snow. Yeah, as our listeners might remember, Reed went to trial, but there was a hung jury. And so her retrial is set to start in April. Okay. So what's the news that we have in the run up to this retrial? So Reed was in court on Tuesday for a motions hearing when all of a sudden, about halfway through the day, the judge suspended it. And this is what she said when she addressed the courtroom. Commonwealth just provided the court with information that causes me grave concern. The implications of that information may have profound effects on this defense and defense

counsel. So what information is the judge talking about here? She didn't say exactly, but just before she ended the hearing, the prosecution was discussing the defense's contracting of a company called ARCA. And ARCA works on accident reconstruction. And if you remember in Reed's first trial,

the defense brought two ARCA experts to the stand, and they testified that the damage on Reed's first trial, the defense brought two ARCA experts to the stand and they testified that the damage on Reed's SUV could not have been from hitting a pedestrian, i.e. John O'Keefe. The prosecution is now alleging that the defense withheld information from the prosecution and the court about those contracted experts. And they say that the defense never disclosed that the experts received $23,000 for their testimony nor that the defense collaborated with the experts on that testimony. The jury was told that they were retained independently.

Wow. So those are some pretty big accusations about testimony. That was really important for the defense. So what happens next year? So the hearing's been rescheduled for next week. So we'll see if the judge shares any more information about her decision to end the hearing early. And we'll see if she allows those experts back for Reed's second trial, which again is set for April.

Next, let's go to Idaho. And there is some big news in the case of Brian Koberger, the man accused of fatally stabbing four University of Idaho students back in 2022. Rachel, what did we learn about this one? Well, Blaine, there's a gag order in place. So there's a lot that the public still doesn't know about this case. But as the court has been gearing up for the Summers trial, there have been some hearings that talk about possible evidence in the case. So we've known for a while now that

Coburger was initially charged with the murders based on detectives allegedly matching his DNA to DNA found on a knife sheath left at the crime scene. But his defense has made this bombshell new claim. They revealed recently that detectives found blood at the crime scene from two additional males, both of whom are still unidentified. So the defense here is possibly laying the groundwork for alternate suspects, right? Do we know where that blood was found at the scene? One male's blood was found on a railing inside the house where the four students were killed and a different male's blood was found on a glove outside the house.

Coburger's defense alleges that the police failed to disclose those unidentified blood samples to a judge when they sought that warrant for Coburger's arrest in December of 2022. And the prosecution has not disputed it. So the defense was arguing the arrest warrant should be thrown out. But just this Wednesday, Judge Stephen Hippler issued his ruling on the defense's motions to suppress the DNA information, arrest warrants, and Coburger's cell phone data. So all of that will actually be allowed in the trial this summer. Exactly. Finally, we're off to Western Maryland for an update in a case that we first told you about a couple of weeks ago. Investigators linked the murders of an elderly man in California,

a husband and wife in Pennsylvania, and the fatal shooting of a Vermont border guard to a group of young people called the Zizians. What's the news there, Rachel? So the group's leader, known as Ziz, legal name Jack Lasota, was arrested last weekend in Western Maryland. Lasota was charged with trespassing, having a handgun in a vehicle, and obstructing and hindering, all of which are misdemeanors. Now, police have arrested someone else here too. Yeah, two other people in fact.

One Michelle Zyko, another Zizian who was a person of interest in the Vermont border guard shooting, plus the murders of that Pennsylvania couple who were actually Zyko's parents. Zyko was also only charged with misdemeanors. Rachel, thanks so much for bringing us all of that. We are so glad to have you on today. Thank you, Blaine. For our final story this week, we are joined by a very special guest, the most special of guests, Keith Morrison,

is here to talk about his brand new original podcast, Murder in the Moonlight. Hi, Keith. Hello, Blaine. Thank you for having me on your program today. Well, I'm so glad to have you here. This story, this is a fascinating one. It starts in Murdoch, Nebraska. It's

a small farming town and you have this line in there in the first episode that I love where it says, heads turn when a stranger drives by. And it really feels like that kind of small town where everybody knows everybody, where that really is true. Exactly. A small, very cohesive town. and one of the finest families in town was headed by a couple who were just about as fine as a husband and wife could be. They'd raised a wonderful family. They'd run a successful agricultural business. They had done everything that they should do. They'd done it all right for many years. And then something happened. The minister called and they said, your mom being killed. Never in a million years would you

think that you'd see your parents' house taped off, the farm taped off by that yellow tape. Investigators focused early on somebody close to the victim, who was a bit of a ne'er-do-well, and he and a cousin of his were pinned for the crime. Then the question was, did they do it or didn't they do it? In fact, one of them confessed. So that kind of made it look pretty obvious that they did. But things developed from there. I don't want to give away too much.

No, but that's one heck of a tease. A couple of things about this podcast, Standout. We get to see two very different sides of an investigation. There's some really great detective work that happens, and then there's some not so great detective work that happens. Precisely. So investigators figure out pretty quickly that there were two people in the house that night. How did they even do that?

One of the titles that we thought we might choose for our story, we didn't in the end, but we were thinking about it, was blood shadow. Then the reason was a rifle was fired at one of the victims. It created a blood spatter which traveled across a hallway and hit a wall. But on the wall was

a person shape where there was no blood spatter, which indicated that there was somebody else involved in addition to the main shooter. Interesting. Wow. How's that for highlighting some detective work? So the story starts in Murdoch, Nebraska, but it doesn't stay there. It ends up being a multi-state investigation involving several law enforcement agencies, right? It was a crime that was solved until it wasn't solved. It was a crime that was solved until it wasn't solved. It was wrapped up quite neatly in a bow and then suddenly, maybe not. This was a story in which there is,

and it doesn't happen that often, but I like to point it out when it does. You're familiar with the term MacGuffin, which is that kind of small, apparently insignificant thing that eventually turns a tail on its head. This story has a pure MacGuffin. It's just quite an interesting one. Somebody found a gold ring in a place where it didn't belong in an otherwise scrupulously clean kitchen and nobody could figure out who it belonged to.

So whose was it and where did it come from? Then you go on a long and winding pathway to find the truth. We've got some sound from an upcoming episode. It features an unsuspecting woman in Buffalo, New York who was running a jewelry manufacturing business. Police asked for her help in tracking down who might have bought the ring just in case it was one of the killers. Here's that sound. I started with just box number one, stores one through 25,

then box number two, stores 25 through 30. And you went through each one? Yes. Until I got to like 100 and I believe it was 108 or 118, I said, this is gonna be impossible. How long did that process take? It took me probably three days and two nights. Does that seem a little over the top?

I mean, you could look for an hour or so and say, well, I can't find it, sorry. And that would be that. I heard homicide. Oh. I heard it was important. The woman you just heard is, in my mind, the hero of the story because she goes above

and beyond. There were a lot of old files, you know, she had to go through stacks and stacks and stacks of them, which she did one by one to look at all the invoices for all the gold rings that were ordered from that jewelry shop in Buffalo. The question of whether she finds it or not, or finds out where it went, would become crucial to this entire investigation. Yeah, this was definitely a fascinating one, Keith. I can't wait to listen to the entire series.

It's fantastic. And next week, episodes will be dropping on Monday and Wednesday. So, Keith, we've got a lot of stuff to look forward to. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you, Lane. Take care. That's it for this episode of Dateline True Crime Weekly. Andrea Canning will be right back here with you next week. If you want to find out more about the cases featured on our podcast, check out our website at datelinetruecrimeweekly.com. And to get ad-free listening for all of our podcasts, subscribe to Dateline Premium.

Coming up this Friday on Dateline, Andrea has an all new two hour episode. Two school girls murdered in the woods of Delphi, Indiana. For years, the case went unsolved. Police were at a standstill, except for one clue, a grainy picture and a gravelly voice captured on one of the girls' cell phones. They had to be scared out of their minds.

The voice of the killer. The voice of the killer. Could these girls help solve their own mystery? Watch A Walk in the Woods, airing this Friday at 9, 8 Central on NBC, or stream it starting Saturday on Peacock. Thanks so much for listening. Dateline True Crime Weekly is produced by Franny Kelly and Katie Ferguson. Our associate producers are Carson Cummins and Caroline Casey.

Our senior producer is Liz Brown-Kuruloff. Production and fact-checking help by Sara Kadir. Veronica Mazekka is our digital producer. Rick Kwan is our sound designer. Original music by Jesse Magentie. Brysonwan is our sound designer. Original music by Jesse McGenty. Bryson Barnes is head of audio production. Paul Ryan is executive producer and Liz Cole is senior executive producer of Dateline. Okay, anything else? All right, thanks very much. Bye-bye.