Hidden True Crime - Shocking Texts That Expose The REAL Motive?! | James Craig Trial Day 4

Episode Date: July 19, 2025

Today in Centennial, prosecutors unveiled a chilling digital trail in the James Craig trial. A dental assistant recounted Craig’s obsessive text messages about a “priority package” – later revealed as potassium cyanide. Meanwhile, an Aurora detective detailed his web history—from arsenic buys to “undetectable poisons”—painted as premeditated murder planning. And in the most explosive moment: Ryan Redfearn, the man who reported the potential use of cyanide prompting an investigation into James Craig Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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I am here in Colorado attending daily the James Craig trial. And today actually, funny enough, almost started without us. And that might sound familiar because that's sort of how I started yesterday's. But for different reasons, we were actually feeling pretty confident this morning. Unlike yesterday, we actually got up early. We had everything under control. But our hotel is the one that had other plans, which I'm going to explain now why I am in a different room. So apparently when you extend your stay last minute, which is what we did, they sometimes make you switch rooms. Never happened to us before. So instead of a calm morning caffeinated beverage and mosing to the courthouse, we were scrambling to

figure out a solution because when we travel for trials, we don't just have a couple of suitcases. We have an entire podcast set. And it was 745. Court starts at 8.30. And all of a sudden, we had an entire room to pack in a studio to completely take down. I mean, we bought a table. We go places and we buy tables at Walmart when we arrive in a hotel. So I rushed ahead to court while my producer Grayson handled them moving. She was packing an entire hotel room in record time, including an entire set of podcasting equipment,

and she made it at 829 just in time. Meanwhile, I was being grilled by the courthouse security over a pair of tweezers in my backpack. I'll call them alleged tweezers because they ran my backpack no less than five times, showed me on the screen and emptied the backpack, but there were too many pockets and none of us could find these alleged tweezers. So with a little begging, they let me go ahead and just take the backpack upstairs, hoping that I would not find those tweezers and do something terrible with them. We're still trying to find again the tweezers.

So anyway, we made it once again, slightly sweaty, slightly stressed. But we are now ready to bring you everything that happened in court today. So once we got into the courtroom, everyone settled into their usual spots, except today something had shifted. Angela's oldest daughter, Miriam, who testified yesterday. She sat on the defense side next to her grandparents, James' parents and other family. The other two Craig children stayed on the prosecution side and watching them make that choice each day. It's this sort of quiet, gut-wrenching reminder of what they've lost, no, not just their mother, but the sense of family, safety, and stability.

It should have never, never been up for grabs. The first witness on the stand today was Angel Ammering. And let me tell you about Angel. She showed up actually in a sundress and a messy blonde bun. These days, Angel works in dentistry out of Hilton Head, South Carolina. Hilton Head's beautiful. But back in early, 2023, she was a dental assistant at Summerbrook Dental, working for Dr. James Gregg for about six months. And Angel explained that the week of March 9th, it wasn't exactly normal. She had been out sick with the flu and had missed quite a bit of work.

The other girls in the office were covering her shifts. And then for the end of the week, James reached out and asked if she'd be willing to help out with a dental class that Friday, March 10th. And she said yes, even though she'd never met the doctors running the class. Her role that day was pretty simple, sterilized rooms and essentially assist where needed, nothing out of the ordinary, at least not yet. Because that next exhibit 182 was admitted into evidence. And these, what was exhibit 182? they were texts between Angel and James prior to that March 10th class. So the first text brought up was James texting Angel.

He also needed the door unlocked and he had forgotten his laptop at the office. And this was after Angel had asked how Angela was doing since she had heard that Angela had been admitted to the hospital, which James actually did not reply to. He just began talking about the class that was being held on the 10th. So then in another message, James confirmed that the dental class was still happening that Friday and let her know that he would not be the one teaching it. Okay. But then on the morning of March 10th, while Angel is still at the office assisting with the class, she got a strange text from James. And it read something like, hey, Angela, I'm expecting a priority package this morning, maybe this afternoon. but I think it'll be this morning. Keep the door unlocked. It'll probably be a small box or a

padded envelope. Let me know when it comes. End quote. So not long after that, he texted her again asking how everything was going. And she replied that it was going great and that the visiting doctors were very nice. And so again, it all seemed pretty normal, right, until James texted again and this time asking if any mail had arrived. So Angel was a dental assistant, not the front desk person or the usual package collector. If anything ever got delivered, someone would typically just bring it to the back. But no one else was working that day. So even though the request felt a bit off, it kind of made sense in context. She was the one that was there. So Angel sent another message asking how Angela was doing again. And he tells her she's doing the same still at the hospital.

and having a lot of tests run. And then he asks her if she had checked with Katie before asking again if the package had arrived, saying that he could swing by and get it. She texts back saying nothing has arrived and asks him if it was priority and could be put in the mailbox. If it was priority, it would always be brought up to the office,

but if there was any chance it had been put in the mailbox, She didn't have a key, thus wouldn't be able to access that if it was put in there. So James said he wasn't sure, but doubted it would be regular mail. But at this point, he hadn't been provided the tracking number. And so before she left for the day, she asked him if he wanted her to keep the back door, the office unlocked for him to which he told her, yes, he would be going to the office in the morning because the package, this package was coming. So the day after the dental class, March 11th, James sent out a message in a group chat asking if anyone was nearby and could come and open the office door.

So I guess it had been locked again. Nobody responded except for Angel. She offered her key again. She lived close by and James came to pick the key up in person. But again, he never said what the package was. No details, no explanation. And now it was time for the defense to cross-examination. The defense immediately zeroed in on those text messages. Angel confirmed that initially James had asked for her key to retrieve his laptop and then later for the package. And the defense argued this wasn't a secret of situation. James never told Angel not to open the package. He never told her to keep quiet. All the defense sort of drilled home was that James pretty much said, let me know when this package arrives.

And they actually made a good point. There was nothing secretive about this. James didn't tell her not to tell anyone. James didn't say it was this private, you know, secret package no one could know about. So on redirect, though, prosecutors wasted no time cutting through the fog that the defense sort of created. They asked, did James ever tell you the package contained potassium cyanide? No. Did you ever handle potassium cyanide during the dental class? No. Would that ever be something used in a class

like that? Absolutely not. And did you at any point know what was inside the package James was so eager to get? No. So again, what the prosecution is Julian home is, maybe James didn't say it was a secret, but he also didn't say what it really was. Well, the next witness on the stand was Molly Harris, walking into the courtroom, honestly, like a scene out of a crime drama. Detective Molly Harris made an impression before she even opened her mouth. Dressed in a crisp white pantsuit, her black holster and badge at her waist, she was every bit the image of authority and precision. Between her and Bobby Olson, who's already testified,

these women are not just detectives. They, in my opinion, are symbols of the relentless pursuant. suit of justice for Angela Craig. Detective Harris currently serves in Aurora PD's major crimes unit. And in 2023, she played a direct role in the investigation into Dr. James Gregg. While on the stand, Harris was walked through a series of digital exhibits tied to the infamous Jim and Waffles Gmail account. She confirmed the account belonged to James Craig, matching not only his email activity, but also his birthday, and he also put in his phone number. So one of the most critical pieces of evidence is a printout of Google voice call logs tied to that Gmail account

showing interactions between James and three other individuals. Harris also reviewed text messages from that same account dated February 28th, March 9th, and March 13th that prosecutors allege show a timeline of planning and concealment. On the stand, Detective Molly Harris made it clear. She wasn't just part of the James Craig investigation. She was deep in this investigation. She testified that she personally combed through the records from the data request, scrutinizing every call, every message tied to James Craig's Jim and Waffles' Gmail account. But Harris didn't just follow the digital trail. She was there boots on the ground during the search of Summerbrook Dental. Specifically, Exam Room 9, where investigators seized a Dell computer.

And from that machine, they pulled the hard drive and got to do that. work. At my bank, I was literally getting pennies using Wellfront. Chiching, there's this much that I'm getting an interest and I didn't have to do anything. Clients like Angela earn up to 4.2% APY on their cash with the Wealthfront cash account. Get started at Wealthfront.com. Client was paid $1,000 for their testimonial, creating a conflict of interest. Outcomes vary. 3.3% base API as of January 30th, 2026, is representative variable and earned on funds swept to program banks. 0.65% new client boost for three months on up to $150,000. Direct deposit $1,000 a month and fund an investing account for a 0.25% increase.

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0.65% new client boost for three months on up to $150,000. Direct deposit $1,000 a month and fund an investing account for a 0.25% increase. Cash account offered by Wealthfront Brokerage LLC, member FINRA, SIPC, not a bank. Their lab, as Harris described it, is actually a designated workspace with a big TV in the conference room. Old school, but effective. They hooked up the hard drive and started a manual search of this hard drive. Click by click. File by file.

They looked for anything that could help them understand what James Craig had been planning. Their digital forensics expert, David Lee, he was. was off duty. So he worked Monday through Thursday. And of course, he just happened to be on vacation. So with their guy out, they escalated to the secret service for a forensic extraction. But the agency said it would be two weeks before they could even touch it. This was not going to work. James Craig was still out in the community, still walking free. The clock was ticking. And law enforcement could not afford to wait. So Harris and her team rolled up their sleeves and did the hard work themselves. And as detective Molly Harris continued her

testimony, she walked the court through the moment investigators began, their manual dive into the seized hard drive. They connected it to a large TV screen in their conference room and pulled up the inbox, or again, that now infamous Jim and Waffles's Gmail account. What they saw as they scroll through honestly was chilling to them. There were emails exchanged between James Craig and a woman named Karen Kane, a name that comes up again and again, and messages from two science suppliers, AduQ, bioscience, and Midland Scientific. One email even contained a purchase invoice from a dukew and before prosecutors could dig deeper, the defense objected hard. They argued that any information pulled from that email, including the date, the sender, or even the delivery address

would be hearsay unless Detective Harris could prove she had direct personal knowledge of the contents. And that triggered a short voir dire, basically a mini cross exam, where Harris clarified something crucial because just because something appears in the inbox or browser history,

it doesn't automatically prove who searched it or what exactly they saw. But it's a digital breadcrumb, right? And so the state was following the trail. So we went back, back on direct. The prosecution handed Harris a set of documents tied to the arsenic purchase from Amazon, and these included the listing description, a confirmation email, payment receipt, order detail, and delivery information.

In short, a digital paper trail prosecutors allege shows James Craig wasn't just dabbling in toxic curiosity. He was planning something. Something. Definitely something. Eventually, Aurora PD's forensic analysis, David Lee, was finally able to extract the locked data from James Craig's seized devices. And once the data was in hand, it landed on the desk again of Detective Molly Harris. And you just saw that sketch there of Detective Molly Harris. She testified that while she couldn't say who physically typed the searches, she didn't witness them in real time. All of the information was extracted, though, directly from the computer in exam room nine. We know who was in exam room nine, Dr. James Craig. And then on the,

courtroom screen a new exhibit disturbing Google searches from February 27th, 2023. Here are a few of them. Are you guys ready? First Google search. Is there such a thing as an undetectable poison? Second one. How to make poison from oleander? Is arsenic detectable? How many grams of pure arsenic will kill a human? How to make murder look like a heart attack. And then on February 28th, a dosage of tetrahydrozzling, that's vizene, eyedrops, a dosage of tetrahydrozzling that is fatal. And by March 3rd, just a direct search for vizene. And on March 6, tetrahydrosoling poisoning, timeline.

So each search, in my opinion, felt more specific, more targeted than the last. and prosecutors, though, they did not stop there. They also asked Harris about Angela Craig's iPhone because if this was self-harm, which is what the defense is saying, I mean, this was a very twisty self-harm, a maybe accidental self-harm, a game of chicken. I don't know what they're saying,

but let's say Angela Craig had a self-harm issue. Or if Angela had been looking up anything about self-harm, it would show, right, in her Google searches. So Harris was clear, there was nothing. No searches indicating depression, No Science, Angela, was researching anything remotely close to self-harm. The digital evidence was silent completely on that front. If there was any doubt about Angela Craig's state of mind in her final days,

her search history tells the story. On March 6th, this is what she typed. Are you ready? Pre-workout supplement made me dizzy, and eyes are blurry an hour later. Another one. Side effects of high blood pressure. And then what followed, honestly, was a heartbreaking scroll of confusion and desperation.

Almost a digital diary of a woman trying to figure out why her body was betraying her. Here we go. Sudden onset of heaviness, lethargy and chills. Dizziness. Slow focus. Tired. Head pressure. Hearing distortion.

Meneer's disease. Cold lips. Body shaking. Strange shaking and sides. Many seizures. Body shake. and lips go cold. It's honestly so sad to listen to these.

On March 7th, she shifted to, Can the flu cause vertigo? How to treat vertigo from a cold, urgent care. Ventura Health Patient Portal. Is A1C checked through urine? Signs of type 1 diabetes. Is there an app for monitoring vital stats I can share with a loved one? Low blood pressure and diabetes.

On March 11th, that same search came up again. low blood pressure and diabetes. By March 13th, her symptoms, they had not gone away. In fact, they were getting worse. It is so sad. Internal shivers, the cause. Another one. Fall asleep deep, snore, internal tremors.

Obstructive sleep apnea. Internal medicine doctors, Aurora. Two days before her final collapse, this is her Google search. Emergency room at Colfax, 226. Honestly, it's a gut punch to see these searches. It's a woman Googling everything from E&T specialist to emergency rooms, trying to name what it was happening to her, trying to understand why her body was trembling,

why her vision was blurring, why her lips were cold. Angela wasn't spiraling into despair, clearly. It was actually the opposite. She was fighting. She was trying to live. And through it all, she kept searching because deep down, she knew something was wrong and no one had put the pieces together. Right before the next exhibit could be shown, the court broke for lunch.

But let me tell you, Detective Harris's testimony, it honestly had been crawling along. Like, I'm glad you guys weren't there and we can just break it down for you. Because there had been constant objections drawn out sidebars and even moments where the defense again jumped into Wadir right in the middle of her testimony. You'd think that most of these exhibit issues would have been ironed out before court started. And get this. when the jury was dismissed for lunch, defense attorney Lisa Moses, she pointed out that one of the jurors looked like he was dozing off during Harris's testimony. And honestly, with all the long sidebar pauses, it's hard to blame this juror.

We probably listened to more white noise than testimony. So after lunch, the court planned to check in and see if this juror might need to be replaced with an alternate if you can't stay alert. It felt a bit much to me, if you want my opinion. I've never sat through a trial where at some point one juror might be dozing a bit. And it's Friday afternoon and all we're listening to is white noise. Anyway, after the break, Detective Harris confirmed that Exhibit 46 contained text between Angela. And just so you know, Angela's name in the text was saved in the phone as mom. So, and James, who was saved in the phone as the boy.

So they kept saying, you know, text from mom. And then the boy responds, but we're going to switch it. This is between James and Angela. And the text, they indicate a lot of tension, suspicion, emotion, and unraveling of their marriage in the months before Angela's death. So in December of 2022, it seems as though Angela learned about an affair that James had or was having. She asked things in text like, was she worth it? And told him that she didn't want to see him. She wrote, quote, you had a month's worth of chances to save your marriage, but what you wanted with her was more important.

So James replied, quote, it absolutely wasn't worth it. I wasn't even emotionally attached. I just used her to build up my ego, end quote. Well, at least you got that right. But Angela described feeling paranoid, rightfully so, saying, I'm just doubting everything. I fear you're staying only to hide assets that you've been having an affair and you're just biding time to get through Christmas." End quote. James tried to quell her fears by saying he was no longer having an affair. He said, I'm not having an affair.

I don't have a secret bank or Venmo accounts. I really do want you and I want us, end quote. So when James tried to talk to her about mundane things like how her day was going, she wrote, quote, I'm not going to pretend everything's fine so you can feel better right now. We are not okay, end quote. And I get it. I get where Angela's coming from. James continued to apologize and assure her that he was trying to fix things.

He wrote, quote, I hate that I lit our marriage on fire again and again. I feel shameful, not worth being around. He also talked about reading therapy books, praying and being sad that Angela had moved out of their bedroom. In the messages, Angela was clearly heartbroken. She was clearly confused. It was hard to read. She was desperate to understand whether their marriage could even be saved, honestly. You can tell her just searching and trying to figure out what was going on.

James, on the other hand, seemed to say whatever he thought she wanted to hear. His words came across as self-serving, overly apologetic, almost rehearsed to me. it didn't even sound genuine, my opinion. Even Angela admitted that she wished she could believe his apologies. And then things seemed to be a bit better going into the new year. On February 27th, James wrote, I love you so much. I'm happy you're my wife. And she replied, I haven't committed to wife, maybe semi-consensual life partner, end quote. I was a good response, Angela. Detective Harris explained that Tony is Angela's sister and the sibling she was closest to. And while Angela was visiting Tony again for that genealogy conference, James texted her

asking that she not shared the details of their recent conversations. And that is heartbreaking to me. Even after 20 years, there were still things that he found difficult to talk about and didn't want his wife to share with one of her closest confidants. Angela responded that she had not mentioned anything to Tony about the past. few months. And again, like, yeah, I just, I wish she had, I wish she hadn't listened to James in that moment and confided in Tony. Next, the jury was shown exhibit 176. It was an order slip from March 6th, 2023 for one milligram of oleandrine. The invoice was addressed to James Craig,

Exhibit 175, showed an email chain between James and the vendor. On March 8th, he wrote, quote, hi there. I placed an order two nights ago set for overnight delivery before 10 a.m. I haven't received tracking info and wanted to confirm it'll be there this morning. And quote. And so when it didn't arrive on time, the jury was shown emails from James showing his urgency and frustration about the package not yet arriving. He was not happy. The package was not arriving in one day as expected and planned, which I'm sure he planned, right, because he would be the only one in the office there on the weekend, would have been really convenient if it arrived on time. Luckily it didn't. But then cross-examination began with Lisa

Moses asking Detective Harris about how the major crimes unit is structured. Harris confirmed that yes, there are several detectives in the unit. One lead detective is assigned to each case and in this one it's Detective Olson and then other detectives assist in various ways. Moses asked if part of Harris's role included conducting interviews and Harris said yes. One of those interviews was with Ashley Donahue. Now this was a witness yesterday. Ashley Donahue. Donahue, remember him? And this is where things got a little more interesting, because honestly, I think the defense did a pretty solid job here poking holes in Ashley's credibility. Yesterday's witness. Harris confirmed that she interviewed Ashley on April 5th, 2023, after hearing he was claiming to have seen James at the Midland Scientific Warehouse. And during that interview, Ashley told her that he saw the individual, in quotes, meaning James Craig on either March 13th, or March 20th. But remember, just yesterday, again, Ashley testified that he wasn't totally sure it was sometime between March 13th and March 20th. So already we're seeing a bit of inconsistency. Then the defense

shifted focus to a car, Ashley claimed he saw James get into. And he had mentioned it was either a Nissan Center or a Nissan Maxima. But here's the thing. In his interview with Detective Harris, he specifically said he didn't do anyone get into the car. That's a pretty big, contradiction and it gets even more tangled. Harris said she was generally familiar with the vehicles at the Craig's home. There was a dark SUV, a four truck, a Jeep, and a white Subaru. No Nissan sedan that she could recall. Definitely nothing matching, but Ashley described according to, you know, her memory. And then there's the kicker. Ashley told Harris he recognized James Craig because of an office meeting they'd had, one that covered policies and procedures after everything came out

about James. That's how he knew who he was. All this stuff had come out about James. But he never once mentioned recognizing James from a TV news report or anything like that. So all of a sudden, the story he gave on the stand starts to look pretty shaky. You know? After that, Lisa Moses shifted gears and brought up the Google records. Detective Harris confirmed that she was the one who drafted several of the search warrants in this case. And she explained that those warrants have to be pretty specific. You can't just say, hey, give me five years of someone's Google history. It doesn't, it doesn't work like that, luckily. So when she submitted her initial request, she narrowed the time frame to mid-February through mid-March. That was the window. Investigators believed

that was most relevant at the time. But she also clarified that if the new information comes to light, like something that suggests suspicious activity happening outside of that range, then she can go back and request additional records to widen the time frame. But essentially what the defense's point was, was if you don't go back, you could be missing stuff. So it is not necessarily what's in there. It's what is not. And as part of those search warrants, Harris had requested Google history records. Once she got approval, she sent the warrant off to Google. And in return, they sent back the data in an HTML format. So Lisa Moses asked if you could take the HTML and convert it into a PDF, Harris said, sure, she supposed you could. That led Moses straight into Exhibit 70,

which was exactly that, a PDF version of the Google text records. But Moses pointed out that the PDF wasn't a complete picture. She noted that several pieces of information were missing from the PDF that were included in the original HTML file, things like email notifications, soft deleted flags, call thread IDs, call status, conversation IDs, and more. So, basically, Basically, so basically what's happening is Moses was making the case that what was shown to the court was not the full story. There was a lot of additional context in the original data that didn't make it into the PDF the jury saw. Next, Moses turned to the photo media that was part of the Google messages. She pointed out that when photos are sent through text, they show up in the records as just a blank line labeled MMS or SMS.

But here's the catch. you cannot actually see what the photo was. There's no image, no image preview, the timestamps showing when the photo was taken, and no information about who took the photo. It could be a GIF or a GIF, depending on who are, GIF, GIF, Apple, potato, potato, a photo or anything else. So again, her goal was to highlight another gap in the evidence. The data shows that something was sent, but not what it was or where it came from.

And then Harris confirmed that as far as the Jim and Waffle, Google account goes, it wasn't a brand new account. It was created in August of 2020 and that the billing was updated on February 27, 2023. And then Lisa Moses moved on to the physical search warrant, specific alley, the searches of Craig's home, the dental office. Detective Harris confirmed she was present for both. She had officially joined the case on the morning of March 16th. And that day, actually, investigators first searched the house around 8.30 a.m. And then later searched the dental office at about 1145. So at that point, James Craig wasn't yet a suspect.

He was just considered a person of interest. And they were investigating. But first, let's talk about the search of the house. You thought this was your run club era. Turns out, it was more of a thinking about run club era. The good news? Someone's marathon training is about to start. Sell your workout gear on Deepop.

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After they were done with the house, they searched Summerbrook at 1145 a.m. The defense was really hard pressed on why they searched the office that fast. And in their eyes, it wasn't like Angela had been there in quite a while, honestly. But while at the office, one of the things they took, again, was the hard drive from exam room nine, that infamous exam room nine, and at some point, Detective Olson contacted the forensic person for the Aurora Police Department and the Secret Service for help. But at that point, they felt they needed to look immediately and not wait. Again, they were worried about James' finances and him being able to flee while he was a person of interest. I mean, James knew he was a person

of interest. After talking to his buddy, Ryan Redford, he knew. So Detective Harris and Detective Olson manually went through the computer from Exam Room 9. Detective Harris testified that when investigators powered on the computer, there was no login screen, just an immediate view of the Google account tied to Jim and Waffles. And at first it functioned like a phone in airplane mode. No internet, just whatever was stored locally. But once they connected it to Wi-Fi, they were able to access the browsing history using copied links. Every step of the process from startup to digging through the account was captured on body cam footage.

Moses asked Harris if she ever got a search warrant for Angela's Google account and Harris said no they hadn't well what about the computer she had in bed with her when James took that photo of her was that taken or searched Harris responded that no it wasn't but questions about that would be better suited for detective Olson she said next they went into exhibit 46 which were texts between James and Angela Harris testified that these gave a condensed look into Angela and James's relationship Harris confirms that the text start in December of 2022, but reference a history of infidelity on James's behalf, significant impact of his decisions to not be faithful to his wife and the impact that I had on her, his wife of 23 years, the history of the impact on him, not being faithful in their relationship and marriage, as well as history of them getting through it and wanting to work through it. So in December of 2022, Angela found out that James was with someone besides her. So heartbreaking. At 1 a.m. on December 9th, she texted him saying, I'm going to assume you made it to the cabin and there's no service. And within 11 hours, she writes him again saying, quote, don't come home. I don't want you here.

End quote. Clearly she knew. As they continue texting, she says there is nothing left for him to break. and he tells her that he used the woman to build up his own ego. Again, this is what we've already gone over, but that he loved Angela. The defense asked Harris if he ever denied it or said, fine, I'm done. And she said, no, he didn't. And talking about James' response to Angela, pushing him away, the defense brings up how James never said it's okay what he did or told Angela to go. He said he wanted to be better.

he wanted to be with her and that he didn't want to lose her. Over time, Angela started to soften and started to decide that she wanted to try and make it work. And on February 1st, James texted Angela, quote, it takes broken soil to produce crop, broken cloud for rain, broken grain for bread, end quote. Again, I roll for me. Harris confirms that in those texts you see them trying to fix those broken pieces and move forward. And they explained that James never outwardly denied an affair and Angela understandably didn't want to hear what he had to say at times, but James continued begging not to lose her. Yes, begging. That's important. Despite the betrayal, Angela eventually seemed to start softening and even told him that she didn't want him to leave. Detective Harris agreed when

Attorney Moses said that this was not anything new and they were trying to rebuild yet again. Moses asked Harris if James was talking to anyone on the Seeking Arrangements website during this time. And again, seeking arrangements is a sugar daddy website. So it's not even your average cheating. It's like saying, hey, I'm going to go find myself a sugar baby that I'm going to pay a ton of money to. That is my family's money to just feed my ego. And at first, Harris said no. He wasn't on the Seeking Arrangement website during this time.

but on redirect, the prosecution pressed further and asked her to take a look at a specific document. And after that, she clarified that James did appear to be texting with at least one person from the site during this time. Harris also said that whatever Angela got upset, James seemed to go into damage control, apologizing, backtracking, even saying he regretted ever mentioning a divorce. He was making it clear to Angie that he did not want a divorce, maybe because he wanted their relationship to end in a different way. Who knows? So I have something to say on a personal note about the situation. This is a Lauren Matthias break. It's not about court.

It's just about something I want to say. So what we're seeing in this case is not just about poison or search histories. It's about a pattern, a cycle that I personally have seen too many times because this, this is what emotional abuse looks like. It starts off with love bombing, like affection, apologies, grand gestures, poems, texts about healing. The abuser makes the victim feel special, even cherished. That's the idealization phase where you're placed on a pedestal so high, you start to forget the warning signs. And then comes the shift, the devaluing. The same person who once made you feel seen now makes you feel small. They become, critical, distant cold, and eventually there's the discard. It can be cheating, lying, emotional

cruelty, and just when the victim tries to pull away saying, you know what, I'm done, I want a divorce, you know, it's over. Here comes the hoovering or a term that I use and many people use for when the abuser tries to suck the victim right back in. More love, more promises, more all change. And then the cycle starts all over again. And I see this in Angela Craig's story. I feel it in her text and in James's text to her. You see it in her confusion in the way she was trying so hard to understand what was happening in her relationship and what she should do and who she should trust and if she'd even should tell her sister Tony about it.

And it absolutely breaks my heart. So if you're listening to this right now and this cycle feels familiar, please know it's not okay. You are not crazy. You are not alone. Talk to someone. tell one safe person what's really going on. A relationship shouldn't be a merry ground. And I wish that Angela had felt brave enough to tell somebody. So that's my little rant. Rant over,

soapbox over. We will keep going. Next up on the stand was a really big witness, a really important witness. It was Dr. Ryan Redfern. We've been waiting to hear from Dr. Ryan Redfern. Dr. Ryan Redfern is a dentist and owner of the company Fit to Smile. Ryan explained that he and his wife, Michelle, first met James and Angela back in dental school, and over time they became friends. After graduation, they stayed loosely connected, mainly chatting now and then about business strategies. And eventually, Ryan and his brother-in-law started a dental service organization or DSO and were looking to bring in colleagues they trusted.

James ended up joining Fit to Smile partners in April of 2020. Ryan clarified that they didn't buy James's practice. They just provide a management support to help him run it more smoothly. Ryan testified that he knew James had filed for bankruptcy in the past. Within the DSO, all of the practices shared a joint bank account. Money flowed in and out to cover operating costs and in James's case to help pay down his debts. At one point, James's bankruptcy payments were around $18,000 a month. Yikes, I cannot imagine. But by the end of 2022, the arrangement wasn't working. Ryan said financial pressure was building. While James had some decent months in the first year overall, the practice was losing money more often than not. And it was becoming a problem, clearly. A big problem for Ryan and the other

partners. Things got serious enough that the partners held a meeting without James to talk about whether he should remain in the group. And that same night, Ryan drove to James's house and nine o'clock on a Monday to deliver the message in person. It was that urgent. He told James what needed to change if he wanted to stay on. He'd have to take a pay cut from 35% down to 25% cancel some upcoming trips to Europe and start working at least 180 days a year, just like the other partners. Surprisingly, James took it better than Ryan expected, but then things shifted. And James opened up about serious marital problems. And he said that he and Angie were not in a good place and even broke down crying. Again, guys, I'm going to throw this out there. This is emotional abuse,

even to his buddy Ryan. It's manipulative. And then we get into Angela being sick in this testimony, which is really important. Ryan testified that he first heard that Angela was sick from Jackie Calderon because James had to leave work to take her to the hospital. He also knew that James and Michelle had been talking about Angela's condition behind the scenes. And then on March 15th, the day leading up to Angela's death, Michelle told him that Angela had crashed. And as friends, they wanted to be supportive. So they offered to go to the hospital, Ryan and Michelle, husband and wife. And on the way there, they got a three-way call from Jackie and Caitlin, that we've heard about, Caitlin Romero. And what they heard on that call changed everything.

He learned that a package had arrived at James's office earlier that week on Monday, and it contained, What did it contain? We know potassium cyanide. And Ryan knew that was poison, but didn't know why in the world his buddy James would ever have it. When Ryan got to the hospital, he went straight to the ER and was then directed up to the ICU. And that is where he met up with James and soon after Michelle joined them. And so at one point, James stepped away to take a phone call and Ryan quietly pulled a nurse aside at that moment and told the nurse about the cyanide. He knew time was critical. And it was. And it was a phone call. And if there was even a chance to save Angela. He had to speak up. He ended up speaking with the forensic nurse for about 35 minutes going over everything he knew. And before leaving, he told Angela's brother Mark and their bishop why he and Michelle were heading out. He thought it was important that they knew. So then as Ryan and Michelle got into the car to leave the hospital, Ryan's phone rang. It was James. He put the call on speaker. James said that he heard some disturbing news that Ryan had spoken to somebody at the hospital. And Ryan didn't waste any time. He didn't deny that

he had done this. He actually started asking questions about the package, the infamous package. James brushed it off saying it was just a surprise ring he had ordered for Angela. But Ryan was not buying it. He pushed back. He told James he knew what was in the package. It had been opened. It wasn't a ring. It was potassium cyanide. Ryan asked him directly, why would you need something like that? And James's response, Ryan, what have you done? Ryan repeated the question, why do you need cyanide? He added, we don't use that in dentistry. And that's when James gave a chilling explanation.

He claimed he ordered it as a kind of game of chicken with Angela, said she was suicidal and that he bought it for her because she couldn't get it herself. This is such a bizarre story. And the defense is going with it, by the way. The next morning, Ryan got a long text message from James. He begged him, not just Ryan, but others do not to talk to police, not to tell anyone what they talked about. Next, the state asked if oleander cyanide or arsenic were ever used in dentistry. And Ryan was like, no, no, not using dentistry. He told the companies that he used the poisons to perform cranial surgeries and was using these substances for research. That's what he emailed Cassie, who's already testified. But Ryan said that was.

a lie. He didn't know about any of the research James claimed to be working on. On cross, Ryan confirmed that he and James were just a year apart in school. And back when they all lived in Kansas City, the two couples were close. They spent a lot of time together. Dinners, hangouts, and Angela even watched Ryan's kids. But that closeness started to fade in June of 2025 when Ryan moved to Colorado. James stayed behind to finish school and though he eventually moved to Colorado too, things were not the same. Their friendship became more distant. They still talked occasionally, usually about business and would sometimes try to meet for lunch, but with both men raising small children and living in different parts of the Dembo metro area, James and Aurora,

Ryan and Centennial, their lives just didn't intersect the way they used to. Ryan described it plainly. Michelle was closer to Angie than I was to James. And honestly, in my opinion, it was a quiet, but telling detail. Even longtime friends didn't necessarily know what was happening behind closed doors. So fast forward a bunch of years, and Ryan and his brother Trent were in business together trying to expand things. And when they reached out, they were unaware of James' previous files of bankruptcy or his major financial struggles, which he later told them was a result of COVID and the pandemic. Ryan thought James could be an asset to his company. After all, James knew a lot of people and was a speaker for a really big national implant company that had him traveling both nationally and internationally. In short terms, he brought credibility to Ryan's company, or so he thought.

Ryan clarified on the stand, however, that he never bought James's company. Rather, they just worked out a management detail. He said he's seen things on the news and that there are a lot of things in the news that are incorrect, according to Ryan. So he wanted to make that clear. But when he joined up with James, it wasn't just the $18,000 issue that was at play. There were actually a lot of other expenses. Moses then brought up Ryan's 2023 interview with police that took place around 12.30 a.m. on the 16th. And during that interview, Ryan said something along the lines of, quote, he was working hard to try and become a better partner and try to get on board with the way he needs to get on board. And I would give him credit, Ryan continued. He probably crossed that threshold in January. It took from April to January, end quote.

Ryan recalled a meeting he had with James in January of 2023, where he went to James' house and listed out the things that needed to change. And then the prosecution jumped to the team from the dental office because that was one of the things that Ryan said needed to change. First off, Angela was the office manager. So Angela, Craig, was the office manager. And when Moses asked if it wasn't going well, Ryan said, quote, we didn't know how bad the business was doing. We are kind of opposed to having a wife run the show and she was okay with leaving and James was also okay with it too. Ryan explained that the wives should be the morale boosters. They shouldn't be doing the hiring, firing, or disciplining, according to Ryan.

Then Moses went back to that meeting that took place in January 2023 as the business continued to flounder. And during that meeting, he told James he would need to cut some of his expenses. He would need a salary cut and that he was concerned with the amount of upcoming travel that James had planned, which would make him unable to show up at the office. James agreed to all of those things and was more positive than Ryan expected and was on board and willing to do what needed to be done. After they had that rough professional conversation,

they shifted more into that personal conversation. James told Ryan about his marriage that was struggling. He said it was in a bad place. And while Ryan didn't pry, elaborate, or ask questions, James actually cried about it. Next, Moses wanted to talk about the night of March 15th. Ryan testified that before he got to the ICU, he saw James, who was crying, emotional,

and having a hard time breathing. More specifically, Ryan used the term bawling. Ryan testified that he could feel the emotion James had. And when they went to the ICU waiting room, the emotions lessened, but they heightened again after James spoke to the doctor in the ICU. Even though Ryan was watching James closely after what he had been told, he still thought that James's emotions seemed appropriate giving what was happening.

At some point that night, James was upset again, but this time it was because the hospital would not let the kids come in to see Angie. Ryan testified that he felt that anger again was justified by James. On redirect, the state focused on more clarifying questions. In his interview, Ryan had said James had crossed the threshold. The state wanted to know what that meant, and Ryan told them it was the second month they had made, that they had made any profit on Summerbrook Dental. When asked about the changes that needed to be made at Summerbrook, Ryan said that a lot of

employee changes needed to happen. Angie was just the first one and that there was more spending than there was money coming in. But Ryan said that Angie's departure was amicable. He also said that he did not blame Angie at all for the state of the business. Two more things they wanted to ask. Who hired Caitlin Romero? And Ryan said, quote, we did. And lastly, they shifted to Angie's mental health.

Ryan testified that on the night James confided in him about his marriage. He never said anything about Angie wanting to end her own life. Nor did he ever share anything about that, ever. And then came jury questions. The jury is allowed to ask questions in this trial. They didn't have any until the very end of the day. So finally, and in my opinion, it's one of the most fascinating moments in any trial, the jury questions. One juror wanted to know whether there was an actual contract for James Craig to join Fit to Smile

Dental back in April of 2022, and Ryan confirmed yes, there was. And the salary that had been negotiated and decided on by the practice's partners. Another juror had questions about James' travel schedule, just how often was he around the office? And Ryan said that generally, yes, they were aware of his speaking engagements and travel plans. In fact, based on his early 2023 schedule, James would have only been. been physically in the office, get this, maybe 10 to 12 days out of 60. Ryan didn't sugarcoat it.

That wouldn't be good for business. It was a subtle but pointed insight into just how checked out. James Craig may have already been both at work and possibly in other parts of his life, honestly. And that was the end of the day. That was it. And we all then took time walking out into a giant range. storm. So that and that ends the week. I mean, what an eventful week, though. I mean, I can't believe how many witnesses they got through in just week one of the James Craig trial. Thank you,

everyone. Please let everybody know that we're doing this because I just think this trial is so important for those that don't know about this case because the family, understandably, has been private. Understandably, there isn't a lot of information. We have done an entire backstory, so you can get caught up and understand what is going on. And then we will be back. doing recaps on Monday. Thanks, everyone, and may justice be sort. I knew about investing, but I really didn't know how to go about it. Meet Corey, a wealthfront client.

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