The case against a former Aurora dentist accused of poisoning his wife in March 2023 has grown darker.

In motions filed last month, prosecutors revealed text messages between James Craig, 45, and a woman they referred to as his “mistress” as “the most damning evidence” against the father of six so far.

Craig is accused of first-degree murder, among other charges, in the high-profile alleged murder of his wife, Angela Craig. The case has received national media attention.

According to court documents, in the months leading up to Mrs. Craig’s death, her husband asked a woman with whom he appeared to be romantically involved to help him kill her.

On Feb. 2, 2023, he wrote Carrie Hageseth: “Do you know anyone who can help me with my problem down here? I can pay handsomely. I want to be with you.”

The next day, Craig suggested that “hitting up a homeless person actually sounds like the only choice right now.” He added: “I feel so trapped,” according to court documents.

The Google text message conversations between James Craig and Hageseth were found by Aurora Police Det. Bobbi Jo Olson this past February. They started Jan. 14, 2023, and ended a month later.

In the numerous text message exchanges, Craig described himself as being “not suicidal” and “frustrated,” but he never mentioned his wife’s name, according to the documents obtained by The Denver Gazette.

Craig told Hageseth he had plenty of money and knew that she needed cash to raise her children, according to the prosecution’s motion.

“I feel completely stuck and hopeless and helpless, especially when I think about how you can’t feed your kids, and you are on the brink of homelessness. I hate that!”

Hageseth was approached Feb. 21, 2024 by Olson and a Fort Collins police officer whom she trusted after attending a hearing of her own in Larimer County.

She interviewed with them that day at the courthouse and at the Fort Collins police station, according to a defense motion which accused investigators of coercing the interrogations and unlawfully downloading her cellphone information.

During the four-hour police station interview, Hageseth said that at first James Craig joked with her, which she liked, but then in late November or early December of 2022, he started talking about how he “wanted to get rid” of his wife by injecting an untraceable substance “with potassium in its name,” according to the prosecution’s motion.

In the texts, he repeatedly referred to “his problem.” On Valentine’s Day 2023, he wrote Hageseth four times asking for help and maintained “It should NOT be this hard!” On Feb. 15, 2023, he wrote, “I want to bless your life.”

Hageseth told investigators that Craig had several phone numbers, including Google Voice numbers, and brought up killing his wife “at least five times,” the motion stated, and mentioned that Craig had bought a car for her daughter.

Eighteenth Judicial District Attorney John Kellner denied that the interviews were coerced, noting in his motion that Hageseth spoke with detectives voluntarily.

Angela Craig’s untimely death

Mrs. Craig died in in the Spring of 2023 at University Hospital after multiple visits to emergency rooms complaining of everything from dizziness and vertigo to lightheadedness.

March 15, Mrs. Craig entered the ER, collapsed, was put on a ventilator and was pronounced brain dead that night. She was taken off life support March 18.

The probable cause hearing revealed that Angela Craig had high levels of two chemicals, tetrahydrozoline and cyanide, in her body. Arapahoe County Coroner Kelly Lear, who performed the autopsy, testified that Craig had more than 400 times the amount of tetrahydrozoline in her body than a therapeutic dose.

Tetrahydrozoline is the chemical found in Visine eyedrops. It’s the chemical, Lear explained, that “gets the red out.”

The affidavit reported that James Craig’s dental business was spiraling downward. He told friends that his wife was suicidal and that it was her who asked him to buy the poison so that she could either take her own life or to “engage in a suicidal game of chicken to keep him from divorcing her,” prosecution motions revealed.

Prosecutors maintain that Hageseth was not Craig’s only mistress. He was also starting up a relationship with a Texas orthodontist who was actually in Colorado during one of Mrs. Craig’s hospitalizations, according to the arrest affidavit.

Mrs. Craig’s family, the couple’s children, and family friends have been in the courtroom and also listen virtually to every hearing.

Deep fake video

In another twist to the alleged crime, prosecutors noted in their motion that James Craig tried to get the family member of a fellow inmate to create a “deep fake video” which would show a rendered image of Angela Craig asking her husband to buy her poison. The video, Craig said, must be stamped Feb. 27, 2023.

Feb. 27, 2023 was the day Craig first began his research into poisons and ordered oleander on a work computer in an exam room at his office, according to the arrest document.

New attorney

In other case developments, Craig fired his attorneys, Andrew Ho, Liz Delay and John Beller of Recht Kornfeld and on May 24 hired longtime Denver criminal defense attorney Harvey Steinberg to represent him.

Steinberg did not return a request for comment in a case which has been troublesome for the defense based on the evidence prosecutors have collected.

Craig is scheduled to appear at a hearing Wednesday afternoon in Arapahoe County court. His two-week trial is scheduled for Aug. 8, 2024.