A dentist who poisoned his wife's protein shakes before giving her a fatal dose of cyanide while she was in hospital has been jailed for life.
Weeks before his wife of 23 years, Angela, had died in hospital, James Craig, from Colorado in the US, had searched online "how to make murder look like a heart attack", jurors in his trial at the Arapahoe County Justice Center heard.
The court heard that the 45-year-old man had also searched "Is arsenic detectable in an autopsy?" on a computer in his Colorado dental practice.
Prosecutors in the trial said the dentist had poisoned the mother of his six children over a 10-day period in the month of her death.
But, when the attempts failed, prosecutors alleged the dentist gave Angela a final dose of cyanide while she was in a Denver hospital with symptoms which confused doctors.
His wife was declared brain dead a short time later, on what was her third trip to hospital after the poisonings.
Denver Police established an investigation of Craig after his dental practice partner and friend told a nurse that he had ordered potassium cyanide, which wasn't needed for their work.
The dentist was convicted of first-degree murder and several other charges by a jury on Wednesday.
AURORA POLICE COLORADO
|James Craig was sentenced to life without parole
District Judge Shay Whitaker sentenced Craig to life without parole.
It is the mandatory sentence for the charge in Colorado.
The jury rejected the dentist's claim that he helped his wife kill herself after saying he wanted a divorce for his repeated extramarital affairs.
During the trial, his daughter Miriam Merservy cried when declaring how much she missed being able to speak to her mother and that she felt betrayed by Craig.
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|Craig in court
"I was supposed to be able to trust my dad; he was supposed to be my hero, and instead, he'll forever be the villain in my book," she said as her father appeared to shake.
Craig's son Toliver admitted he and his mother didn't always get along - he set an alarm every night at 10pm, which still goes off, which says "Mom".
"I'm sad there's not more time with her," he said.
The dentist did not testify during his two-week trial and declined to make a statement before his sentence.
The indicated that toxicology test results found Angela had died of poisoning from cyanide and tetrahydrozoline - an ingredient regularly found in over-the-counter eye drops.
Prosecutors alleged Craig wanted to kill Angela to get out of their marriage, and a divorce would have seen him lose money and image.
The prosecutors added that images from a hospital security camera, showed in court, Craig holding a syringe before entering his wife's room.
After giving her the fatal dose, Craig walked out of the room and texted a fellow dentist he was having an affair with, Senior Chief Deputy District Attorney Michael Mauro told the court on Tuesday.
Angela's condition quickly worsened, and speaking after sentencing, Mauro said the dentist clearly wanted to get out of his marriage and gave in to "greed and cowardice" with murder.
"The jury said it loudly: Angela was not suicidal. She had no knowledge of or participation in what happened to her," the prosecutor said.