Inset: Angela Craig (Facebook). Background: James Craig in court (KUSA).
The Colorado dentist facing accusations of murdering his wife through gradual poisoning encountered yet another change in legal representation last week—his second since November—as his new lawyer stepped down after being detained for arson. Reports indicate that he allegedly set fire to his own residence and then waited on the porch for emergency responders.
Robert Werking, 59, is said to have resigned as the legal counsel for accused murderer James Craig on Tuesday. This decision followed his being charged with fourth-degree arson, after allegedly igniting his home late on June 28, according to the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office and South Metro Fire Rescue.
“When deputies arrived at the Caley house fire, they discovered Werking seated on the porch,” ACSO spokesperson Anders Nelson informed Law&Crime on Monday.
Werking’s arrest affidavit and charging documents have been sealed, according to The Denver Post, which cites a motion filed by prosecutors to suppress the information as it could “jeopardize” Craig’s jury trial scheduled to begin on July 10.
“The release at this time of the affidavit could result in disclosure of information that could result in destruction, disposal or secreting evidence and tampering with identified and unidentified witnesses, which could jeopardize the ongoing investigation,” the motion states, per the Post. “Further, release of the information could result in harassment of a witness and jeopardize a jury trial.”
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Werking’s withdrawal marks the second time an attorney has dropped out of the Craig case, with his previous lawyer Harvey Steinberg pulling his hat from the ring in November.
Craig, 46, faces a first-degree murder charge in the March 2023 death of his 43-year-old wife, Angela Craig.
James Craig was arrested days after his wife went to the hospital for severe headaches, the third such visit over nine days, the Aurora Police Department reported.
“Shortly after arriving at the hospital, the wife’s condition deteriorated rapidly, and she was placed on a ventilator in an intensive care unit,” authorities said. She was declared medically brain-dead a short time later.
As Law&Crime reported at the time, the dentist called himself and his wife “the proud parents of six great kids” on his dental practice website. Authorities later alleged that Angela Craig’s mysterious illness and sudden death were caused by poisoned protein shakes, and that her husband was the prime suspect — using his dental profession to order arsenic and potassium cyanide.
An affidavit alleged that James Craig was possibly on the verge of bankruptcy and had been planning a life with another woman in the weeks before he Googled things in February 2023, such as “how many grams of pure arsenic will kill a human” and “Is Arsenic Detectable in Autopsy?”
Steinberg cited two sections of the Colorado Rules of Professional Conduct as reasons for withdrawing in November, the 18th Judicial District Attorney’s Office announced on X. One was that “the client persists in a course of action involving the lawyer’s services that the lawyer reasonably believes is criminal or fraudulent” and the other was that “the client insists upon taking action that the lawyer considers repugnant or with which the lawyer has a fundamental disagreement.”
Craig was accused in June 2023 of soliciting an unidentified family member to tamper with evidence in the case. In April 2024, he was charged with the same offense for allegedly trying to get another person to tamper with evidence as he sat in jail.
Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Deputy John Bartmann told the Denver Post that first responders found Werking on his porch with “active flames behind him” that Saturday night.
His actions were “kind of odd,” according to Bartmann, but police officials would not elaborate on what he did when asked by Law&Crime on Monday.
“This is an ongoing and active investigation,” Nelson said. “Therefore, no further information can be released at this time.”
South Metro Fire Rescue spokesperson Brian Willie told the Post that once the fire was under control, investigators found “some type of incendiary accelerant” and reported it to the authorities. Separately, Werking was also arrested on June 14 and given a ticket for prohibited use of weapons related to aiming a firearm.
The defense lawyer did not respond to requests for comment by Law&Crime.
