The Colorado dentist accused of slowly poisoning his wife experienced another lawyer shakeup last week, his second since November, when his new attorney withdrew from the case after being arrested for arson, with cops claiming he burned down his own house and then sat on his porch waiting for firefighters to arrive.
Robert Werking, 59, reportedly resigned as counsel for murder defendant James Craig on Tuesday after being charged with fourth-degree arson for allegedly setting fire to his home shortly before midnight on June 28, according to the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office and South Metro Fire Rescue.
“When deputies arrived at the house fire on Caley, they found Werking sitting on the porch,” ACSO spokesperson Anders Nelson told Law&Crime Monday.
Werking’s arrest affidavit and charging documents have been sealed, according to The Denver Post, citing a motion filed by prosecutors to suppress the information because it could “jeopardize” Craig’s jury trial, which is set 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 warns, according to the Post. “Further, release of the information could result in harassment of a witness and jeopardize a jury trial.”
Werking’s withdrawal marks the second time an attorney has dropped out of the Craig case, following Harvey Steinberg’s departure in November.
Craig, 46, is charged with first-degree murder in the March 2023 death of his 43-year-old wife, Angela Craig.
James Craig was arrested days after his wife visited the hospital for severe headaches, the third time in nine days, according to the Aurora Police Department.
“Shortly after arriving at the hospital, the wife’s condition deteriorated rapidly, and she was placed on a ventilator in an intensive care unit,” investigators said. She was declared medically brain-dead shortly afterward.
As Law&Crime reported at the time, the dentist referred to himself and his wife as “the proud parents of six great kids” on his dental practice website.
Authorities later claimed that Angela Craig’s mysterious illness and sudden death were caused by poisoned protein shakes, and that her husband was the primary suspect, using his dental profession to order arsenic and potassium cyanide.
According to an affidavit, James Craig was possibly on the verge of bankruptcy and had been planning a life with another woman in the weeks preceding his Google searches in February 2023, such as “how many grams of pure arsenic will kill a human” and “Is Arsenic Detectable in Autopsy?”
The 18th Judicial District Attorney’s Office announced on X that Steinberg withdrew in November due to two sections of the Colorado Rules of Professional Conduct.
One was when “the client persists in a course of action involving the lawyer’s services that the lawyer reasonably believes is criminal or fraudulent” whereas the other claim was that “the client insists upon taking action that the lawyer considers repugnant or with which the lawyer has a fundamental disagreement.”
Craig was charged in June 2023 with soliciting an unidentified family member to tamper with evidence in the case. In April 2024, he was charged with the same offense for allegedly attempting to persuade another person to tamper with evidence while in jail.
According to Arapahoe County Sheriff Deputy John Bartmann, first responders discovered Werking on his porch with “active flames behind him” on Saturday night.
His actions were “kind of odd,” according to Bartmann, but police officials declined to elaborate when asked by Law&Crime on Monday.
“This is an ongoing and active investigation,” Nelson explained. “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 out, investigators discovered “some type of incendiary accelerant” and reported it to authorities. Werking was also arrested on June 14 and issued a ticket for prohibited use of weapons while aiming a firearm.
