Overwhelming Evidence
When Angela reported feeling sick on March 6, 2023, James took her to the hospital. Doctors examined her and ran tests but were scratching their heads as to the root cause of her illness. She ended up in the hospital multiple more times in the following days before being declared braindead. During her short period of intense illness, Angela reportedly texted James, “I feel drugged.” Little did she know that her husband had caused what was ailing her all along.
After Angela was declared braindead, events moved quickly: Her autopsy revealed she had been poisoned, and James was swiftly arrested in connection with her death. He had purchased arsenic and over-the-counter eye drops, and prosecutors argued that he ultimately dosed Angela with cyanide while she was in the hospital. Employees at James’s dental practice had discovered a package of cyanide delivered to the office, which was eventually reported to authorities.
James’s defense attorneys argued that Angela was suicidal and she’d poisoned herself. His affair, the defense argued, was not a motive to kill his wife, as he’d had multiple other affairs in the past. But the evidence of poison purchase plus a bevy of internet searches painted a different picture.
The investigation revealed that James had made numerous searches like, “How to make murder look like a heart attack?" and "Is there such thing as an indetectable poison?" He also searched for how long it takes to die of arsenic poisoning, according to officials.
In addition to his affair with Cain, James reportedly used another site called Seeking, which is used for “sugar dating.” While on a date with one of the women from this site, who later testified for the prosecution during trial, the pair discussed the movie The Purge, which has the central premise of murder without consequences for one day. James reportedly told his date that he would “purge” his wife if the movie’s premise ever became a reality, adding that he knew how to get away with murder by "just injecting somebody in the neck with a substance."
Case Highlights Domestic Violence
By the time James’s case went to trial, Det. Bobbi Olson of the Aurora Police Department’s Homicide Unit was living and breathing it with her partner, Det. Molly Harris. But then, it became more personal. While James was in jail, a fellow inmate, Nathan Harris, reported that James asked him to “source out somebody” to kill Olson.
James said he had a storage unit with a truck, money and a gun, plus instructions for who to contact to get information about Olson’s whereabouts, Olson said in an interview with A&E Crime + Investigation. James was ultimately charged with solicitation to commit murder in the first degree in relation to this plot.
This case was unique in that it took years to investigate, and the mechanism of murder (poison), is relatively uncommon. However, Olson emphasizes that this was a case of domestic violence, and before talking publicly about the case, she and Harris spoke with Angela’s family about raising awareness of the non-physical forms that domestic violence can take.
“When you really look at this case and dig into their text messages and their relationship, you really see 23 years of manipulation,” Olson says. “He's cheating on her—affair after affair after affair—and somehow, some way, he convinces her it's her fault, and she's apologizing.”
Assistant District Attorney Ryan Brackley, a prosecutor on the case, agrees with Olson that the case was unique, especially with poison as the murder weapon.
“You certainly don’t hear about [cyanide and arsenic] being ordered so brazenly,” Brackley tells A&E Crime + Investigation.
During Angela’s hospitalizations, the doctors who were treating her grew emotional and frustrated that they couldn’t find the root cause of her illness and rapidly declining health.
“Some of the doctors later expressed this anger that the murderer was right there, killing their patient right in front of them,” Brackley says of James at his wife’s hospital bedside.
Brackley, like Olson, stresses that at the end of the day, while the case became national news due to the poisoning as an unusual form of murder, James’s actions towards his wife illustrated years of domestic violence coming to a head.
"The case isn't so much about poisoning,” Brackley says. “It's about domestic violence. Angela fought so hard to live, fought so hard for her kids. This wasn't a who-done-it or how-did-it-happen case. It was about putting together evidence that was beyond reasonable doubt."
