A Texas man accused of killing his pregnant wife fled to Italy weeks before trial. He’s asking a judge not to send him back

Lee Mongerson Gilley appears in Harris County District Court in Houston in Oct. 2024. (Melissa Phillip/Houston Chronicle/Getty Images/File via CNN Newsource)

A Texas man, weeks away from standing trial for the death of his pregnant wife, showed up in Italy this month with what a U.S. criminal complaint says was a fake passport and forged documents. When Italian authorities confronted him, he proclaimed his innocence of the killing and asked them not to send him back.

Lee Gilley, charged with murder in the 2024 deaths of his wife and her unborn child, was arrested by border police in Milan last week, having flown to Italy after American authorities say he cut off his court-ordered GPS ankle monitor in Texas.

He appeared in a courtroom in Turin, Italy, on Monday wearing jeans and a white T-shirt, making his case for asylum in the strongly anti-death penalty country.

Gilley, 39, told the judge he was wrongly accused of his wife’s death. He said he no longer has faith in the U.S. justice system and the only crime he committed was running away to avoid the death penalty in Texas, according to Italian media reports and his lawyer.

The hearing wasn’t an extradition proceeding; it was to validate Gilley’s arrest per Italian law. The court did so Monday, allowing Italy to keep him in jail until an extradition hearing is requested.

It is unclear whether prosecutors in Texas plan to seek the death penalty in Gilley’s case or whether authorities will file for extradition. The Harris County Attorney General’s office declined to comment, citing a May 8 gag order placed on the case by a district court judge after Gilley fled the country.

The death of Christa Gilley

On Oct. 7, 2024, police officers responded to a call around 11:30 p.m. in the affluent Houston neighbourhood of Houston Heights, about 4 miles northwest of downtown. The call was from Gilley, who said his pregnant wife, Christa Gilley, “was non-responsive,” according to court documents.

Houston Fire Department medics transported Christa Gilley to the Memorial Hermann Greater Heights Hospital, but she was pronounced dead about three hours later, according to court documents.

A pathologist with Harris County determined Oct. 9 that Christa Gilley’s cause of death was “compression of the neck and upper back,” and an arrest warrant was issued for her husband two days later, on Oct. 11, 2024.

Gilley’s trial was originally scheduled for May 29, 2026, in Harris County. He was granted a US$1 million bond, according to court records, and released Oct. 17, 2024. A judge ordered that bond be forfeited after Gilley fled to Italy.

CNN has been in touch with an attorney for Lee Gilley but he declined to comment because of the gag order.

Gilley went on the run

Just how Gilley made his way from Texas to Canada, and on to Italy, is unclear. The federal criminal complaint says he landed in Milan on Air Canada Flight 894, which originates in Toronto with a stop in Montreal.

CNN has reached out to the U.S. Marshals Service and Houston Police Department for details, but in the federal complaint calling Gilley “a fugitive wanted for the felony offense of capital murder resulting in the death of Christa Gilley and one unborn child,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas outlines several key dates.

On May 1, Gilley cut off his court-ordered GPS ankle monitor and fled the U.S., according to the complaint.

He landed at Milano Malpensa Airport on May 3 but border police detained him after he presented a forged Belgian passport and other documentation, identifying him as “Lejeune Jean Luc Olivier.”

In Italian custody, Gilley divulged his identity and told authorities there he was awaiting trial in the United States for the murder of his wife.

On May 4, according to the complaint, Interpol informed U.S. authorities that Gilley was in custody in Italy, and the next day, the U.S. Attorney’s Office charged him with interstate flight to avoid prosecution.

Gilley pleads for asylum in Italy

Gilley filed for political asylum in Italy, according to local reports. At Monday’s hearing his lawyer, Monica Grosso, said that even though U.S. prosecutors haven’t said they will pursue the death penalty, the fact that his capital murder trial will be in Texas – now scheduled to begin June 5 – means they could.

Texas executed five people in 2025 and as of May 2026, has executed three people, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

Grosso declined to give CNN a formal statement when contacted Monday in Italy.

A formal extradition treaty between the United States and Italy dates to 1983, but under Italian law, the nation will not extradite people to a country where they face the death penalty.

Grosso cited the more than 30-year-old case of Pietro Venezia, accused of killing a Florida state tax collector in 1993 who had frozen his bank accounts. Venezia, an Italian citizen, fled to Italy and was arrested there, but the Italian Constitutional Court said the U.S.-Italy extradition treaty did not offer enough guarantees Venezia would be spared the death penalty, despite promises by American authorities, the Associated Press reported in 1996.

The wait for a court date for those seeking political asylum in Italy is currently more than four years after formal application, according to the Interior Ministry. The backlog is due to the extraordinary number of irregular migrants who reach the country each year.

It is unclear whether Gilley would be given a fast-track hearing, a spokesperson for the ministry told CNN. Political prisoners, refugees from Gaza, and people coming from active war zones are given priority, the spokesperson said. Double homicide suspects aren’t a common category, she added.

By Chris Boyette, Barbie Latza Nadeau, CNN