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 | CNN

A Texas man, weeks away from standing trial for the death of his pregnant wife, showed up in Italy this month with what a US 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 US 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 unclea