A court in Turin, Italy has for now blocked the U.S. government’s request to extradite capital murder suspect Lee Gilley to Harris County, with Italian judges demanding stronger guarantees that Gilley will not face the death penalty if returned to Texas. The order followed a hearing in Turin last week.
Defense attorney Dick DeGuerin told ABC13 on Monday that the Harris County District Attorney’s Office has told him verbally it will not seek the death penalty, but has not filed that position formally with the court. He said Italian authorities are asking for that assurance in writing.
According to DeGuerin, U.S. officials now have until Aug. 31 to submit additional documentation to Italian authorities, with the next extradition hearing set for Sept. 7. DeGuerin called the case unprecedented in his decades of practicing law, saying the delay has complicated trial preparation.
Gilley, 39, had been out on a $1 million bond for capital murder since October 2024, when he was accused of murdering his pregnant wife, Christa Bauer, at their home in the Heights. He was required to wear a GPS ankle monitor and was barred from leaving Texas without notifying the court.
In May, he cut off the monitor and flew to Italy using a fake name and forged documents before he was caught by authorities at the Milan airport.
In a sworn declaration supporting the extradition request, prosecutors with the U.S. Department of Justice and the Harris County District Attorney’s Office stated that the penalty for capital murder in Texas is death or life without parole, and noted the DA’s Office has not sought the death penalty in this case, meaning a conviction would carry an automatic life sentence without parole. But records show that in a late June email to DeGuerin, prosecutor Janna Oswald wrote that her office would not file anything with the Texas court stating it is waiving the death penalty, saying that is not something her office does in other cases either.
Italian judges cited that email directly in their order, writing that its wording suggests the DA’s Office has not definitively ruled out capital punishment and that the earlier sworn statement only confirmed the penalty had not yet been sought, not that it could not be sought later.
The Italian court also asked the U.S. government to confirm the Oswald email is authentic, explain how compliance with a no death penalty condition could be guaranteed, and clarify whether Gilley could be convicted of a lesser charge carrying a lesser sentence, since Italy’s own maximum sentence under its legal system tops out around 26 years.
Judges additionally asked whether prosecutors intend to keep the multiple murder charge in place and whether there is any path to release for someone sentenced to life without parole.
The dispute traces back to a July 15 hearing in Turin, where Gilley’s Italian attorney, Monica Grosso, argued that Texas had never provided a formal written death penalty waiver, only an embassy note offering assurances. Italian Deputy Attorney General Marina Nuccio argued in favor of approving the extradition.
The Turin Court of Appeal reserved its decision at that time, with the option to rule within six months.
