Texas ‘affluenza’ teen delays extradition, mother deported from Mexico

After the pair’s capture Monday in the Pacific resort town of Puerto Vallarta, prosecutors said Tuesday they are unsure of the extent to which they may be punished – owing to the complexities of the juvenile and adult court systems in Texas that officials now find themselves navigating.

Tonya Couch is expected to face charges of hindering apprehension, which could carry a sentence of between two and 10 years behind bars, Tarrant County District Attorney Sharen Wilson said.

Couch pleaded guilty to four counts of intoxication manslaughter and two counts of intoxication assault causing serious bodily injury.

The Couches told immigration officials that they entered Mexico through the crossing in Tijuana.

“I would like for him to be held accountable as I’ve said all along”, Anderson said.

It’s tough to explain the legal maze that stands to benefit Ethan Couch in the form of a light punishment for violating his probation. However, the judge in Ethan’s case, Jean Hudson Boyd, accepted the outlandish claim and sentenced the youth to only 10 years probation and rehab for alcohol abuse, even though the prosecution requested 20 years in state prison.

Because they were in Mexico illegally, the prosecutor’s office said, they were turned over to the National Institute of Migration.

In June 2013, a drunken Couch was speeding on a road south of Fort Worth when he crashed into an SUV at the side of the road, killing four people and injuring several others, including passengers in his pick-up truck.

If Couch ends up on adult probation, Wilson said, and violates it as an adult, he could face up to 40 years in jail. “The problem with it was, as you can imagine, Puerto Vallarta at Christmas time, a tremendous amount of tourists down there, so American people were prevalent everywhere, it wouldn’t be somewhere they were going to stick out”, he said.

“Go talk to those four families who lost loved ones and who spent Christmas without their loved ones because he made a decision to drink three times the legal limit of alcohol and drive recklessly and kill four innocent people”, Tarrant County Sheriff Dee Anderson said. He was sentenced to 10 years’ probation, but failed to appear for a mandatory meeting with his probation officer three weeks ago.

During their last days in Puerto Vallarta, Couch and his mother lived in a modest apartment, kept a low profile and at least once used a false name as they tried to stay under the radar, local people and neighbors said.

During Ethan Couch’s trial in juvenile court over the deadly crash in 2013, a psychologist testified on his behalf that he was afflicted with “affluenza”, and that he was so spoiled by his wealth that he could not tell the difference between right and wrong.

A video surfaced in December of Couch attending a beer pong party, a direct violation of his parole. “I don’t have any information about anybody assisting”, and it remains unclear whether anyone else knew they meant to flee, he said, but that remains under investigation.

If the judge declines to transfer Couch to adult court, Wilson will ask that his probation be revoked, in which case he could be held in a juvenile facility until his sentence expires when he turns 19 next April.

“They are going to be sent back to their country, given that they were in Mexico improperly”, Ariel Vera said. Fred Couch is divorced from the mother and owns a successful sheet metal business near Fort Worth.