Mexico deports mum of fugitive teen back to US

U.S. Marshals brought Couch’s mother through Los Angeles International Airport early Thursday after a flight from Mexico.

“Tonya is now in the custody of California authorities in Los Angeles”.

A teen fugitive who’s known for using an “affluenza” defense in a trial for a deadly drunken-driving wreck is being detained in a Mexico City immigration facility while his mother is jailed in Los Angeles after being deported from Mexico.

Earlier this week, Texas teen Ethan Couch, who infamously used the “affluenza” defence to escape jail time after killing four people while driving drunk, was apprehended in Mexico.

In a photo from the Jalisco State Attorney General’s office, Ethan Couch, who was arrested by authorities in the resort city of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, on December 28, 2015, less than three weeks after he and his mother fled Texas.

“Couch continues to make a mockery of the system”, said Fort Worth attorney Bill Berenson, who represented Sergio Molina, who was paralyzed and suffered severe brain damage in the crash.

On Monday evening, two people matching the Couches’ description were spotted and intercepted.

Hunter said he didn’t know how the Couches were able to contact attorneys in Mexico, but that several lawyers’ names were included on the Mexican legal paperwork.

Tonya Couch faces a two- to 10-year sentence if convicted of hindering apprehension.

A Mexican official says the mother of young US fugitive Ethan Couch has been deported to the United States.

Her son, however, remains in Mexico after his attorneys filed paperwork hoping to fight his extradition to the United Sates, according to Tarrant County, Texas’, sheriff and district attorney.

The mother and son were taken into custody Monday in Mexico, after authorities said a phone call for a pizza delivery led to their capture in the resort city of Puerto Vallarta.

Couch disappeared as authorities investigated whether he had violated the terms of his probation.

Ethan Couch was taken to Mexico City late Wednesday, an official said.

The Couches were later captured at a nearby apartment. They fled there after officials in Tarrant County, Texas, began an investigation into whether Ethan violated the probation deal that kept him out of prison after he killed four people with his pickup truck in 2013.

The stay could delay his return by weeks or months, the official said.

On Thursday, the Los Angeles Police Department confirmed to ABC News that she is in segregation, which means that she is effectively in solitary confinement. The condition is not recognized as a medical diagnosis by the American Psychiatric Association, and its invocation drew ridicule. If prosecutors succeed in having his case transferred to adult court, Couch could then face up to 120 days in an adult jail, followed by 10 years’ probation.

She is being held on no bail at the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles, police said, as they wait for Texas authorities to take her back to their state.

Couch’s attorneys, Scott Brown and Reagan Wynn, said they won’t comment until they speak with him, which likely won’t happen before Couch reaches the U.S.

In 2013, the teen crashed his pickup into a group of pedestrians in Texas and another vehicle, leaving four dead and several seriously injured.

“I think it’s particularly satisfying to families that, indeed, it appears that his mother, Tonya, may have committed a crime and may finally be held accountable as well”, he said.