‘Affluenza’ Teen And His Mother Detained In Mexico

Mexican authorities worked with American agents to find and detain Couch, and he has been handed to immigration officials for deportation to the United States. The change would extend his time on probation.

Investigators believe the teen was spooked after video surfaced that appears to show him at a party with alcohol. The U.S. Marshals found the two in Mexico, and worked with Mexican agencies to apprehend them.

An official said earlier than the two would be flown back to Texas on Tuesday, but later the official said there were no seats available on commercial flights and the pair would be returned on Wednesday.

On Tuesday the Tarrant County, Texas sherrif’s department said it had yet to be proven if Couch is the person who appears in the video.

“I personally felt like justice was denied at the first juncture, and I had everything possible invested in this to get him back and I’m not apologizing for it”, Anderson said.

Anderson said there was no sign so far that Couch’s father, who is divorced from his mother, had any role in their flight.

“We learned that they had planned to disappear, that they even had something that was nearly akin to a going away party before they left town”. Tarrant County District Attorney Sharen Wilson said that at a hearing next month she plans to ask a judge to transfer Ethan Couch’s case to adult court.

Ethan Couch was sentenced as a juvenile and violated his probation as ordered by the juvenile court system.

“We don’t seem to value the loss of life when it’s caused by people drinking and driving”, says Goldkind. Wilson said she wants to move Couch’s case to adult court, where the punishment could be more severe.

She was convicted of a misdemeanor charge of reckless driving in 2013 and was sentenced to six months probation, court records show. “That judge at that time thought it was in the best interest of the child”.

“I don’t remember”, she said.

Drinking would be considered a violation of Couch’s probation, which if revoked could result in the teen being sentenced to up to 10 years in prison.

Clement said it is not surprising that Tonya would help her son flee to Mexico.

Jordan couldn’t immediately be reached for comment by The Associated Press. An official told CNN Tuesday that U.S. Marshals tracked him to Puerto Vallarta by tracing his cellphone usage.

His mother was later declared missing.

State District Judge Jean Boyd, who is now retired, sentenced Couch to probation on four counts of intoxication manslaughter in December 2013.

“It also depends on the fact the Couches have legal counsel”.

(Courtesy of Jalisco state prosecutor’s office).

Couch’s attorneys released a statement prior to the law enforcement press conference saying they have not yet heard from the Couches.

“There can be no doubt that he will be in another courthouse one day blaming the lenient treatment he received here”, Alpert said. Although lawyers in the case did not specifically use “affluenza” as Couch’s defense, Miller used the term in his testimony as a paid witness for the defense.

So in essence because he was never told “no” by his parents, he was too spoiled to know right from wrong.

In the fatal accident, Couch, then 16, was speeding and had a blood-alcohol level of almost three times the legal limit when he lost control of his pickup truck and fatally struck a stranded motorist on the side of the road and three people who had stopped to help.