Sheriff: Mom plotted 'affluenza' teen's escape
FORT WORTH, Texas — The mom of a Texas teen caught Monday in Mexico after spurring an international manhunt planned their departure down to the going-away party before they fled, said the sheriff who was determined to find them.
Ethan Couch, known for invoking an "affluenza" defense after he killed four people in a 2013 drunken-driving crash, had been missing officially since Dec. 10 when he failed to show up for a mandatory meeting with his probation officer. But Tarrant County Sheriff Dee Anderson said Tuesday he believes that Couch, now 18, actually fled in late November with his mother after a video surfaced showing him at a party that included alcohol.
"They had planned to disappear," Anderson said. "To be honest, we're going to breathe a lot easier when they're back in this country."
Couch's mother, Tonya Couch, knew that drinking was a violation of her son's probation, Anderson said. But what the 48-year-old did after learning about the video could earn her two to 10 years of her own prison term on charges of hindering apprehension.
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The sheriff is asking that a warrant be issued for Tonya Couch's arrest.
Sharen Wilson, Tarrant County district attorney, is asking that Ethan Couch's case be transferred to adult court. Ethan Couch then would face up to 120 days in an adult jail, followed by 10 years of probation.
If he violates that probation, he could face up to 10 years in prison per death, she said. If a judge declines to transfer Ethan Couch to adult court, Wilson will ask that his probation be revoked, sending him into juvenile custody until his sentence expires when he turns 19 in April.
Authorities said they have no evidence Ethan Couch's father was involved. The teen's parents have been divorced since 2007.
Ethan and Tonya Couch had a party in late November, fled across the Mexican border in her pickup truck and drove to Puerto Vallarta, Anderson said. Sometime before they were apprehended in the Pacific Coast resort city at around 6 p.m. CT Monday, the teen dyed his strawberry blond hair a dark brown, and his mother cut her tresses shorter than photos that the U.S. Marshals Office were using as in their wanted poster.
Mexico’s Jalisco state prosecutors’ office said in a statement that its agents had been working with American authorities via the U.S. Consulate in Guadalajara since Saturday to track down and capture the pair. After their detention, they were handed over to Mexican immigration authorities for deportation.
Initially, the two were to return Tuesday on a commercial flight to Houston. But because no seats were available, they'll now be flying sometime Wednesday.
“They are going to be sent back to their country, given that they were in Mexico improperly,” said Ricardo Ariel Vera, a representative with Mexico's immigration institute in the state of Jalisco. “They would have had to enter, for example, as tourists. But they entered without registering.”
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The pair were found in a Puerto Vallarta neighborhood away from its tourist area.
The teen's lawyers, Scott Brown and Wm. Reagan Wynn, said they haven't been in contact with their client and probably won't get to speak with him until he is back in the USA.
In June 2013, Ethan Couch, then living in the Fort Worth suburb of Burleson, was driving drunk and speeding on a dark two-lane road south of the city when he crashed into a disabled SUV off to the side, killing four people and injuring several others, including passengers in the then-16-year-old's pickup.
He pleaded guilty to four counts of intoxication manslaughter and two counts of intoxication assault causing serious bodily injury. Because of his age, he wasn’t certified as an adult for trial and a judge sentenced him in juvenile court to 10 years’ probation and a stint in a rehabilitation center.
The case gained worldwide notoriety when the child's lawyers claimed that their client suffered from "affluenza" after his well-to-do parents shielded him from the consequences of his actions.
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During the sentencing phase of his trial, Ethan Couch’s lawyers relied on a defense expert who argued that the teen's wealthy parents coddled him into a sense of irresponsibility — a condition the expert termed “affluenza.” The condition is not recognized as a medical diagnosis by the American Psychiatric Association, and the term drew widespread ridicule when it was employed.
Anderson was among those critical of the judge’s decision not to incarcerate Ethan Couch. The sheriff said that the teen never had expressed remorse for his actions and that his case sparked more outrage than any other the sheriff had encountered in his law-enforcement career.
Contributing: Todd Unger and Jordan Armstrong, WFAA-TV, Dallas-Fort Worth; The Associated Press
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