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Ethan Couch, ‘Affluenza’ Teenager, Had Last Party Before Fleeing, Officials Say Ethan Couch, ‘Affluenza’ Teenager, Had Last Party Before Fleeing, Officials Say
(about 3 hours later)
FORT WORTH — Before fleeing to Mexico with his mother to avoid prison, the Texas teenager made famous by the defense that he was too rich and spoiled to take responsibility for killing four people in a drunken-driving accident, had what amounted to a going-away party, law enforcement officials said on Tuesday, hours after the pair were caught. FORT WORTH — The Texas teenager was facing the prospect of a court hearing that could have sent him to jail, so he and his mother held a kind of farewell celebration with friends. Then they got into their black Ford pickup truck and disappeared.
The teenager, Ethan Couch, 18, and his mother, Tonya Couch, 48, were arrested by the Mexican authorities in the resort city of Puerto Vallarta on Monday evening, less than three weeks after they became fugitives. Officials in both countries said that Mr. Couch, who they said had dyed his hair and beard in an attempt at disguise, would be returned to Texas to face justice, though how long that would take remained unclear. They changed their appearances, ditched their identifications and drove deep into Mexico, while law enforcement agencies in two countries searched for them across 1,200 miles.
“We learned through some interviews that what we suspected all along had happened, that they had planned to disappear, that they even had something that was akin to a going-away party before they left town,” Dee Anderson, the Tarrant County sheriff, said at a news conference in Fort Worth. To investigators, he said, the information “meant that what we suspected had happened, that it was carefully planned and timed to get out of the country.” The search ended Monday night with the arrest in Puerto Vallarta of Tonya Couch, 48, and her son, Ethan, 18, the youth made famous by the successful defense that he should not go to prison for killing four people in a drunken-driving accident because he was too rich and spoiled to take responsibility. An arrest warrant was issued in Fort Worth for Mrs. Couch on a charge of hindering apprehension, punishable by two to 10 years in prison.
Mr. Couch was 16 when he killed four pedestrians in a drunken-driving crash near Fort Worth and pleaded guilty to four counts of manslaughter. His case quickly made national headlines twice: When a defense witness testified that he suffered from “affluenza,” too influenced by privilege and his parents’ permissiveness to know right from wrong; and when a judge appeared to accept the argument, and sentenced him to 10 years’ probation, rather than prison. But even after violating his probation and fleeing, and spending weeks as a fugitive and an object of an international manhunt, Mr. Couch still does not face nearly as stiff a penalty, because the probation was imposed and supervised by a juvenile court, officials said.
The sheriff said on Monday that he was not at all surprised that Mr. Couch’s mother had not only helped him flee, but fled with him. It has been clear from the time of the accident, he said, that “there’s just no chance that she will ever think he needs to be punished or held accountable.” Under Texas law, he can be held in a juvenile facility, if the juvenile court keeps control of his case, only until he turns 19 on April 11, said Sharen Wilson, the Tarrant County district attorney. She said that if the case was transferred to an adult court, as her office has suggested, he could be held in an adult jail for up to 120 days as a condition of probation.
“We have now had an arrest warrant issued for Tonya Couch for hindering apprehension,” he added. “I don’t write the law,” she said. “We’re still bound by the original sentence.”
Early this month, a Twitter user posted a six-second video that appeared to show Mr. Couch, barely out of an alcohol rehabilitation program, drinking at a party, and prosecutors began looking into whether he had violated the terms of his probation. But once an adult court oversees his case, she said, any future probation violations could mean years in prison.
Before the video surfaced, prosecutors had already asked the juvenile court that had handled his case to transfer it to adult court, where the penalty for a probation violation could be to spend the rest of his 10-year probation in prison. Sharen Wilson, the Tarrant County district attorney, said that if the case remained in juvenile court, Mr. Couch could not be locked up past his 19th birthday, in April. The Mexican immigration authorities were holding the pair in Guadalajara for being in the country illegally and planned to return them to the United States on a commercial flight, probably on Wednesday or Thursday, said Ricardo Ariel Vera, the representative of those authorities in Jalisco State.
A hearing has been scheduled for Jan. 19 on the request to move the case to adult court, and he could face additional charges for fleeing. His lawyers declined to comment, noting that they have not had a chance to speak with him since his arrest. Photographs taken by the Jalisco State prosecutor’s office showed that Mr. Couch’s blond hair and red beard and mustache had been dyed dark brown, and that his mother’s once-long hair had been cut shorter. Mr. Ariel said neither carried a driver’s license, passport or any other form of identification. And they chose a place that seemed to offer good cover, a seaside resort teeming with tourists from north of the border.
Ms. Wilson and Mr. Anderson both made clear that they viewed Mr. Couch’s recent actions as a chance to make up for what they called the unjustified leniency the court showed him two years ago. And the sheriff adamantly defended the use of extensive resources, from multiple agencies, in an international manhunt for a teenage probation violator. “We were hoping they’d go somewhere where they’d stick out, where two Americans would be unusual,” said Dee Anderson, the sheriff of Tarrant County. “Certainly that wasn’t the case where they went.”
“Go talk to those four families who lost loved ones and who spent Christmas without their loved ones because he decided to drink three times the legal limit of alcohol and drive recklessly and kill four innocent people,” Sheriff Anderson said. “The details of the crime, and then the lack of justice in the sentence, outraged people in this area in a way that I haven’t ever seen people outraged. There was a strong, strong public demand for him to be brought to justice.” They were arrested at the intersection of Colombia and Argentina Streets, three blocks from the beach, in a dowdy section of Puerto Vallarta’s old town far from the luxurious resorts, golf courses and high-rise hotels of the newer section.
He added, “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. I don’t believe that the community and the public wanted anything less than us to use every available means to bring him back.” The nearby building where they lived in a modest second-floor apartment is relatively nondescript: a few small stores, a lunch stand and little of the luxury for which the resort city is known. Residents and area workers in said they believed the two arrived toward the start of December.
Mexican authorities arrested the Couches at 6 p.m. on Monday in Colonia 5 de Diciembre, a neighborhood on the southern end of Puerto Vallarta, according to the Jalisco State prosecutor’s office. State officials said the pair were taken into custody at the intersection of Colombia and Argentina Streets, just three blocks from the beach, in an area teeming with American tourists. The Couches were handed over to Mexico’s National Institute of Migration for being in the country unlawfully, and will be returned to the United States, the Jalisco State prosecutor’s office said. Residents and employees of area stores said the pair kept a low profile. They made no friends, and it was Mrs. Couch who did their shopping for food and other items. Mr. Couch almost never left the apartment, said employees of a nearby store, Loncheria Sebastian.
The office released a photo of Mr. Couch, his blond hair, and red beard and mustache, dyed dark brown. Rosa, an employee of Loncheria Sebastian who declined to give her last name for fear of drawing the authorities’ attention, said she witnessed the arrest of the pair Monday night. “They left their building, and right away a white truck pulled up and carried them away,” she said.
Sheriff Anderson said there was no sign so far that Mr. Couch’s father, who is divorced from his mother, had any role in their flight. “I don’t have any information about anybody assisting,” and it remains unclear whether anyone else knew they intended to flee, he said, but that remains under investigation. Early this month, a Twitter user posted a video that appeared to show Mr. Couch, barely out of an alcohol rehabilitation program, drinking at a party, and prosecutors began looking into whether he had violated probation. Several days later, his probation officer was unable to locate him or his mother, and the juvenile court equivalent of an arrest warrant was issued.
Investigators received helpful information from people who know the Couches, and “dozens and dozens of calls of sightings” of them or their pickup truck, he said. The pair are believed to have driven the truck from the Fort Worth area deep into Mexico, but he would not say whether they still had it with them, or how they supported themselves on the run. The authorities called Mrs. Couch a missing person, but from the beginning they suspected that she had taken her son out of the country. But before they left, Mr. Couch was at another party with his mother that the sheriff called the equivalent of a going-away gathering. 
“He was, at best, looking at a life of exile,” Sheriff Anderson said of Mr. Couch. A hearing has been scheduled for Jan. 19 on the request to move the case to adult court. Mr. Couch’s lawyers declined to comment, noting that they have not had a chance to speak with him since his arrest.
A crucial piece of information indicating that they were in Puerto Vallarta came on Dec. 24, the sheriff said, but he would not elaborate. “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. He grew up in Burleson, near Fort Worth, the city where his father, Fred, owns a sheet metal company. His parents are divorced. Mr. Anderson said that there was no indication his father helped him escape, and that it remained unclear if anyone else knew they intended to flee.
On Saturday, the Marshals Service, through the American Consulate in Guadalajara, the capital of Jalisco State, notified Mexican officials that Mr. Couch and his mother might be in Puerto Vallarta, and asked the local authorities to search for them, Jalisco officials said. But the sheriff said Tuesday that he was not surprised that Tonya Couch not only helped him escape but went with him.
Two years ago, the case crystallized widespread outrage that rich, white defendants like Mr. Couch receive more lenient treatment than poor, minority ones. It has been clear from the time of the initial accident, he said, that “there’s just no chance that she will ever think he needs to be punished or held accountable.
What was striking about Mr. Couch’s defense was that his lawyers argued that he deserved leniency precisely because of his privileged upbringing. On June 15, 2013, Mr. Couch, then 16, and some friends stole beer from a store. They later went for a drive, with Mr. Couch at the wheel. Speeding on a dark country road, the pickup truck he was driving plowed into four pedestrians, killing them, and hit two vehicles before flipping. A teenager who was among Mr. Couch’s passengers and was thrown from the vehicle was left paralyzed with brain damage.
The defense’s “affluenza” argument drew angry reactions, as did the sentence of probation, which included a prohibition on drinking alcohol, and a requirement that he complete a rehabilitation program. A headline on an article about the case in TheWeek.com read, “Being rich is now a get-out-of-jail-free card.” Hours after the accident, Mr. Couch’s blood alcohol level was tested at 0.24, triple the legal limit for an adult. He pleaded guilty to four counts of manslaughter.
The case dates to June 15, 2013, when Mr. Couch and some friends stole beer from a store and later went for a drive with him at the wheel. Speeding on a dark country road outside Burleson, a suburb of Fort Worth, he plowed a pickup truck into four pedestrians, killing all of them, and hit two vehicles before his truck flipped over. A teenager who was among Mr. Couch’s passengers was thrown from the vehicle and was left paralyzed and brain damaged. His case made national headlines twice: The first time was when a psychologist testified for the defense that Mr. Couch had “affluenza” and was too influenced by privilege and his parents’ permissiveness to know right from wrong.
Hours later, Mr. Couch recorded a blood alcohol level of 0.24 percent, three times the legal limit for drivers of drinking age, and he tested positive for prescription sedatives. He later pleaded guilty to charges including four counts of manslaughter. The second was when a judge appeared to accept the argument, handing down a sentence of 10 years’ probation, not prison.
Interest in the case faded, until the Twitter video and Mr. Couch’s flight brought it back to the fore. Investigators received “dozens and dozens of calls of sightings” of them or their pickup truck, the sheriff said.
A crucial piece of information indicating that they were in Puerto Vallarta came Dec. 24, he said, declining to elaborate. On Saturday, the Marshals Service notified Mexican officials and asked the local authorities to search for them.
On Tuesday, the sheriff defended the use of extensive resources to find a teenage probation violator, recalling the anger the accident case had stirred. “Go talk to those four families who lost loved ones and who spent Christmas without their loved ones because he decided to drink three times the legal limit of alcohol and drive recklessly and kill four innocent people,” he said. “The details of the crime, and then the lack of justice in the sentence, outraged people in this area in a way that I haven’t ever seen people outraged.”