Tonya Couch landed in Los Angeles early Thursday in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service.
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NBC News has not independently confirmed a gun was found. The Tarrant County, Texas, District Attorney’s office told NBC News it is looking into the report of a gun. Both were taken into custody Monday after authorities said a phone call for pizza led to their capture in the resort city of Puerto Vallarta.
Tonya Couch is seen in an undated handout picture released by the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Offic …
Tonya Couch, who is accused of helping her son Ethan flee the U.S.to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, was captured with the 18-year-old.
It was unclear why she was taken to Los Angeles instead of Texas, where she and her son live and where he was on probation for the 2013 crash.
Tonya Couch was picked up in Mexico alongside her son Ethan on Monday and she was deported to California on Wednesday. If found in violation of his probation, as seems likely, the judge could keep him in a juvenile facility or send him to an adult jail, he said.
Couch, who was 16 at the time of the crash, infamously was given a slap-on-the-wrist punishment of 10 years’ probation after claiming he suffered from “affluenza” – the alleged inability to understand the consequences of his actions because of his privileged upbringing.
@SheriffAnderson: Is anyone surprised the Couch duo are putting up legal fight to not return and face justice? “She looks forward to being returned to Texas as quickly as possible”.
The appeal filed in Mexico on behalf of Ethan Couch argues that deportation would violate his rights.
The wealthy young American will share an open room with three other migrants at a facility known as Las Agujas, the migration official said. Mexican authorities said they had been working with the U.S. Marshals Service since December 24 to locate the pair.
Castillo reported from Mexico City.
Hunter said the Couches were taken into immigration custody and the agent determined they were subject to deportation.
Ethan Couch’s attorneys in the USA issued a statement Wednesday saying they couldn’t comment on the case because they weren’t licensed to practice law in Mexico.
“It also depends on the fact the Couches have legal counsel”, Hunter said. Couch was facing changes to the terms of his 10-year probation sentence after he killed four pedestrians while driving drunk; his “affluenza” defense made national headlines.
Couch and his mother fled from the United States earlier this month after a video surfaced online that apparently showed Ethan Couch at a party where beer was being consumed.
This story has been corrected with the proper spelling of Couch’s last name.
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Ethan Couch’s case would now be subject to immigration proceedings because he entered the country illegally, but he would ultimately not be able to stay in the country, said the Mexican official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. He pleaded guilty to four counts of intoxication manslaughter and two counts of intoxication assault causing serious bodily injury and was sentenced to 10 years’ probation. She has been charged in Tarrant County with hindering an apprehension, a felony charge that carries a two- to 10-year prison sentence, and is being held on a $1 million bond.
