He was deported from Mexico on Thursday and taken to a juvenile detention facility in Fort Worth.
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Several of the victims’ family members attended the Friday hearing, including Tim McLaughlin who disagreed with Brown’s statement.
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) – The Texas teenager who used an “affluenza” defense in a fatal drunken-driving wreck won’t be moved to an adult jail as he awaits a hearing to determine whether his case will be transferred to adult court, where he could face time behind bars, a judge ruled Friday.
“Behind every incident are the victims, and this should be their story”, Wilson said.
Two years later, on December 28, Couch and his mother, Tonya Couch, were captured in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, after Tarrant County juvenile authorities issued a directive to apprehend the teen for a possible violation of his probation.
Couch’s mother, Tonya Couch, was quickly deported after she and her son were found in Mexico. But during a brief hearing Friday, Judge Timothy Menikos sided with Couch’s attorneys.
Mexican authorities returned Couch to Texas on Thursday after he dropped his legal fight to remain in that country. They also believe that Couch will be ordered to stay in juvenile jail until the transfer to adult court takes effect on his 19th birthday in April.
During Ethan’s sentencing in the drunken-driving trial, a psychologist hired by the defense testified that the teen was a product of “affluenza” – a term he used to describe Ethan’s irresponsible lifestyle associated with his affluent upbringing.
Investigators believe Couch and his mother fled to Mexico in early December, as Texas prosecutors investigated whether he violated his probation in a 2013 drunken-driving wreck that killed four people.
Couch is serving 10 years’ probation for killing four people in a drunken driving crash in 2013, when he was 16.
Couch arrived at DFW International Airport on Thursday, where Tarrant County sheriff’s deputies greeted him and drove him to the detention center.
Video released Thursday by the Mexican immigration institute showed Couch wearing a bluish camouflage-print hoodie, being escorted out of the detention center before dawn, and being escorted onto the plane by four agents. Prosecutors had sought a 20-year prison term, but the court handed him a surprise sentence of mental health treatment and a decade of probation.
Couch’s hearing, scheduled for February 19, will determine whether proceedings should move from juvenile court to the adult system. She was released on bond after being fitted with an electronic ankle Global Positioning System monitor.
CBS News is reporting that the judge chose to keep Couch in a juvenile facility, even though he is not a juvenile, while they wait for the February hearing that will decide how he is punished from here on out.
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Scott Brown, Couch’s lawyer, said this isn’t the case, and that Ethan Couch is anxious about his future. If it is transferred and Couch violates his probation again, he could face up to 10 years in prison per death.
