The Couches were arrested by Mexican authorities in the resort city of Puerto Vallarta on Monday evening, about three weeks after they became fugitives.
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Couch had been ordered to stay away from drugs and alcohol for the duration of his sentence probation.
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The teen was recently seen in a video at a party, and is suspected to have fled the country with the help of his mother to avoid jail time that could be connected to breaking the terms of his parole.
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The district attorney’s office has long warned that Couch could face jail time if he violated the terms of his probation.
Couch and his 48-year-old mother disappeared earlier this month, prompting officials in Tarrant County, to issue a warrant for his arrest.
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Mexico’s Jalisco state prosecutors’ office said its agents had been working with American authorities since December 26 to track down and capture Couch and his mother.
Ricardo Ariel Vera, the representative of Mexico’s immigration institute in the western state of Jalisco, said the mother and son were being held at immigration offices in the state capital, Guadalajara, and would be returned to the United States aboard a commercial flight to Houston sometime Tuesday. He said the two did not register when entering Mexico and it was not clear where they came in.
“Their wish is o return to the state of Texas”.
“He has not been held accountable yet”, Tarrant County Sheriff Dee Anderson said Tuesday, voicing his frustration at the system during a news conference. “They even had something that was nearly akin to a going-away party before they left town”.
The U.S. Marshal’s office said they likely will be “expelled” from Mexico, but would not say how or when the pair will get back to the U.S.
Ethan and Tonya Couch met with USA consular officials and underwent a routine medial checkup, Vera said.
Families of the people killed by Couch were relieved that the teen and his mother had been captured, attorney Todd Clement said. She was led with hands behind her head by a man in plainclothes to a white pickup truck in front of a modest four-story building where the pair were reportedly staying. “She will be arrested and brought to our jail upon arrival back in the States”, Anderson said.
She also recalled an exchange with the mother last week as she sat outside her home on the sidewalk across the street.
“Our understanding is that they did drive the truck down there”, Anderson said.
Anderson has theorized that the “beer pong episode” – Couch being shown on Twitter apparently at a party cheering a goof playing the drinking game – might have put him on the run. The sheriff said the darker hair suggested Couch was trying to change his appearance.
Tonya Couch is expected to face charges of hindering apprehension, which could carry a sentence of between two and 10 years behind bars, Tarrant County District Attorney Sharen Wilson said.
The judge who hears the case “will throw the book at him, but the book is only a few more months because he turns 19”, said Larry Seidlin, a former state court and juvenile court judge in Florida.
Prosecutors had sought 20 years in prison for Couch, but the court handed him a surprise sentence of mental-health treatment and a decade of probation.
The U.S. Marshals Service tracked Couch to Mexico using electronic surveillance, including tracking a cell phone believed to be linked to him, an official briefed on the investigation told CNN. But since this violation happened in the juvenile system, Couch effectively would start with a clean slate in the adult probation system.
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“Every time you add a layer of risk that someone will detect misconduct, I think you increase the chances that misconduct [in the justice system] will be reduced”, Filler says.
