A Texas teenager who used an “affluenza” defense in a fatal drunken-driving wreck is facing nearly two years in jail.
The surprising sentence for Ethan Couch, who turned 19 on Monday, came Wednesday after prosecutors convinced state District Judge Wayne Salvant that he could give Couch 180 days for each of the four deaths in the June 2013 wreck.
It was Couch’s first appearance in adult court. Couch was originally sentenced to 10 years’ probation by a juvenile court. He was jail after he fled with his mother, Tonya, to Mexico when a video surfaced online showing Couch apparently at a party where alcohol was being served.
Drinking alcohol is a violation of Couch’s probation. The two were apprehended in Mexico in December and brought back to Texas in January. Couch, who appeared in court on Wednesday, has been in custody since authorities returned him to Texas earlier this year. Expectations before the hearing were that Couch wouldn’t get more than a few months in jail before finishing the rest of his probation.
Read more at JET.
