In December of 2013, Ethan Couch changed the lives of several families forever. The 16 year old boy was under the influence of alcohol (as well as several other drugs) when he decided it was a great idea to drive. On a joyride with his friends to pick up some more alcohol, Couch was driving 70 miles per hour in a designated 40 miles per hour area. Not only was he speeding, but he wasn’t even old enough to be behind the wheel of a car with alcohol in his system. His blood alcohol level was at 0.24, nearly *three times* the legal limit in Texas.
It was during that short drive that Couch struck and killed four people and seriously injured another two.
Two of them, Hollie and Shelby Boyles, were a mother and daughter who had stepped outside of their property to help Breanna Mitchell fix her flat tire. Also there to assist was Brian Jennings, a local youth pastor who had been driving by.
Ethan Couch was charged with four counts of intoxication manslaughter. Intoxication manslaughter is the legal term used to define when the defendant has recklessly killed another person while intoxicated. This is a crime unique to Texas’s manslaughter laws.
In juvenile court, where this case was tried, Couch’s attorneys took a stance that still baffles many after these several years: they blamed his parents, citing the cause of the accident as “affluenza”. Affluenza, defined as a psychological malaise supposedly affecting wealthy young people, apparently leads to a lack of motivation, guilt, and compassion. According to the defense’s prime witness, a psychologist, Couch’s parents gave him too much privilege, including drinking at an early age, brought on by their excessive wealth.
The judge on the case, Jean Hudson Boyd, agreed with the psychologist’s conclusion that Ethan required help, so instead of sentencing him to the minimum of twenty years in prison for manslaughter, he was sent o a rehabilitation facility and put on ten years probation. This means no drugs, no alcohol, and no driving, or else he could face prison time.
In December, Couch and his mother got into a sticky situation when they fled to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. This occurred after videos of him drinking alcohol, an offense that would break his terms of probation and send him to prison, surfaced on the internet. He then missed a mandatory probation meeting and the manhunt began, ending with he and his mother being taken into custody. His mother was charged with hindering the apprehension of a criminal, which carries a sentence of two to ten years in prison.
Now 19, Ethan Couch has spent time in his cushy rehab facility. District Judge Timothy Menikos ordered in February of 2016 that the case should be turned over to adult court (after he turned 19 in April). At that point, a judge will decide the terms of his probation and whether he will spend a minimum of 120 days in jail (with 180 as the maximum).