Texas Supreme Court Denies Affluenza Boy's Appeal
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DALLAS (1080 KRLD) - Affluenza boy Ethan Couch will remain behind bars after the Texas Supreme Court denies his request to have his two-year jail term invalidated.
On Thursday, the Texas Supreme Court denied Couch's appeal to overturn the lower court ruling that sent him to jail.
The now-20-year-old's lawyers filed the appeal, claiming that the case should have been handled in civil court instead of criminal court because it started in the juvenile system.
Criminal Court Judge Wayne Salvant imposed the two-year jail term, six months on each count, as part of his adult probation for killing four people in a drunk driving crash in 2013.
Ethan and his mother, Tonya Couch, famously fled to Mexico in 2015 to avoid punishment after video surfaced of the boy allegedly drinking at a party while he was on probation. Both were eventually apprehended in Puerto Vallarta and returned to the U.S. to face charges.
A child psychologist testified that Couch suffered from "affluenza," the inability to tell right from wrong as a result of his affluent upbringing.
Mothers Against Drunk Driving released the following statement:
MADD would like to thank the thousands of voices who joined us in helping keep Ethan Couch where he belongs – in jail. While MADD is ecstatic that Ethan and his lawyers' ludicrous motion was denied by the Texas Supreme Court, this is far from a victory. This case just highlights that there is much work to be done to hold drunk drivers accountable for their violent acts that senselessly claim more than 10,000 lives every year. We ask the public to continue standing beside us as we work to speak out against these grave injustices and work with our legislators to bring about stronger laws in effort to put a stop to this 100 percent preventable and violent crime."
