A Texas judge ordered Wednesday that “affluenza” teen Ethan Couch spend 720 days in jail — nearly two years — as a condition for his continued probation for a 2013 fatal drunken-driving crash.
However, the judge said he’d give the defense two weeks to make an argument against the order.
“Nothing is set in stone, so I might reconsider,” the judge said in a court hearing in the case in Tarrant County, Texas.
Couch disappeared in December, nearly two years into a 10-year probation stemming from the drunken-driving accident in which four people died. His mother also went missing.
They vanished after a video surfaced that appeared to show him at a party where alcohol was being served, a violation of his probation.
Authorities tracked Couch and his mother to Mexico, where they were detained last month. Couch was returned to the United States on January 28.
Couch’s case drew widespread attention after his attorneys argued the accident was partly to blame on what they said were indulgent parents who failed to set limits for the teenager, who was 16 at the time of the fatal crash.
A psychologist who testified on the teen’s behalf described the condition as “affluenza.”
Couch’s mother, Tonya Couch, is facing a separate investigation. She has been charged with hindering her son’s apprehension and is free on $75,000 bond.
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