‘Affluenza’ teen gets 2 years in jail

FORT WORTH, Texas – Ethan Couch, the “affluenza” teen who killed four people in a drunken driving crash in 2013, was given four consecutive 180-day jail sentences by a judge Wednesday.

“You’re not getting out of jail today,” Judge Wayne Salvant told Couch at his first court appearance as an adult. Couch turned 19 Monday.

Salvant says he’ll reconvene with attorneys in two weeks to possibly reconsider the decision.

Couch has been in Tarrant County Jail’s maximum-security facility since Feb. 5, when he was returned to the U.S. after fleeing to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

“We’re much more concerned someone would hurt him,” as opposed to Couch harming anyone, Sheriff Dee Anderson said Wednesday. He said the jail has had “zero issues” with Couch.

“I do believe Ethan Couch is not the same person he was when he came to jail,” Anderson said. “This time he’s spent, it’s a rude awakening for anyone.”

The latest chapter in the case of the “affluenza” teen began on Dec. 2, when a video surfaced showing someone who looked like Couch at a beer pong party, which could have violated his probation. On Dec. 3, Couch’s probation officer asked him to come in for a drug test but he did not respond and did not appear for a scheduled meeting with the probation officer on Dec. 10, according to an arrest warrant affidavit.

Authorities found Couch and his mother, Tonya, in Puerto Vallarta on Dec. 28.

Judge Tim Menikos, who took over Couch’s juvenile case when Boyd retired, transferred Couch to adult jail. He had been in juvenile detention since Jan. 28, when he was returned to Fort Worth after evading authorities for more than a month in Mexico.

Couch became known as the “affluenza” teen because a witness at his trial testified he didn’t know right from wrong as a result of his wealthy upbringing.

Before he violated his juvenile probation and fled to Mexico, Couch received about $200,000 in “residential care and support” for more than a year, with the state picking up most of the tab, according to costs outlined in court documents made available this week.

He spent stints at facilities in Vernon and Amarillo from February 2014 through February 2015.

Tonya Couch faces a third-degree felony charge of hindering the apprehension of a felon. She was fitted with an ankle monitor and released on bond Jan. 12. She has not been indicted.