Ethan Couch
| Ethan Couch | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Ethan Anthony Couch April 11, 1997 Tarrant County, Texas, United States |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Employee at sheet metal business |
| Known for | The "affluenza" defense |
| Criminal charge | Intoxication manslaughter |
| Criminal penalty | Initially 10 years probation. Upon legally reaching adulthood, 720 days in jail as probation condition. |
| Parent(s) | Tonya Couch (mother) Fred Couch (father) |
Ethan Anthony Couch (born April 11, 1997) is an American man who killed four people while driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs on June 15, 2013, in Burleson, Texas. He was intoxicated, driving on a restricted license and speeding in a residential area when he lost control, colliding with a group of people assisting another driver with a disabled SUV. Four people were killed in the collision and a total of nine people were injured. Two passengers in Couch's truck suffered serious bodily injury, one with complete paralysis.
Couch was indicted on four counts of intoxication manslaughter for recklessly driving under the influence. In December 2013, Judge Jean Hudson Boyd sentenced Couch to ten years of probation and subsequently ordered him to therapy at a long-term in-patient facility, after his attorneys argued that the teen had affluenza and needed rehabilitation instead of prison. Couch's sentence, believed by many to be incredibly lenient, set off what The New York Times called "an emotional, angry debate that has stretched far beyond the North Texas suburbs".
Couch became the subject of a manhunt and was listed in the National Fugitive Database on December 11, 2015, after his probation officer was unable to contact him. On December 28, 2015, authorities detained Couch and his mother in the Mexican resort city of Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco. On April 13, 2016, he was sentenced to serve two years in prison.
Couch's parents were married in Johnson County, Texas in 1996, and divorced in 2007. He grew up in Burleson and previously attended Anderson Private School.
Couch drove himself to school at the age of thirteen. When the head of the school questioned that practice, his father threatened to buy the school. Couch withdrew from Anderson and began attending a co-op based in Watauga, Texas. At 15 he stopped attending that program. Before the incident he was enrolled in a community college.
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