"Affluenza" teen Ethan Couch sentenced to 720 days in jail for 2013 drunk-driving killings

Judge Wayne Salvant told Couch, "you're not getting out of jail today"

Published April 13, 2016 5:14PM (EDT)

  (Reuters/Fiscalia General del Estado de Jalisco)
(Reuters/Fiscalia General del Estado de Jalisco)

The infamous "affluenza" teen, Ethan Couch, was sentenced to a 720-day jail term for killing four other teens in a 2013 drunk-driving accident.

"You're not getting out of jail today," State District Judge Wayne Salvant told Couch, who turned 19 on Monday. He was sentenced to four consecutive 180-day terms -- one for each of the lives the then-sixteen-year-old was responsible for ending.

During his trial, his defense team offered "expert" testimony from a psychologist who claimed that Couch's parents pampered him so much he suffered from "affluenza," a disease not recognized by the American Psychiatric Association.

He was initially sentenced to 10 years probation, one condition of which is that he not attend functions in which alcohol was served. However, in December, video appeared online that showed the teen at a party where alcohol was being served. Couch and his mother, Tonya, fled to Mexico -- but were eventually apprehended and brought back to Texas.

His mother faces up to 10 years in prison for her role in helping Ethan evade authorities.


By Scott Eric Kaufman

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Affluenza Drunk Driving Ethan Couch Nbc News