A juvenile-court equivalent of an arrest warrant has been issued for a teenager who killed four people in a 2013 drunken-driving wreck near Fort Worth, then claimed as part of his defense that he suffered from "affluenza."
Ethan Couch's attorneys told KXAS-TV of Fort Worth-Dallas that a judge has issued "a directive to apprehend" Couch after a juvenile probation officer was unable to contact 19-year-old Couch or his mother, with whom he was living.
A video posted to Twitter this month allegedly shows Couch at a party with alcohol. (Video via KTVT)
"The key to the whole thing is, did he violate a term or condition of his probation?" an attorney unaffiliated with the case told KTVT.
Those terms have not been disclosed because Couch was a minor at the time of his trial. A judge has ordered him detained, and he could face 10 years in prison if found guilty of violating his probation.
Couch was 16 when he drunkenly rammed a pickup truck into a crowd of people, killing four. Two years ago, he was given 10 years' probation after his attorneys asserted Couch's wealthy parents coddled him into irresponsibility. Prosecutors wanted a maximum sentence of 20 years in state custody.
