LOS ANGELES/MEXICO CITY, (Reuters) – The Texas teenager derided for his “affluenza” defense in a deadly drunken-driving case won a weeks-long in delay in extradition from Mexico, while his mother was in a Los Angeles jail on Thursday after being deported.
A court in Mexico granted fugitive 18-year-old Ethan Couch, who faces likely incarceration in Texas, a stay against deportation following his illegal entry into the country, a Mexican migration official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The stay could delay his return by weeks or months, the official said. The right to appeal against deportation filed by lawyers for the teen after his detention this week was accepted by the court, which will now review his case, the official added.
Ethan and his mother, Tonya Couch, 48, entered the country by land earlier this month, according to Mexican officials, though it was unclear where. The two were arrested on Monday in the Pacific Coast resort city of Puerto Vallarta.
The pair fled south after officials in Tarrant County, Texas, began an investigation into whether Couch violated the probation deal that kept him out of prison after he killed four people with his pickup truck in 2013.
Tonya Couch, who was wanted on a charge of hindering apprehension, was flown out of Mexico to Los Angeles late on Wednesday. She is being held without bail in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles and faces transfer to Texas, said Los Angeles police spokeswoman Jane Kim.
Officials have not announced a date for the move. But Tarrant County Sheriff Dee Anderson said Couch was not expected to be transferred until she is arraigned in California next week.
Couch is due in Los Angeles County Superior Court on Tuesday, Kim said.
A lawyer for Couch did not respond to a request to comment. If convicted of the hindering charge, she could face two to 10 years in prison, Anderson said.
Anderson said when Ethan Couch arrives back in the United States, he would appear at a detention hearing in the juvenile justice system. If found in violation of his probation, as seems likely, the judge could keep him in a juvenile facility or send him to an adult jail, he said.
At this point, he may only face a few months behind bars under the juvenile justice system. But Anderson said county prosecutors are looking at additional charges in the adult system.
