Ethan Couch: 'Affluenza' teen to make first court appearance after deportation from Mexico

The teenager was returned to the US from Mexico after he stopped fighting deportation

American Ethan Couch in custody in Mexico, where he was found with his mother. He killed four pedestrians in 2013 (AFP)

The Texas teenager who sought to use an “affluenza” defence after he was charged over a fatal traffic accident is due to make his court appearance where he is expected to learn whether he will be moved to an adult jail.

Ethan Couch, 18, was booked into a juvenile detention facility in Fort Worth after he was deported from Mexico on Thursday. Authorities believe he and his mother fled the country as Texas prosecutors investigated whether he may have violated his probation in the 2013 wreck that killed four people, the Associated Press reported.

At the appearance due to take place in Texas, the teenager could learn to whether he will be kept at at juvenile facility or else be moved to an adult jail ahead of a hearing that has been scheduled for February 19.


 Ethan Couch from Texas has been sentenced to ten years probation after mowing down four pedestrians while drunk
 (ABC/CNN)

That hearing is anticipated to will determine whether the case will be transferred to the adult system, where the 18-year-old could face time behind bars.

Tarrant County Sheriff Dee Anderson said on Thursday that he supported moving the teen to an adult jail, given his age and the severity of his offenses. Couch was 16 at the time of the fatal accident, so the case is being handled for now in juvenile court.

“He's certainly capable of understanding now what’s going on, and I’d feel better if he was there,” Mr Anderson said, according to AP.

During the sentencing phase of the 2013 trial, a defense witness argued that the youngster had been coddled into a sense of irresponsibility by his wealthy parents.

The expert deemed the condition “affluenza”, which is not recognised as a medical diagnosis by the American Psychiatric Association and drew widespread derision.

The teen was later sentenced to 10 years' probation, which including barring him from drinking or leaving Tarrant County, Texas. Prosecutors and law enforcement officers blasted the sentence as too weak.

In December, the teenager and his mother disappeared after an online video appeared to show him at a party where people were drinking. They were apprehended in the Mexican resort city of Puerto Vallarta on December 28, after a call for pizza delivery tipped off authorities to their whereabouts.