Ethan Couch's Drunk Driving Case: Four Fatalities Analyzed

This paper explores the article on Ethan Couch, the Affluenza teen, who killed four people while drinking and driving. His sentencing was what caught national attention to many. The judge filed a ten year probation and time in a rehab facility after the psychologist hired stated that Ethan didn’t know right from wrong from the way that he was raised. His actions had little to no consequences and he had many privileges. Well recently a video was out on social media of Couch playing beer pong.

This is breaking the rules of probation so when contacting the Couch’s they were already in Mexico. When they were found perhaps the probation could be revoked and Ethan Couch could after all spend time in jail. Would you put someone in jail that killed four people for drinking and driving? It all started in June 15, 2013 when a teen named Ethan Couch was going to the convenience store with seven other people in Couch’s Ford truck.

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But before that the Boyles family, who lived in the house in front of the crash, just finished watching a movie when they heard a disturbance outside. When the mother and daughter went outside they found themselves in front of a crashed Mercury Mountaineer that had ended up in their neighbors ditch. Another set of family was just finishing a graduation party for a family friend.

After putting the tables and chairs used in the party two children asked if they could accompany their godfather, the driver, to the church.

The diver was pastor Brain Jennings who was going to later get off as they saw the Mountaineer on the side of the road. He left the two boys inside the vehicle as he went to confront the mother and daughter, Hollie and Shelby Boyles. Soon after when Couch was driving up to 70 miles per hour he swerved causing the truck to swerve into the ditch hitting the Mountaineer and the four people around it. But that’s wasn’t the end Couch’s truck then hit pastor Jennings vehicle with the two kids inside into on-coming traffic. But lucky they weren’t hurt as bad as what Shelby Boyles experienced being thrown up against a fence. When Eric Boyles came back outside and he found his wife and daughter no longer standing next to the Mountaineer he knew something was wrong. Two other friends pulled up after they had recognized Pastor Brian’s truck in total destruction. Following the accident the whole town quickly knew of what had happened and about a 402 meters away a mother and her teenage son found Ethan Couch positioned in a ditch.

They allegedly got out of their vehicle to help Ethan and the mother went to go get the officers but Couch didn’t want their help. After the crash prosecutors charged Ethan Couch with intoxication manslaughter on four counts and two counts of intoxication assault. In total 9 people were injured and two from Couch’s truck suffered irreversible injury’s. From these charges Couch could be seeing a 20 year imprisonment from the Tarrant County Prosecutors. However Ethan admitted guilty and it went straight to sentencing and the hearing that followed was what caught the attention of many. The psychologist that was in Couch’s legal team declared that the way Ethan was raised which was getting gifts all the time and having basically no consequences caused him to suffer from “affluenza”. The psychologist had recommended that for the criminal sentencing Ethan needed to be away from his parents. So when it came down to the actual sentencing the judge declared that Ethan would have 10 years of probation and some time in a rehab facility. Of course this did not sit well the family members of the victims. Since then six separate suits have been filed against Ethan Couch and his family.

But all the cases have now been settled without Ethan Couch admitting fault. Currently not too long ago in 2015 authorities found a claim made on twitter about a user posting a video along with a caption that was saying Couch was disobeying his probation which stated he couldn’t be around alcohol, drugs and be driving. So on December 2, 2025 the video shows several people playing beer pong at a party in which one of them pops up to be Ethan Couch. And this action could cause him to be re-sentenced into a maximum of ten years in jail within the Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office. Soon things began to escalate when Ethan’s probation officer could not reach him which led him to issuing a warrant on Couch. Then about 16 days later Ethan and his mother were reported missing when the probation officer could not get ahold of him. Things then went into another level making it a federal matter to the point where different agencies joined the hunt to find Ethan Couch. Their beliefs was on him leaving the country. Ten days later from the day the warrant was issued Couch and his mother were found and arrested in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Reportedly they had called to order delivery from Domino’s Pizza to a living space they were staying in. From there they had went where they were staying but were too late since they had moved to an apartment which then meant that the agents would set up surveillance cameras. In no time they were found and handed to immigration officials.

Now when coming back if they found that Ethan was drinking while on his probation it could be revoked and he would spend four months in jail. I believe that this happening to Ethan is karma from not learning from his mistakes the first time but still going out and having fun. The reason for him leaving the country could be that he knew that he possibly went against the probation rules and didn’t want to be caught. And whenever you’re on probation they take away your passport which could be why they weren’t registered going to Mexico since they had illegally crossed the border. I also think that everything happened for a reason on the night that he killed four people. If he would have never done such a tragedy who knows how many more times he would have done the same thing putting more life’s in danger. His actions had finally caught up to him and this could possibly be the justice that the families of the victims need in order to fully get on with their lives. Justice was not served the first time when he was given a sentence since money could have been a factor in everything. If Ethan Couch was just another normal person with not a lot of money supporting him he would have been sentenced to jail no questions asked. To answer my introduction statement if it means having justice to put someone in jail for something they knew was wrong without a doubt I would have put Ethan Couch behind bars.