A teen fugitive from Texas known for using an "affluenza" defense and his mother were scheduled to depart for the U.S. after authorities said a phone call for pizza led to their capture in the Mexican resort city of Puerto Vallarta.
Eighteen-year-old Ethan Couch and his mother, Tonya Couch, were being held at immigration offices in Guadalajara to be returned to the United States aboard a commercial flight to Houston on Wednesday, authorities said.
A U.S. Marshals Service agent tipped local authorities off Monday to the location of Couch - who was on juvenile probation after killing four people in a 2013 drunken-driving wreck - and his mother, according to a police report issued by the Jalisco state prosecutors' office. Couch disappeared as authorities investigated whether he had violated the terms of his probation.
During the sentencing phase of Couch's trial, a defense expert argued that his wealthy parents coddled him into a sense of irresponsibility - a condition the expert termed "affluenza." The condition is not recognized as a medical diagnosis by the American Psychiatric Association, and its invocation drew ridicule.
According to the police report, one of the Couches' telephones had been used to order delivery from Domino's Pizza to a condominium complex in Puerto Vallarta's old town, far from the glitzy resorts of the city's newer section.
