The Disturbing Case of Ethan Couch: The Boy Who Cried Affluenza - YouTube

today on prime crime we'll be  covering the case of ethan couch  

who at the age of 16 killed four people  while driving under the influence  

this case was one of major controversy  as it demonstrated the reality of being  

able to use one's wealth as a get out of jail  free card however now it was given a formal name  

affluenza and many couldn't believe that this  defense was used to justify such a horrific crime

ethan couch was born on april 11 1997 to parents  fred couch and tanya couch fred was the president  

and owner of clay burns sheet metal a large-scale  metal roofing company with over 40 employees  

while tanya did some work as a vocational nurse  as well as odd jobs from fred's company as a child  

eden was described as a cute little  kid who seemed happy to be in school  

he was a great student and was  never mean to his fellow classmates  

his childhood however was a dysfunctional  one due to fred and tanya's parenting styles  

fred according to a psychologist had been  angry since his childhood he was arrogant  

and prideful and flaunted his wealth around  with little regard for potential consequences  

although tanya is described as kind she frequently  enabled ethan according to one of ethan's teachers  

tanya's biggest problem was that she loved him  so much she couldn't tell him no both parents  

especially his mother toted ethan as a golden boy  they just wanted the best for him in 2006 fred and  

tanya divorced during this time the court ordered  the family to complete a psychological evaluation  

fred told the social worker interviewing him that  the marriage had been a mistake from the start  

according to him tanya was addicted to pills  and had given ethan who was none at the time  

vicodin more than once it's also said that she had  threatened to commit suicide and used her child as  

her protector tanya even had ethan sleep in her  bedroom on a separate bed that she moved in there  

as for tanya's statement she said that the  reason she and fred were getting divorced  

was due to verbal and physical abuse fred would  call her names grab her by her hair and he even  

tried to throw her into a fireplace once in  opposition to his parents the social worker  

described ethan as polite and patient he had an  interest in school and maintained good grades  

however it was noted that ethan had been absent  from school 50 days in kindergarten and 40 days  

in second grade he also mentioned that he loved  his parents he just wanted to see his dad more  

and wish that they didn't put  him in the middle of their events  

their failing marriage definitely put ethan  in the middle of many of their problems  

which for a young child is traumatizing the  social worker who evaluated the couches found  

that ethan had been adultified by his parents  they treated him like an adult at an early age  

by constantly involving him in their adult  issues and decisions following the divorce  

ethan would spend most of his time living with his  mother in their home in burlington his dad would  

stop by a few times a week to visit him and ethan  would occasionally stay with him around this time  

they had also enrolled ethan at the anderson  school a highly selective private school in  

fort worth texas this move was to ensure that  ethan received the best education imaginable  

his mother did not want ethan to turn out like  the others he was their golden boy unfortunately  

his education there only lasted a few years when  ethan was 13 the school's founder lavonna anderson  

had noticed that he drove himself to school this  concerned her and she brought the matter up with  

fred fred reacted angrily to what he felt she  was asserting he told her that ethan was the best  

driver he knew and that he would continue driving  himself to school he also said that ethan didn't  

need college that he would take over the family  business one day to further put anderson back in  

her place he resolved that he would buy the school  of course instead of taking that course of action  

he enrolled ethan in a home school co-op program  which after two years ethan stopped attending  

it's unclear whether or not ethan graduated high  school however he did begin taking classes at a  

local community college and was spending  some time working at his father's company  

the relationship between ethan's parents  was still in disarray at this time  

which ethan used to his advantage when one parent  would deny him something or discipline him ethan  

would often go behind their back to the other  parent who would then give in to what he wanted  

it mostly happened with his father disciplining  him and his mother conceding to his demands  

his father might try to take away his video game  system or truck and tanya would give it back  

to ethan the running theme here is that ethan  rarely faced consequences for his bad behavior  

and even when he did his parents  were there to get him out of it  

the month leading up to the crash clearly showed  the dysfunctional world in which ethan and his  

parents lived in fred and tonya who had remarried  had moved to a new house while ethan was still  

living on his own at the family house in burleson  the house was empty except for a bed couch xbox  

and television the reason given for ethan living  there on its own was that his parents wanted him  

to get the house ready to be sold ethan however  told a different story he told a friend that he  

had got into a fight with his dad and was kicked  out of the house the freedom granted to ethan  

given his parents hands-off approach only served  to increase his drinking and drug use in february  

2013 only months before the crash ethan had  another incident of being caught drinking underage  

he had been driving his mom's f-150 truck when  a police officer found him urinating in the  

parking lot of a dollar general at 1 am inside the  truck the officer also found a 14 year old girl  

who was undressed as well as bottles of alcohol  ethan was clearly intoxicated when asked what he  

was doing he responded with what to look like i'm  doing given his age his mother tanya was called to  

the scene after she arrived ethan explained to his  mom that he had only drank one beer tanya's only  

concern however was hiding the incident from her  husband although ethan had broken a number of laws  

he was only issued two tickets one for minor in  consumption and the other for minor in possession  

tanya drove ethan home again sparing him  from facing the appropriate consequences  

as for the girl that he was with when tanya was  asked what happened to her she guessed that the  

girl's mom picked her up from the scene but she  wasn't certain after this event tanya continued  

covering for ethan shielding him from being  punished by fred this included paying the fines  

for his tickets herself and making excuses for  him when he did not complete his court-ordered  

classes in community service hours it's also said  that ethan's drinking and drug use increased in  

the time leading up to the crash this blatant  disregard for the law as well as unsupervised  

substance abuse created the perfect storm for  what would happen the night of june 15 2013

that day began as any other ethan went to  work at his dad's company after his shift  

he went home and got ready for a party  that he was planning that evening  

he posted about the party on social media  inviting classmates and friends to stop by  

his friends garrett and avery who were already  there took shots with ethan they ate dinner  

and then left to pick up a few people and  stopped by a store to get more alcohol  

driving his dad to f350 the group went to a nearby  walmart and picked up three cases of beer given  

their young age in likely nonchalant attitudes for  a rural following they snuck out a side entrance  

without paying upon returning to the house the  typical melee of teenage partying entude they  

played music and beer pong drank more doing shots  of everclear and lit fireworks in the backyard  

his friend starr who was not drinking because she  had gotten so drunk with ethan the weekend prior  

and needed a break realized midway through  the party that her period had started  

she was in desperate need of tampons  and couldn't find any in the house  

she called two cab companies neither of which  picked up after expressing her dilemma to ethan  

he volunteered to drive her to a gas station less  than a mile away from the house he took another  

shot before leaving and because he had just  met some of the people at the party of that day  

he didn't want to leave them in the house  alone so he told everyone to come with him  

as ethan and his friends were piling into the car  another group of people were on their way to being  

brought together in order to help someone having  car troubles the boyle's family was enjoying  

dinner at home and had just sat down to watch the  movie together shelby their 21 year old daughter  

was home from nursing school and spending  the evening with her parents eric and holly  

down the street evan jennings was celebrating his  high school graduation with family and friends  

when the party was winding down evan's father  youth pastor brian jennings loaded his truck up  

with tables and chairs that he'd borrowed from the  church for the party brian along with his godson  

lucas and lucas's friend isaiah were on their way  to return the tables and chairs back to the church  

and then head home these two groups the boyles and  the jennings came together because they wanted to  

help 24 year old brianna mitchell whose mercury  mountaineer spun out while driving home from work  

crashing in front of the boyle's home eric holly  and shelby heard the accident outside their home  

and went outside to assist brianna used  shelby's cell phones to call her mom for help  

and shelby and holly waited with her in front  of her vehicle eric meanwhile picked up the  

family's mailbox that had been knocked over by  the mountaineer and carried it up to the garage

brian jennings was also driving down the road  where the group had gathered he wanted to help he  

pulled over and told the two boys riding with him  you all sit tight i'll be back in just a minute

as pastor jennings holly shelby and brianna  were waiting on the side of the road  

ethan pulled his dad's f350 out of his  driveway almost instantly after starting  

the car ethan was driving recklessly he gunned  the engine drove on the wrong side of the road  

and was speeding at 70 miles per hour his  friend star testified that she yelled at him  

that he needed to get over ethan's driving set  off a horrific chain reaction of cars colliding  

when he swerved back over ethan went off road  hitting briana's mountaineer along with the four  

people standing in front of the car ethan's truck  then hit jennings vehicle knocking across the road  

into oncoming traffic the truck then flipped over  and struck a tree the scene was absolute chaos

eric boyles who was still in the garage reported  that he heard an explosion so loud that it shook  

his house walking back outside he was horrified  by what he saw there were car parts and bodies  

and debris everywhere it reminded him more of  a plane crash than a car accident by the time  

eric found both holly and shelby they were dead  brianna talking on the phone with her mom was  

also killed on impact as for pastor jennings his  best friend who had just left the graduation party  

drove past a wreck he could see chairs  laying in the road and knew that it was brian  

he jumped out of his car and found his friend  lying in a ditch brian's wife also drove past  

the scene and saw her husband as he was receiving  cpr she knew that whatever happened wasn't good

the teens riding with ethan all survived the  accident one passenger sergio molina suffered  

a severe brain injury he's completely paralyzed  being unable to move or speak and can only  

communicate with his family through blinking ethan  on the other hand walked away from the accident  

bloody but in one piece the bystanders who  found him reported that when he came to he  

said hey man i'm ethan i can get you out of all  of this he clearly didn't know what happened  

he also refused medical attention claiming that he  couldn't afford an ambulance three hours following  

the incident ethan had a blood alcohol level of  .24 that's three times the legal limit in texas

ethan was charged with four counts of intoxication  manslaughter and two counts of intoxication  

assault he pled guilty and in december 2013  his sentence hearing began the psychologist  

the defense brought on to analyze ethan spent  over 50 hours with him he concluded that ethan  

was suffering from affluenza given his wealthy  upbringing and the lack of consequences from his  

actions the psychologist recommended that ethan  be separated from his parents and that their poor  

parenting was a major cause of the accident the  affluenza defense albeit flimsy was successful  

and the judge sent even to only 10 years probation  as well as to spend time in a rehab facility

in 2015 two years after his sentencing ethan  violated the terms of his probation he had missed  

a check-in with his probation officer and had been  seen playing beer pong at a party with friends  

a warrant was issued for his arrest in another  attempt to evade the law ethan and his mother  

tanya fled to mexico they were caught two  weeks later and returned to texas for trial  

ethan finally received some jail  time for the probation violation  

he was sentenced to 180 days for each of the  four people who died as a result of the accident  

he was released from prison in april 2018  and will be eligible for parole in 2024

as of today the families of the victims brianna  mitchell brian jennings and holly and shelby  

boyles have all settled their civil suits  against the couch family and their family  

business the family of sergio molina has also  settled a suit on his behalf this case was  

extremely controversial and left the country  divided on the fairness of ethan's punishment  

if ethan had not been wealthy if his  parents had been unable to afford the  

defense attorneys that he had would he have  gotten a tap on the wrist for a crime that  

prosecutors wanted him to receive 20 years  for many questions need to still be answered