The mother of a fugitive teenager known for using an "affluenza" defense in a deadly drunken-driving case arrived in Texas Thursday after leaving a Los Angeles jail.
Los Angeles County sheriff's spokesman Nicole Nishida said Tonya Couch left jail at 5 a.m. Thursday and arrived by plane at Dallas-Forth Worth International Airport a few hours later. Authorities in Texas had said they would bring her back by Friday.
Couch is charged in Texas with hindering the apprehension of a felon and will be held on $1 million bond. She was flown to Los Angeles last week after being deported from Mexico, where she and her 18-year-old son, Ethan, were arrested.
Authorities believe the pair fled there in November as Texas prosecutors investigated whether he had violated his probation.
Ethan Couch was driving drunk and speeding near Fort Worth in June 2013 when he crashed into a disabled SUV, killing four people and injuring several others, including passengers in his pickup truck.
During the sentencing phase of his 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 during the legal proceedings drew ridicule.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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