The attorneys for "affluenza" teen Ethan Couch have asked the Texas Supreme Court to intervene in his case, a move that could release him from jail.
The lawyers claim in a court filing that the judge who sentenced Couch to nearly two years behind bars after his case was moved from juvenile court to adult court didn't have the authority to do so.
Couch, now 19, gained national notoriety when he was
sentenced to 10 years' probation for killing four people and seriously injuring two others in a drunken-driving crash in 2013. He was 16 at the time.
A psychologist testified that he suffered "affluenza" because of his dysfunctional relationship with his wealthy parents.
A video surfaced in December 2015 that appeared to show Couch at a party where people were playing beer pong, which violated the terms of his probation. He missed a meeting with his probation officer and fled with his mother, Tonya Couch, to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.
After the teen was arrested and returned to the United States, his case was transferred from the juvenile system to the adult system last year, and a judge sentenced him to almost two years behind bars — 180 days for each of the four people he killed. He is scheduled to be released next year.
But Couch's attorneys have argued that state District Judge Wayne Salvant should have been removed from the case and that he overstepped his bounds in transferring the case to adult court and sentencing Couch to jail time.
A motion to have Couch released from jail
was denied in September, and a motion in the appellate court was denied in February. The lawyers, Reagan Wynn and Scott Brown, filed a motion with the Texas Supreme Court on Friday.