Mother of U.S. "affluenza" teen indicted for helping son escape to Mexico

The mother of a Texas teenager who used an "affluenza" defense after killing four people in a drunken-driving crash now faces charges for helping her son escape to Mexico.

A grand jury in the northern Texas city of Fort Worth on Thursday indicted Tonya Couch, 48, for hindering apprehension in helping her son Ethan Couch flee to Mexico while on probation for killing four people in the deadly drunk driving crash in 2013, local TV station ABC13 said.

Tonya, 48, was also charged for money laundering for allegedly using 30,000 U.S. dollars to finance the trip to the neighboring country, the report said.

Ethan, who was 16 in 2013, was driving at three times the legal intoxication limit when he rammed his pickup truck into a crowd of people. Four people were killed and several others injured in the wreck.

He was put on a 10-year probation after the accident. During his juvenile trial, a defense expert invoked the term "affluenza" while arguing Ethan's wealthy parents had coddled him into a sense of irresponsibility.

Ethan and his mother Tonya were apprehended in Mexico on Dec. 28, 2015 following an international manhunt after he allegedly failed to appear at a court-mandated meeting with a probation officer. They were later deported to Texas.

On Feb. 5, Ethan was moved from a juvenile detention facility to an adult jail in Fort Worth. In April, a U.S. judge sentenced Ethan Couch to two years in prison. Endit