Instead, Boyd gave the teen 10 years' probation after a psychologist testified that his family's wealth and dysfunction left him without a sense of responsibility.
"At this point, we have not had the opportunity to speak with our client and we do not anticipate being able to do so unless and until he arrives in the United States".
Mexico's Jalisco state prosecutors' office said its agents had been working with American authorities since December 26 to track down and capture Couch and his mother.
Ethan Couch, now 18, was placed on probation in Texas after a deadly drunken driving wreck.
Three hours after his June 15, 2013 incident, he still had a blood alcohol content of 0.24, three times the legal limit for adult drivers in Texas.
Tarrant County Sheriff Dee Anderson has said he believes the two fled in late November after a video surfaced that appears to show Couch at a party where people were drinking.
Couch is wanted by the U.S. Marshals Service for allegedly violating his probation.
Ethan Couch was sentenced as a juvenile and violated his probation as ordered by the juvenile court system. Couch could be held in a juvenile facility until April if his probation is revoked, not 10 years in prison.
The max he could get would be 120 days.
DA Wilson said that when they go before a judge in January, "Our request of the court is going to be to transfer his probation to the adult court and deal with him in the adult system, where we no longer have to be concerned about the "best interest of the child" or the child defendant in this case". A hearing on the transfer to adult court is scheduled for January 19. "We are bound by the original sentence". If this happens, a future probation violation could see him face up to 10 years for each death in the 2013 crash.
And he could get more time on top of that, if he is convicted of new crimes as an adult.
"Do you recall ever disciplining Ethan for anything?" they asked Tonya Couch.
His mother, Tonya Couch, will soon be brought to the Tarrant County Jail to face charges.
Couch was on juvenile probation after killing four people in a drunken-driving wreck.
Another 12 people were injured, including Sergio Molina and Solaiman Mohman, teenagers who were riding in the bed of Couch's pickup.
Tonya Couch sold her $343,400 Burleson home on August 10, county deed records show.
The sentence and that term triggered widespread outrage, and the Couches' alleged fleeing has drawn attention back to his case.
U.S. Marshal Rick Taylor and Anderson declined to say how authorities tracked Couch down, but CNN said the marshals used Couch's mobile phone to track him down.
Anderson said authorities began to zero in on the Couches' whereabouts Thursday.
Initially, Couch and his mother stayed at a resort, Los Tules, downtown by the beach and then moved to the apartment, according to prosecutors. "They would have had to enter, for example, as tourists, but they entered without registering".
Earlier, Ricardo Ariel Vera, the representative of Mexico's immigration institute in the western state of Jalisco, said Tonya and Ethan Couch, 18, were held Tuesday at immigration offices in the state capital, Guadalajara. "This is the law in state of Texas ..." They would be the consequences for a mother who admitted to giving her son very few.
When Couch and his mother were picked up last night the teen had a very different look. He said Tuesday that the investigation "really kind of turned Christmas Eve, was the time when I think the really concrete information came in". Couch turns 19 next year.
Ethan Couch News, Pictures, and Videos
