After two deadly crashes, rich ‘affluenza’ teen went free, but poor migrant was jailed for 20 years

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Jaime Arellano during a prison interview in Huntsville, Texas. When he was 16 Arellano drove drunk, ran a red light and crashed into a pregnant woman’s car, killing her and her unborn child. Photo: AP

Published: 10:31am, 16 Feb 2016Updated: 10:31am, 16 Feb 2016

One 16-year-old drove drunk, ran a red light and crashed into a pregnant woman’s car, killing her and her unborn child. Another drunken teenager drove a pickup truck into a crowd of people assisting a stranded driver, killing four.

Jaime Arellano went to prison. Ethan Couch went free.

The stories of the two Texas teens illustrate how prosecutors’ decisions in similar cases can lead to wildly different outcomes. The poor immigrant from Mexico has been behind bars for almost a decade. The white kid with rich parents got 10 years of probation.

A February 5 photo provided by the Tarrant County Sheriff's Department shows Ethan Couch, notorious as the “affluenza” teen, who killed four people while drunk driving. Photo: AP

Couch lost control as he drove his family’s truck back to a party. Authorities later estimated that he was going 112km/h in a 65km/h zone.

Prosecutors in Fort Worth said they didn’t ask to have his case moved to the adult system because they thought the judge would refuse. Instead, he stayed in juvenile court and became infamous for his psychologist’s assertion that his wealthy parents coddled him into a sense of irresponsibility the psychologist called “affluenza”.

Arellano was charged with intoxication manslaughter and intoxication assault, the same counts against Couch. But prosecutors moved quickly after his June 2007 crash to send him to adult court. Arellano took a plea deal and got 20 years in prison, where he remains today.