Crime & Safety
OC Man, Who Killed His Mother At 13, Sentenced Following Manhunt
The suspect was arrested in Mexico after he violated his probation by running away from an Orange County halfway house in March.
ORANGE COUNTY, CA — An Orange County man who was arrested in March following a weeklong manhunt that started after he violated his parole by walking away from a Santa Ana halfway house was sentenced this week to three years in jail, OC District Attorney Todd Spitzer said.
21-year-old Ike Nicholas Souzer was arrested in Rosarito, Mexico by U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Mexican officials after violating his parole and fleeing the United States.
He had walked away from a halfway house after getting out of jail on March 20 and didn't tell his probation officer where he was going, officials said.
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Souzer was convicted of voluntary manslaughter for fatally stabbing his mother in 2017, when he was 13 years old. Barbara Scheuer-Souzer, 48, told authorities before dying that she was attacked by her son, prosecutors said.
He was also convicted in December 2021 of attacking three correctional officers and served a time in prison, according to previous Patch reporting.
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Souzer also escaped the halfway house in 2022 and freed himself from an electronic monitoring bracelet before police caught up with him in Anaheim.
And in 2023, prosecutors said he was sentenced to a year in custody for making and possessing a shank in jail, but was released early with work time credit.
He was subsequently convicted on a vandalism charge and served a short sentence, then released from custody March 20, 2024, prosecutors said.
Spitzer said that Souzer deserved harsher sentences, and blamed judges who have handled his cases.
"Ike Souzer is finally having to answer to the consequences of his own actions to turn every opportunity he was given to make a fresh start into another opportunity to continue his life of crime," said OC District Attorney Todd Spitzer. "My prosecutors have spent years trying to keep this violent criminal behind bars only to be stopped by the very judges who — instead of protecting public safety — gave him break after break to turn his life around."
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