Man convicted of killing mom arrested after going missing from halfway house

An Orange County man who had been convicted of stabbing his mother to death in 2017 was arrested Sunday after going missing from a Santa Ana halfway house, prompting a police hunt.

Ike Nicholas Souzer, 18, removed his electronic monitoring bracelet Wednesday within hours of being moved to a Santa Ana halfway house, a spokeswoman for the Orange County district attorney’s office said. Souzer had been released that day, 15 months early, from the maximum-security Theo Lacy Facility in Orange.

A district attorney spokesperson said Sunday afternoon that Souzer was arrested in Anaheim by the AB 109 task force, which tracks the impact of the state’s prison realignment law.

California

Freed from an Orange County prison, violent offender prompts manhunt

An Orange County man released from prison five years after stabbing his mother to death is again the subject of a police hunt.

April 16, 2022

Souzer was 13 when he killed his mother, Barbara Scheuer-Souzer, 48, outside their home in Garden Grove, stabbing her twice in the stomach. At the time of the killing, he was on home detention with a history of running away and was described by a family member as autistic and volatile. His public defense lawyer claimed Souzer had been abused by his mother, an allegation his grandmother maintains was false.

Souzer in 2019 was convicted of manslaughter in juvenile court, over the objection of prosecutors, who had pressed for murder charges.

Souzer’s sentence was set to be completed in July 2023, but he was released early, with orders to remain under electronic monitoring.

The Orange County probation office alerted other police agencies of Souzer’s disappearance, but the district attorney’s office elevated that to a public warning “because we were so concerned about this case,” said spokeswoman Kimberly Edds.