Ike Nicholas Souzer, an Orange County man who had been convicted of stabbing his mom to death in 2017 was arrested on Sunday, April 17, after going missing from a Santa Ana halfway house, with his sudden disappearance prompting a police hunt.
According to a spokeswoman for the Orange County district attorney's office, the 18-year-old removed his electronic monitoring bracelet within hours of him being moved to a Santa Ana halfway house on Wednesday, April 13. Souzer was released earlier that day from the maximum-security Theo Lacy Facility in Orange.
Souzer, who was released 15 months early, was arrested by the AB 109 task force in the city of Anaheim. The task force tracks the impact of California's prison realignment law. DA spokeswoman Kimberly Edds told the New York Post that Souzer was arrested at a homeless encampment by undercover investigators.
Souzer convicted of killing his 48-year-old mom
Edds added that Souzer is currently being held in the Santa Ana city jail. Souzer is expected to be arraigned on Tuesday, but it is still not clear whether his arraignment would transpire in juvenile court or a regular court, since the teenager had been serving a sentence for a juvenile crime.
Souzer was convicted of killing his 48-year-old mother Barbara Scheuer-Souzer when he was just 13 years old. Souzer, who is described as a high-functioning autistic teen from the city of Garden Grove, stabbed his mother multiple times with a knife and left her lying on the ground outside their home to die.
At the time of his mother's death, Souzer was on home detention with the teen having a history of running away. He was described by a family member as someone who is volatile and autistic. Souzer's public defense lawyer claimed during his trial that he had been abused by his mother, an allegation that his grandmother maintains was totally false.
Apart from the sentence he got for killing his mother, officials said that Souzer was also convicted back in December of attacking three correctional officers, according to a report by the Los Angeles Times. According to the DA's office, Souzer had been released to the halfway house 15 months early, with his sentence set to expire on July 9, 2023.
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Souzer already tried escaping before
Souzer fleeing the halfway house even though freedom was just 15 months away is not a complete surprise as he already tried escaping before. Souzer climbed over the fence of the Orange County juvenile detention center in the middle of the night back in 2019, after the teen had somehow gotten on the facility's roof before fleeing on foot. Souzer was recaptured at a McDonald's in Anaheim the same day, with the teenager peacefully taken into police custody.
NBC Los Angeles reported that Souzer was convicted of manslaughter in juvenile court back in 2019, a decision that the prosecutors objected to as they had pressed for him to be charged with murder.
