Crime & Safety
Convicted Killer Who Escaped Orange County Halfway House Arrested
Ike Nicholas Souzer, 18, was convicted in 2017 of killing his mother and was sent to the halfway house after being released early from jail.
SANTA ANA, CA — An 18-year-old man convicted of killing his mother in 2017 was arrested in Anaheim Sunday after escaping from a Santa Ana halfway house.
Ike Nicholas Souzer was arrested by the Orange County District Attorney's Office's AB 109 Task Force, the OCDA said. The task force was formed in 2019 to monitor people released from prison under the California Public Safety Realignment Act of 2011.
The task force found Souzer at an Anaheim homeless encampment, according to the Orange County Register.
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Souzer freed himself from an electronic monitoring bracelet on Wednesday within hours of being released from Theo Lacy Jail and moved to a halfway house, the district attorney's office said. He was released 15 months early from jail.
The district attorney's office issued a warning to residents that Souzer was "extremely dangerous and violent."
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Souzer was convicted of voluntary manslaughter in 2017 when he fatally stabbed his mother as a 13-year-old boy in Garden Grove, prosecutors said.
Barbara Scheuer-Souzer, 48, told authorities before dying that she was attacked by her son, prosecutors said.
A family member described Souzer as "autistic and volatile" at the time of the killing, the Los Angeles Times reported.
City News Service contributed to this report.
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