A convicted mom-killer described as a “violent and dangerous threat to public safety” has been captured in Mexico Wednesday, a week after walking away from a California halfway house in his third escape in five years, officials said.
Ike Souzer, 20, was nabbed by US Customs and Border Protection and Mexican officials in the city of Rosarito, Mexico, located more than 120 miles south of Santa Ana, Calif., where he made his getaway last Wednesday, according to an update from the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.
The felon and serial escape artist was recaptured thanks to information from the DA’s undercover task force indicating that Souzer had slipped into Mexico near the San Ysidro, Calif., border crossing, officials said.
Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer has been outspoken in his criticism of California judges for showing the violent repeat offender too much leniency over the years, most recently this month, when he got off with time served and sent to the Project Kinship halfway house in Santa Ana for vandalism.
At the time of Souzer’s latest getaway last week, prosecutors warned the public that he was “extremely dangerous and violent,” having stabbed his mother to death when he was just 13.
His rap sheet also includes attacking three correctional officers and making a shank while in jail, according to the DA.
In 2021, over prosecutors’ objections, Orange County Superior Court Judge Gary Pohlson downgraded Souzer’s felony charges in the attack on the guards to misdemeanors and gave him 160 days credit time served.
Last October, Orange County Superior Court Judge Michael Cassidy sentenced Souzer to one year in jail and two years supervised release in the shank-making case — even though prosecutors asked to lock him up for three years.
After receiving credit, Souzer was cut loose in January, having spent a mere three months in jail.
But a few days after his release, the 20-year-old was arrested again, this time for tagging a freeway underpass with graffiti and giving cops a false name, according to the prosecutors.
He pleaded guilty to one count of felony vandalism and was sentenced to 90 days in county jail and two years of probation by Orange County Superior Court Judge Larry Yellin over prosecutors’ objections citing his criminal record.
Souzer checked into the Project Kinship house after his sentencing, but then wandered off without informing his probation officer, which violated the conditions of his release, the DA’s office stated.
Project Kinship is the same facility Souzer escaped from in April 2022, after he removed his GPS bracelet within hours of his arrival there, prosecutors said.
Souzer was re-arrested at a homeless encampment in Anaheim a few days later. DA Spitzer did not mince words when expressing his frustration with the justice system at the time.
“My prosecutors have spent years and years trying to do everything they can to keep this violent criminal behind bars, and at every turn, the very judges who are elected to protect public safety have done little to do so and instead have given him break after break after break,” Spitzer seethed.
“This is not someone who deserves a break; he has turned every opportunity to turn over a new leaf into a new opportunity to break the law and defy law enforcement,” the DA continued. “He did not simply walk away and forget to check in with his probation officer. The second he was out of custody he set a plan in motion to flee to a foreign country in yet another attempt to escape the consequences of his actions.”
Souzer was convicted of knifing to death his mother, Barbara Scheuer-Souzer, in 2017, when he was 13 years old.
In 2019, Souzer managed to sneak out of his locked room at the Orange County Juvenile Detention Center and climb over the fence in the middle of the night, but he did not remain free for long as he was nabbed in Anaheim hours later.
