A man from Southern California, who was behind bars for his mom’s murder as a teen, got nabbed in Mexico a week post his escape from a halfway house, breaking his probation terms, say the authorities.
20-year-old Ike Nicholas Souzer got busted this Wednesday in Rosarito by the U.S. and Mexican officials, including the Customs and Border Protection, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office reports. He’s now back in California.
Throughout the seven-day search, the district attorney’s crew labeled Souzer as a high-risk and aggressive individual.
Souzer finished his time for the 2017 stabbing of his mother, which happened when he was merely 13. He later got the book thrown at him for vandalism and wrapped up that brief stint behind bars, getting out on March 20th, the prosecution stated.
The judge on this case had also set Souzer up with a two-year probation period.
This ain’t the first time Souzer’s gone AWOL from a halfway house. In 2022, after his release from the slammer, he got transferred to a Santa Ana halfway home. That’s when he ditched his electronic tracker and split, only to be later snagged by the cops.
Todd Spitzer from the Orange County District Attorney’s office reckons Souzer should’ve gotten tougher sentencing, pointing fingers at the judges on his cases.
“My prosecutors have been at this for years, trying every trick in the book to lock this violent offender away, but at each corner, the judges—those who’ve got the job to keep us safe—barely did a thing. They just kept giving him chances,” Spitzer commented.
Souzer was found guilty of voluntary manslaughter for offing his mother. His defense claimed it was self-defense, citing years of abuse, as per the Los Angeles Times.
He’s also facing charges for assaulting three jail guards, hiding a shank in prison, and more lately, tagging a freeway underpass, the prosecutors mention.
Moreover, he bolted from a youth detention center back in 2019.
