California man convicted of killing his mother as teen is captured in Mexico

A Southern California man convicted of killing his mother as a teenager was captured in Mexico a week after he walked away from a halfway house, violating the conditions of his probation, authorities said.

Ike Nicholas Souzer, 20, was arrested Wednesday in the coastal city of Rosarito by U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Mexican officials after a weeklong manhunt, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office said. He is once again in custody in Orange County.

In a news release, the district attorney’s office described Souzer as an “extremely dangerous and violent criminal.”

Souzer had already served his sentence for stabbing his mother to death in 2017, when he was 13. He was subsequently convicted on a vandalism charge and served a short sentence, then released from custody March 20, prosecutors said.

The judge in that case also sentenced Souzer to two years of probation.

This was the second time Souzer disappeared from a halfway house. In 2022, he was let out of jail and moved to a halfway house in Santa Ana where he removed his electronic monitor and left. He was later captured by police. In his recent escape, Souzer again cut off his electronic monitoring device, CBS Los Angeles reported.  

He also escaped a juvenile detention facility in 2019.

Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said Souzer deserved harsher sentences and blamed judges who have handled his cases. 

“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. He did not simply walk away and forget to check in with his probation officer,” Spitzer said in the news release. “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 voluntary manslaughter in the death of his mother. His defense attorney argued that the killing was in self-defense and said the teen had experienced years of abuse, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Souzer has also been charged with three attacks on correctional officers, possessing a shank in jail, and most recently, drawing graffiti on a freeway underpass, prosecutors said.