A California man, Ike Nicholas Souzer, was arrested in Mexico after walking away from a transitional facility without notice. Souzer, 20, was behind bars for violating terms of probation related to a vandalism conviction. The Orange County District Attorney’s office warned the public that he should be considered extremely dangerous and violent. Souzer had a record of violence in his teenage years, including a conviction for voluntary manslaughter in the death of his mother when he was 13, and a conviction related to an attack on three jail guards when he was 17 or 18. He was found in Playas de Rosarito, a coastal municipality south of Tijuana, with the help of Mexican authorities and U.S. law enforcement agencies.
The public defender’s office, which has represented Souzer in the past, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The DA’s office acknowledged that a family member said during his juvenile court prosecution for manslaughter that Souzer was autistic and had a history of outbursts. Souzer has a long history of crime, and he attacked his mother while on home detainment and wearing a GPS monitor for another matter. He was previously under mandatory GPS monitoring for a weapons possession conviction. The DA’s task force found Souzer at a homeless encampment in a previous incident when he left the supervision of a transitional organization in 2022.
District Attorney Todd Spitzer blamed judges in the county for issuing what he described as lenient sentences in cases involving Souzer. The office had sought to try him as an adult for the death of his mother and consistently pushed for stricter sentences in his subsequent cases. Judges allowed time served to be counted and gave Souzer credit for good behavior, according to the DA’s office. Specific judges were called out by name, and the California Judges Association did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The DA’s office also appeared to criticize a nonprofit organization, Project Kinship, for advocating for Souzer’s release from custody. The nonprofit runs the transitional facility from which Souzer escaped in 2022 and again in March 2023, but it declined to comment on specific cases.
Project Kinship offers services like case management, counseling, and peer mentorship to individuals impacted by substance abuse, gangs, and incarceration. Founder and executive director Steve Kim stated that the organization has had a positive influence on Orange County. The DA’s office noted that Souzer was convicted of possession of a weapon, a shank, while in custody in late 2022. He had left a Santa Ana transitional facility on March 20, leading to an “intense manhunt” to locate him. Despite his history of violence, Souzer was able to slip away from supervision multiple times, prompting concerns about the effectiveness of transitional programs and probation monitoring. The arrest in Mexico highlighted the challenges in tracking and managing individuals with a history of violent crimes.
