A 21-year-old man convicted of fatally stabbing his mother when he was 13 and has also had several other run-ins with the law was charged Monday with possessing weapons in Anaheim.
Ike Nicholas Souzer was charged with possession of a short-barreled shotgun and rifle and possession of a firearm by a felon, both felonies. He pleaded not guilty at his arraignment in the jail courtroom in Santa Ana and was ordered to return to court March 11 for a pretrial hearing in the North Justice Court in Fullerton.
Souzer was ordered held on $1 million bail.
Souzer admitted in August he violated terms of his probation when he failed to report his whereabouts to his probation officer and absconded, his attorney, David Isaac Hammond of the Orange County Public Defender's Office, said.
Orange County Superior Court Judge Craig Robison told Souzer in August he would have to complete the three-year sentence handed down in a conviction in October 2023 of making a shank while in the Central Men's Jail in Santa Ana.
The three-year sentence had been structured so he would be freed a few months later, but he ran afoul of the law again on Jan. 21, 2024, when he painted a mural of his girlfriend, who died, on the Costa Mesa (55) Freeway underpass at 190 S. Yorba St. in Orange.
Souzer pleaded guilty March 20, 2024, and was sentenced to 90 days for the graffiti and placed on two years of formal probation. He was released then because he had credit for that time behind bars, but as part of the shank case he was to stay at Project Kinship and obey all the rules and curfew there.
Souzer was being taken to a transitional housing location in Santa Ana March 20, 2024, but left and did not return, touching off the manhunt that led to his arrest at the border.
Prosecutors argued for an additional year for Souzer, making the punishment four years.
Hammond unsuccessfully filed a motion to recuse the Orange County District Attorney's Office from the case due to public statements District Attorney Todd Spizer has made declaring Souzer a danger to the community.
Spitzer's criticism of judges who have handled Souzer's past cases drew the ire of retired Orange County Superior Court Judge Gary Pohlson, who called the top prosecutor's comments "totally inappropriate" and "reckless."
Souzer was convicted of killing his 47-year-old mother, Barbara Scheuer-Souzer when he was 13 years old at their residence in the 11000 block of Gilbert Street in Garden Grove on May 4, 2017.
During that trial in juvenile court he escaped juvenile hall in Orange April 12, 2019, and was arrested the next day.
He made headlines again in April 2022 when he freed himself of his electronic monitoring device and escaped custody in a halfway house in Santa Ana.
He was convicted in December 2021 for attacking three correctional officers.
According to court papers, Souzer told investigators when he was arrested for his mother's stabbing that he had been subjected to verbal and physical abuse at his mother's hands in the past. He claimed he was using the knife in self-defense after he got into a heated conflict over household chores, according to court papers.
Hammond has said Souzer was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder stemming from physical and emotional abuse as a child. Souzer and his siblings were taken away from his parents, but he was the only one returned to his mother, Hammond said.