A 20-year-old man previously convicted of fatally stabbing his mother when he was 13 years old was sentenced Tuesday to three years behind bars for making a shank while in Orange County Jail in Santa Ana, but the way the punishment was structured he could be free in about two and a half months.
Ike Souzer of Garden Grove was convicted last week of making and possessing a weapon while in custody, both felony counts.
Orange County Superior Court Judge Michael Cassidy ordered the defendant to serve what is known as a “split sentence,” meaning he would spend a year in custody and then two years free from custody under the supervision of probation officials. The judge gave Souzer credit for 216 days in custody so far, so he would have about two and a half months more to go before he is released, his attorney, David Isaac Hammond of the Orange County Public Defender’s Office said.
Deputy District Attorney Matthew Bradbury argued for a maximum four-year sentence. He also objected to Cassidy dismissing a jail equipment tampering case in which Souzer broke some hair clippers.
Bradbury noted that Souzer escaped from custody once before and also cut off an ankle-monitoring device another time. Souzer was also convicted in December 2021 of attacking three correctional officers.
“He has not done well in custody,” Bradbury said. “Or shown an ability to meet the terms of probation … Defendant is not someone who has earned a split sentence … This is not an individual who has earned a chance to prove himself.”
Hammond argued that his client has been 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 reunited with his mother, Hammond said.
Probation officials “fell a little short of raising Ike” since he has been in custody, Hammond said.
Souzer has gotten into fights while in Juvenile Hall, but he was usually “targeted” by others and was “put in the position (where) he had to fight,” Hammond said.
Hammond argued that Souzer has never had normal adolescent experiences such as attending high school or getting a driver’s license, so that explains why when he was briefly released from custody he performed poorly.
Since then, however, Souzer has taken advantage of various self-help and educational programs while in Juvenile Hall such as anger management, creative writing and art, his attorney said.
Releasing him to the guidance of probation officials would better help him transition him into self-reliance free from custody, Hammond said. The Project Kinship organization expects to house him in a facility where the defendant can continue sessions with his therapist, Hammond added.
When Bradbury argued that Souzer should not get any special breaks since he has already received them and failed, and that he should be treated like any other defendant, Cassidy said, “How is he like any other defendant? He’s been in custody since he was 13.”
Hammond said one of the jurors in the trial emailed his investigator to say she was thinking about Souzer and that she would ask members of her church to pray for him.
“Ike is not a monster,” Hammond said. “He is a good kid. Allowing him to transition back into society with the support he has is important.”
Cassidy said he was also concerned about Souzer doing time in jail with no services and then ending up back on the street with no help. But the judge added, “I don’t think he’s a good candidate for probation.”
Cassidy told Souzer, “Take this opportunity to take advantage of all the transitional services you can” during his short time in the county jail.
Souzer made headlines in April 2022 when he freed himself of his electronic monitoring device and escaped custody in a halfway house in Santa Ana.
Souzer was convicted as a juvenile of voluntary manslaughter for stabbing his mother to death in 2017. While in custody, he was convicted in December 2021 of attacking three correctional officers, according to prosecutors.
He was ordered to wear an electronic monitor for the remainder of his sentence until it expired on July 9, 2023, and was released to a halfway house in Santa Ana, prosecutors said.
While on trial in juvenile court for the killing of his 47-year-old mother, Barbara Scheuer-Souzer, he escaped juvenile hall in Orange shortly after midnight April 12, 2019, and was arrested the next day at a McDonald’s in Anaheim.
Souzer stabbed his mother in their residence in the 11000 block of Gilbert Street in Garden Grove on May 4, 2017. She told authorities before she died in a hospital that her son was the one who attacked her.
An Orange County sheriff’s deputy found the shank hidden in Souzer’s one-man cell in the Men’s Central Jail in Santa Ana on July 9 of last year, Bradbury said.
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.
During his trial for the killing, the defendant testified that he did not think he had mortally wounded his mother, who was terrified of knives, according to court papers. Souzer also testified that “he loved his mother and just wanted her to stop hurting him and for their relationship to be good,” according to court papers.