Nineteen-year-old Isaiah Jason Maza Jr. was on a pass from his inpatient alcohol treatment at the Oregon Recovery Center when he was fatally stabbed near his mother’s home Sunday in Northeast Portland.
Maza had been released in September pending trial on federal charges for allegedly tossing an explosive through a broken window of the federal courthouse downtown in July and injuring a deputy U.S. marshal.
His mother, his defense lawyer and even prosecutors said Maza had been doing everything right while on release.
He had a job at Macy’s, was taking his treatment seriously, had applied to Portland State University to continue his education and was fighting to get visitation rights with his young daughter, whose name he had tattooed on his neck.
His mother Renee Maza said she was making dinner Sunday night when her son and his girlfriend wanted to walk to a nearby corner store to buy Takis chips.
“I don’t ever let my kids walk at night here,” Renee Maza said Monday. “It’s a bad area. I usually drive them. But I was cooking and I said to him, ‘There are a lot of thugs out there. You know how I feel about walking.’ He said to me, ‘Mama, I’ll be safe. We are just getting chips. I love you.’’'
Isaiah Maza didn’t get far. He was stabbed around 5:30 p.m. near Northeast 120th Avenue and Couch Street outside an apartment complex next to his mother’s home, according to the teen’s girlfriend and mother.
Police are seeking a suspect on a murder allegation but haven’t publicly identified him.
Maza’s 17-year-old girlfriend said she witnessed the stabbing.
She said they were headed to the market but “barely even made it a few feet” from his mother’s home when another teenager and his girlfriend approached from an apartment complex and walked toward Maza, saying, “What’s up?”
She said she didn’t know the teen but thought maybe he was friends with Maza. The other teen asked, “So are we going to do this?” and Maza responded, “Do what?” she said.
Then the other teenager suddenly started punching Maza and the two traded punches for about 10 to 15 seconds before the other teen stabbed Maza in the chest and he collapsed on the sidewalk, she said. She called 911 and applied pressure to his chest until police arrived, she said, before running to alert Maza’s mother.
Maza knew his attacker and had problems with him in the past, his mother said.
In the courthouse case, Isaiah Maza had appeared in August on allegations of assault on a federal officer using a dangerous weapon and depredation of federal government property.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Gary Sussman at the time described Maza as a “very dangerous man” who was caught on video tearing plywood covering the courthouse’s front glass panes. The video caught him lighting a fuse, then tossing a hand-sized explosive through the broken glass.
Noah Horst, Maza’s lawyer, a month later convinced U.S. Magistrate Judge Youlee Yim You to release Maza to get treatment. Horst had laid out Maza’s troubled past, his desire to address his problems and a proposed treatment plan.
Maza was doing well as a student at Rosemary Anderson High School until the pandemic forced a transition to remote learning last year, his lawyer said. He struggled with lack of structure and alcohol addiction and spiraled out of control into a mental health crisis, according to documents Horst filed in court.
Pandemic-related budget cuts also stopped sessions that Maza was having with a mental health counselor who had become a strong male role model, Horst said.
Maza was drinking heavily when the alleged federal offense occurred, according to his defense lawyer’s court filing.
Under the proposed treatment plan approved by the court, Maza was to be in treatment for a year or more for alcohol use and mental health issues.
Horst picked Maza up after his release from jail on Sept. 14 and drove him to the Oregon Recovery Center. The judge also ordered Maza be placed on GPS monitoring. Once he completed treatment at the recovery center, he was going to transition to a sober living program and therapeutic work at the Blanchet Farm, a residential treatment program on a Yamhill County farm.
“Isaiah was doing all the work he needed to do to prove to the court that he was on a better path,” Horst said.
“For this to happen when he’s on the way up is just so sad,” Horst said. “He had a lot going for him. He did everything we asked of him. I wanted him to be able to be one of those clients who would come back year after year after year and tell me how great he was doing. He was on a mission to be a role model for his younger brother and to make his mom proud.”
Renee Maza, who had been in regular contact with Horst in recent months, frantically called him Sunday night to tell him of her son’s death.
“Isaiah was my world, my light and my breath,” she said. “He has been through so much in life you couldn’t even imagine. He would get kicked down and get right back up. … This is all too much.”
-- Maxine Bernstein
Email at mbernstein@oregonian.com; 503-221-8212
Follow on Twitter @maxoregonian
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Portland teen was walking to corner store to get chips when he was stabbed and killed in NE Portland, family - OregonLive
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