Jeremiah Huff, 11, and Yeraldith Tschudy, 32, were killed in a March 2025 shotgun attack.
SYRACUSE, N.Y. — An 11-year-old boy called his mother in distress before dying in a Syracuse home where his father later admitted killing him and his father’s girlfriend with a shotgun.
David Huff, 44, pleaded guilty April 28 to two counts of second-degree murder in the deaths of his son, Jeremiah Huff, and 32-year-old Yeraldith Tschudy. The plea came more than a year after the March 17, 2025 shootings at a home on Roney Road. It spared both families from a trial, but it did not answer the central question that has followed the case from the start: why Huff turned a shotgun on a child and a woman who had been part of his life.
Jeremiah’s last known act placed his mother in the middle of the emergency before police arrived. Authorities said the boy called Samantha Gallup-Peltier during the attack. He was in distress, and his mother called 911 to report a possible shooting. Prosecutors later said the boy died while his mother was on the phone. District Attorney William Fitzpatrick described that moment after the killings and said the pain of hearing a child die that way would stay with her. The call became one of the most painful facts in a case already marked by a child victim, a domestic setting and a sudden burst of violence.
Tschudy was also killed inside the home. Prosecutors said Huff used a Remington 870 Express 12-gauge shotgun and shot her before shooting Jeremiah. Police said she had been shot multiple times. Tschudy, who was from the Rochester area, was 32 and had two children. Memorials described her as a social worker with a passion for children and a steady drive to help people. She had worked with people facing addiction and mental health problems. Friends and relatives remembered her as a mother whose life stretched far beyond the crime scene.
Jeremiah was a sixth-grader. Family memorials described him as curious and joyful, with a love of collecting unusual rocks. His mother said after his death that he loved his father. That detail gave the case a deeper wound, because the man who pleaded guilty was not a stranger who entered the home. He was the child’s father. In court, Huff admitted guilt but pushed back when the judge described a close-range shot to Jeremiah’s head. Assistant District Attorney Rob Moran said Jeremiah was shot in the head and said the prosecution would not center Huff’s feelings about saying that aloud.
The April plea hearing shifted public attention to Huff’s behavior. As Judge Ted Limpert read the charges, Huff smiled, laughed and yawned. Limpert asked him whether he found the matter funny. Huff said, “No, it’s a joke stuck in my head,” and told the judge to go on. Huff’s older son, who was not present at the home during the murders, responded from the courtroom by telling him he was embarrassing himself. The moment drew wide notice, but prosecutors said the record of guilt mattered more than Huff’s display.
The violence also threatened another person in the house. Authorities said Huff fired or tried to fire the shotgun at his stepfather, Charles O’Donnell. O’Donnell survived after the gun malfunctioned or did not fire again. He called 911 himself and reported that Huff was firing a gun and trying to kill him. Huff did not plead guilty to attempted murder in that allegation, and the plea agreement is expected to resolve the remaining charges at sentencing. O’Donnell’s call gave police a second urgent report from inside or near the home as the shootings came to light.
Police found Jeremiah and Tschudy dead after responding to the Roney Road address in Syracuse’s Valley neighborhood. Huff was not there. Officers began an overnight search that stretched for about 12 hours. The search ended the next morning after a citizen saw Huff walking in the area and alerted law enforcement. Police arrested him near the crime scene. Video later showed officers handcuffing him on a sidewalk. At earlier court appearances, relatives packed the room and shouted at him, showing how quickly the case moved from a police search to a public reckoning for two families.
Investigators and prosecutors have not given a clear motive. They said Huff had no known domestic violence history before the killings. That fact has stood beside the brutality of the attack throughout the case. A neighbor said after the deaths that Huff was not someone people expected to be accused of such violence. The same neighbor described him as friendly and said the family had seemed good. The contrast between how some neighbors viewed Huff and what he admitted doing became part of the shock in the Valley neighborhood.
The legal path began with serious murder charges. Huff was initially charged with murder counts and criminal possession of a weapon. A grand jury later added an attempted murder charge tied to O’Donnell. Prosecutors offered a plea deal calling for two second-degree murder convictions and consecutive sentences of 20 years to life. Huff at first rejected a deal, and a trial date was set. Defense attorneys also raised questions about Huff’s mental state on the day of the shootings, saying drugs and alcohol were involved and arguing that he had suffered a break from reality.
Mental health evaluations became a major step before the plea. Huff was examined by psychiatric experts and was found competent to stand trial. His lawyers said experts ultimately found he understood his actions. Prosecutors said any impairment tied to the day of the killings involved voluntary substance use. The competency finding meant the case could move toward trial or plea. Huff’s April 28 guilty plea removed the need for jurors to hear evidence about the final phone call, the shotgun, the sequence of the shootings and the attempted shooting of his stepfather.
Under the plea, Huff faces 40 years to life in state prison. Each murder count carries 20 years to life, and the sentences are expected to run consecutively. The agreement means he avoided a possible first-degree murder conviction that could have removed any chance of parole. It also means the victims’ families will return to court for sentencing, where the judge will make the punishment official and where relatives may have another chance to speak on the record.
The case now stands between admission and sentence. Huff has admitted murdering his son and Tschudy, while prosecutors have said the attempted murder and weapon counts will be dropped or closed as part of the sentencing process. Jeremiah’s final call, Tschudy’s work and family life, and the unanswered motive remain at the center of the record. The next scheduled court date is May 29.
Author note: Last updated May 21, 2026.