Police searched overnight before arresting David Huff near the Syracuse home where two people died.
SYRACUSE, N.Y. — The murder case against David Huff began with 911 calls from a Syracuse home and ended more than a year later with his guilty plea in the deaths of his son and girlfriend.
The case moved from a house in the Valley neighborhood to an overnight search, then to more than a year of court hearings. Huff, 44, pleaded guilty April 28 to two counts of second-degree murder for killing Jeremiah Huff, 11, and Yeraldith Tschudy, 32, on March 17, 2025. The plea put him in line for 40 years to life in prison. Judge Ted Limpert is scheduled to sentence him May 29 in Onondaga County Court.
The shootings took place at 128 Roney Road, a residential address that became the center of police activity after two emergency calls. Authorities said Jeremiah called his mother, Samantha Gallup-Peltier, while he was in distress. She called 911 to report what she believed was a shooting. Huff’s stepfather, Charles O’Donnell, also called 911 and said Huff was firing a gun and trying to kill him. When officers arrived, they found Jeremiah and Tschudy dead and Huff gone from the home.
Police said Huff used a Remington 870 Express 12-gauge shotgun. Prosecutors said he shot Tschudy first and then shot Jeremiah. Authorities also said he fired at O’Donnell or tried to fire at him during the same attack. O’Donnell survived after the gun failed to fire again or after ammunition ran out. The allegation involving O’Donnell led to an attempted murder charge, but Huff did not plead guilty to that count. Under the plea agreement, the remaining charges are expected to be addressed when he is sentenced.
The search for Huff stretched through the night. Officers looked across the area for about 12 hours as neighbors tried to understand what had happened inside the Roney Road home. The next morning, a citizen spotted Huff walking near the scene and called police. Officers arrested him nearby. Body camera video later showed him being handcuffed on a sidewalk. The arrest ended the search, but it did not end the fear and confusion left on the block.
Neighbors said after the killings that the case did not fit the person they thought they knew. One neighbor described Huff as friendly and said the family seemed good. Police and prosecutors said Huff had no known history of domestic violence charges before the double homicide. Those statements deepened the shock in the neighborhood. The case did not begin with a long public record of prior violence. It began, for many nearby residents, with flashing lights, police tape and the news that a child and a woman were dead inside a home.
Jeremiah’s death reached beyond the neighborhood because of the phone call to his mother. Prosecutors said he died after calling her during the attack. Family accounts remembered him as a curious sixth-grader who liked finding unusual rocks. His mother later said he loved his father. Tschudy, who was from the Rochester area, was remembered as a mother of two and a social worker who cared about helping children and people dealing with addiction and mental health struggles. Their names became part of the court record, but relatives described lives that were larger than the charges.
The prosecution moved quickly after Huff’s arrest. He faced murder charges and a weapon count, and a grand jury later added the attempted murder charge tied to O’Donnell. At early court appearances, family members filled the room and shouted at him. One person called him a murderer. Another said he had ruined the family. The court had to move through the case while grief remained raw, especially because the victims included a child and a woman who had been dating Huff for only months.
Defense attorneys later raised questions about Huff’s state of mind on the day of the shootings. They argued he had suffered a mental break while under the influence of drugs and alcohol. Psychiatric experts evaluated him to decide whether he was competent to stand trial. The experts found that he understood the proceedings and could face the charges. Prosecutors said any impairment involved voluntary substance use. That decision allowed the case to keep moving toward trial unless Huff accepted a plea.
Plea talks took place before the final court admission. Prosecutors offered a deal that would require Huff to plead to second-degree murder and accept two consecutive sentences of 20 years to life, one for each victim. Huff rejected a similar offer earlier in the case, and a trial date was set. Court proceedings continued, including steps tied to evidence and pretrial issues. The April 28 hearing changed the path. Huff accepted the murder counts and the expected sentence, removing the need for jurors to hear the case.
The courtroom scene during the plea drew its own attention. Huff smiled, laughed and yawned while Limpert read the charges. The judge paused and asked whether he found the proceeding funny. Huff said he did not and said a joke was stuck in his head. The comment angered those watching and added another painful moment for relatives. His older son, who was not at the Roney Road home during the killings, shouted that Huff was embarrassing himself.
The plea hearing also showed a limit to Huff’s admission. When Limpert described the shot that killed Jeremiah as a close-range shot to the head, Huff disputed that detail. He still said he was guilty. Assistant District Attorney Rob Moran said Jeremiah was shot in the head and said his own focus was not on Huff’s reaction. Moran said the victims and their families were what mattered to the prosecution. The judge completed the plea process, and the case moved to sentencing.
Huff’s plea lowered the maximum punishment he could have faced if convicted of first-degree murder at trial. A first-degree conviction could have meant life without parole. The second-degree murder pleas carry 20 years to life for each count, with the sentences expected to run one after the other. That means Huff faces 40 years to life. The sentence will not bring back the victims, but it will mark the court’s final punishment in the murder case.
The Roney Road case now stands in its final pre-sentencing stage. Huff has admitted killing Jeremiah Huff and Yeraldith Tschudy. The attempted murder allegation involving Charles O’Donnell and the weapon count remain to be resolved under the plea agreement. Sentencing is scheduled for May 29.
Author note: Last updated May 21, 2026.