Judge says life term not long enough for Syracuse double killer

A Syracuse judge told David Huff that life in prison “is not long enough” after Huff admitted killing his 11-year-old son, Jeremiah Huff, and his 32-year-old girlfriend, Yeraldith Tschudy. The sentence, handed down Friday at Onondaga County Courthouse, capped a case that shook Syracuse and forced another hard look at warning signs, prior interventions and whether the system had any chance to stop the violence.

Huff, 40, was sentenced to 40 years to life in state prison after pleading guilty in April to two counts of second-degree murder. He admitted he shot and killed Jeremiah and Tschudy on March 18, 2025, at his stepfather’s home on Roney Road in Syracuse. Court records and local coverage say the plea deal also meant Huff would not be sentenced for the attempted murder of his stepfather, who was shot in the same attack.

Law enforcement spent about 12 hours searching overnight across Onondaga County before a citizen tip led officers to arrest Huff near the crime scene. The search stretched from Syracuse into the wider county, drawing in multiple agencies and leaving neighbors to absorb the news while investigators closed in on the suspect.

The most wrenching details centered on Jeremiah. Police said the boy called his mother after he was shot, and Syracuse police said Samantha Gallup Peltier was on the phone with him when he died. In court, Gallup Peltier said she had feared Huff’s unpredictable behavior for years and said multiple restraining orders existed for a reason. Her account pushed the case beyond a single night of bloodshed and into a broader question of how much danger had already been documented.

Onondaga County Chief Assistant District Attorney Robert Moran told the court, “There were three people in the world who … still gave him some grace. And he killed two of them and tried to kill the third.” Prosecutors also emphasized that Tschudy, who lived in Rochester, worked as a social worker. Her family moved to Florida and sent a victim-impact letter to be read in court.

The case had already stirred anger in April, when courtroom video showed Huff smiling and laughing as the charges were read during his guilty plea hearing. Friday’s sentence brought finality for now, but it also left Onondaga County with the same blunt question that has shadowed the case from the start: how many warning signs were visible before the killings, and who had the chance to act on them?