Background: David Huff (right) stands next to his attorney as he laughs in court on April 28 (Syracuse.com). Inset (left): Jeremiah Huff (Farone & Son Funeral Home). Inset (right): Yeraldith Tschudy (New Comer Cremations & Funerals).
A New York man who admitted to killing his girlfriend and 11-year-old son has learned his sentence.
David Huff, 44, was sentenced on Friday to 40 years to life in prison for the murders of his son, 11-year-old Jeremiah Huff, and his girlfriend, 32-year-old Yeraldith Tschudy. Huff pleaded guilty to shooting both victims to death on April 28 at a court hearing during which he was seen laughing, telling the judge he had a “joke stuck in [his] head.”
According to courtroom reporting by local news outlet Syracuse.com, Judge Ted Limpert reminded the convicted murderer of his behavior, saying that Huff acted like a “petulant teenager.”
Several family members were in the gallery on Friday to lay into Huff for his actions, including Jeremiah”s mother, Samantha Gallup Peltier, who recalled getting a phone call from the boy after he was shot by his own father. Local ABC affiliate WSYR reported that she told the court, “That phone call is played over and over and over and over in my head, daily.”
Peltier concluded her statements by telling Huff, “You are destined for the seventh circle of hell.”
Onondaga County Chief Assistant District Attorney Robert Moran read a statement from Tschudy’s mother, Judith Seoud, who wrote that her daughter “had crossed continents, buried her father, raised a child on her own and worked herself to the bone. That is who David Huff took from this world.”
As Law&Crime previously reported, Huff used a Remington 870 Express 12-gauge shotgun to kill Tschudy and then Jeremiah on March 17, 2025. Huff also allegedly fired the shotgun at his stepfather, but he ran out of bullets. Huff did not plead guilty to a charge of attempted murder in connection with the allegation involving his stepfather.
Huff fled his stepfather’s home after the fatal shootings, leading to an overnight manhunt that ended when a neighbor spotted Huff walking near the scene of the crime the following morning. Authorities said Huff had no known history of domestic violence before the double murder.
After handing down Huff’s sentence, Limpert told Huff, “Your actions are reprehensible, and you deserve to be incarcerated for the rest of your life. Even a sentence of life is not long enough for you.”
