A Louisiana teenager has pleaded guilty after investigators say he tried to kill a father who was defending his daughter from bullies.
Jerry Huggins, 19, pleaded guilty to aggravated second-degree battery and illegal use of weapons Monday. He was initially charged with attempted first-degree murder and illegal use of a weapon for the shooting of Corey Breaux.
Huggins was sentenced to 13 years in prison on Wednesday. Huggins received 11 years for the battery charge and two years for the illegal use of weapons.
WBRZ reported Breaux was shot in March 2025. He said he went outside to protect his 14-year-old daughter, who was getting bullied by a group of teenagers, when he was shot three times.
Breaux survived the shooting. According to an online fundraiser, he was in the ICU for multiple days. He had bullets from his neck, abdomen, and groin removed.
“This gentleman was doing nothing wrong. He was trying to defend his daughter against a bunch of bullies who were out there terrorizing his daughter, so he stood up,” Baton Rouge Police Information Office Saundra Watts told WBRZ.
“He did the right thing, but unfortunately, this teen took it upon himself to shoot this man in front of his daughter.”
Huggins was initially on the run after the shooting before authorities arrested him a week or two later.
Breaux and his family told WBRZ that they were relieved he was off the street at the time.
“Obviously surprised, but thankful honestly, and also wanted to truly get this completed,” Breaux said.
“It is a sigh of relief; it is, you know, brings a little bit of peace to the situation,” Breaux’s wife, Lorena, said.
The family wrote online that Breaux was in the process of earning his degree when he got shot. He graduated from the University of Phoenix last fall with a degree in business.
Breaux told WBRZ his outlook on the youth has shifted.
“Especially with what’s going on with that younger demographic, because seeing a lot of what’s been happening a lot of the younger demographic, that kind of in a negative light,” he said.
Breaux said he would not hesitate to defend his daughter again.
“I would definitely take their places, all my four children, my wife, I would take their places, I would rather be in that hospital bed as opposed to them, I would have been a worse version of myself if my roles were reversed,” he told WBRZ.
Another one of Breaux’s children, his daughter’s big sister, told WBRZ she had been supporting her sister since the shooting.
“She sometimes feels like it’s her fault. I told her it’s never your fault that whole situation didn’t have to turn out the way it did, pulling out a gun against a man who wasn’t going to hurt you and only wanted you to leave from beside his house; there is no excuse for it,” she said.
Since the shooting, Breaux has been able to walk his daughter onto the field after she was named homecoming queen. He is also preparing to celebrate his second-oldest child’s graduation.
“So many good things have happened since the incident, and we are so blessed. Thank you to everyone who helped when we needed it most. Faith in humanity restored,” Lorena wrote on an online fundraiser.
Atlanta Black Star reached out to Breaux for his reaction to the plea deal, but has not received a response.
