BENTON, La. (AP) – A northwest Louisiana farmhand has been sentenced to 105 years in prison for trying to kill his bosses by putting a bomb in a crawl space under their bed because the husband hadn’t saved his horse.
News outlets report that Bossier Parish Judge Parker Self told 56-year-old Douglas Holley, “I’m going to remove you from normal society.”
Holley was convicted in August on two counts of attempted first-degree murder, two counts of making or possessing a bomb and one of aggravated arson.
Neither Holley nor horse farm owners Robert and Tracy Hewlett made a statement at Tuesday’s sentencing.
Tracy Hewlett told The Associated Press in December 2015 that they, their three small dogs and a cat all escaped unharmed. She said, “We think it was our Christmas miracle.”
At the time of his conviction, KTBS reported that Holley was a handyman at the farm that Holley, a veterinarian, and his wife owned. Testimony showed Holley was obsessed with the death of his horse, which Holley wasn’t able to save.
Holley was convicted of detonating a pipe bomb underneath the bedroom floor of the Hewletts’ home at Holly Hill Farm just outside Benton on December 19, 2015. The Hewletts, along with four pets, were knocked out of bed by the force of the blast, but the thickness of the floors of the farm house are credited with dispersing much of the force of the blast. Shrapnel from the bomb, which included fishing weights, was embedded in the couple’s mattress.
To read the full KTBS story about Holley’s conviction, click here.
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