A U.S. farmhand has been sentenced to 105 years after being convicted of planting a pipe bomb under the bed of the man and wife he worked for in retaliation for the man’s failure to save his horse.

Douglas Holley, 56, represented himself after firing a court-appointed attorney, and had refused a plea deal of 40 years in prison.

Holly Hill Farm Equestrian Center owner Tracy Hewlett said they, their three small dogs and a cat on the bed with them all escaped unharmed when the bomb sent them flying and left shrapnel in the ceiling of their home in Louisiana on Dec. 19, 2015.

Hewlett said she and her husband had just returned from a weeklong visit with their son in Australia and woke at about 3:30 a.m., “still on Australian time.” They were trying to go back to sleep when they heard a boom.

“There was a big flash of light, and both of us went flying,” she said. “My husband flew over the top of me onto the floor by my side.”

The couple’s thick mattress helped dissipate the bomb’s force, according to an investigator. The heavy farmhouse floors helped dissipate the bomb’s force as well.

She said the only problem they could recall with Holley was that her husband Robert, a veterinarian, had been unable to save Holley’s horse from colic during the summer.

After 24 hours of treatment, she said, Robert told Holley the illness was terminal, and Holley agreed to have the horse euthanized.

(SD-Agencies)