Andrea Horne’s family left the courtroom swiftly Monday, not prepared to talk about the sentence for their daughter’s killer.

But this morning her mother, Linda, had a lot to say.

She said she is happy with the sentence Graylan Bost received for murdering her daughter Andrea and Andrea’s boyfriend, Bryan Jones.

Bost will spend as much as 42 years and five months in prison for the murders after pleading guilty to two counts of second-degree murder.

“I’m glad it’s over with. I really did not want to go through a trial. It already hurts so much, we just wanted to get this over with,” Linda Horne said.

After Monday’s hearing, Bost’s relatives poured out of the Superior Courtroom, some crying, some walking only with help.

Judge Sanford Steelman sentenced Bost to a minimum of 34 years and a maximum 42 years, five months. “But he’s still alive,” his brother Keith Bost said. “At least we still have him.”

Graylan Bost faced the death penalty for the deaths of Horne, 24, and Jones, 26.

Bost received a jail credit of one year, three months for time already served.

“I’m never going to say I’m happy with it,” Bost’s older brother, John Bost Sr., said about the sentence.

“The main thing, though, is that he is still with us,” Bost’s brother, Keith, interjected.

“The family is sorry someone’s life was taken,” his sister-in-law, Laverne Bost, said. “We are regretful for that.”

“We are so close to Bryan Jones’ family that we had a double whammy,” Laverne Bost said.

The family consoled each other; some just shook their heads in disbelief.

“He was a good boy. Graylan was never violent,” John Bost said.

But Linda Horne said Graylan Bost beat her daughter and was very jealous of other men.

“He was jealous over her because she was very attractive,” Linda Horne said.

Earlier, John Bost testified Graylan was never a fighter. “He was the type, he wouldn’t fight, he would always run home,” John Bost testified.

John Bost also said he never saw his brother shoot a gun, “not even a cap pistol.”

But Graylan Bost gunned down Horne and Jones at Horne’s Laurel Pointe apartment in May.

None of Jones’ relatives appeared in court Monday.

“She couldn’t have children, and she wanted to marry and she thought she could marry Bryan Jones and he (Bost) knew that,” Linda Horne said. “He was very jealous.”

Salisbury Police Detective Danny Dyles testified regarding the chain of events that lead to the murders.

On May 6, 1999, a Thursday, Andrea Horne and Graylan Bost got into an argument at Horne’s apartment. Bost and Horne had dated for a long time, but at the time of the shooting, Horne was seeing Jones.

Jones was present during the argument, and Horne asked Graylan Bost to come back the next day so they could talk.

Around 11 a.m. the next day, Graylan Bost returned to Horne’s apartment.

Jones was there briefly, before going to the store, and Horne’s sister, Kimberly; her boyfriend; and a 2-year-old toddler were in the back bedroom.

After Jones left, an argument between Horne and Bost escalated.

Detective Dyles testified that Horne ran down the hallway and yelled to her sister, Kim, that “Graylan has a gun.”

Kim saw Bost grab Andrea Horne by the hair and put a gun to her head. Dyles said Kim Horne and her boyfriend shut the bedroom door.

They heard a couple of shots then a brief pause and a couple of more shots. Dyles said there was a longer pause and then a string of shots.

Andrea Horne was shot four times at close range. As Bryan Jones returned from the store, he heard the shots and ran into the apartment, where Bost shot him three times.

“I never liked him that well. You know, I was just nice to him for my daughter,” Linda Horne said. “By her being the age she was, she said she was old enough to make her decisions and I tried not to involve myself, but we knew what he was doing. He would always try to paint a pretty picture for us, but she began to isolate us and keep us out and not tell us anything. She really loved him.

“…I didn’t know it would go this far. We were surprised he did this.”