SNOW HILL, Md. (AP) — A Maryland man involved in a fatal boating accident is poised to avoid jail time provided he seeks alcohol counseling.

Robert Stanley Holmes, of Arbutus, was sentenced in Worcester County on Friday to a year in jail in the August death of Jordan
Craig Hock. Hock, 23, fell from a pontoon boat Holmes was operating in Assawoman Bay. Authorities say Holmes was drunk and Hock was riding at the bow.

The Daily Times of Salisbury reports that Holmes will not have to go to jail provided he undergoes alcohol counseling and satisfies the other terms of his probation.

The judge, Gerald V. Purnell, said the sentence would have been harsher had he found evidence that alcohol was a factor or that
Holmes was negligent in operating the boat.

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