YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio - The Poland doctor convicted of vehicular homicide in a 2015 fatal boating crash on the Berlin Reservoir has started serving a ten-day jail sentence. 

Dr. Joseph Yurich was booked into the Mahoning County jail on Wednesday immediately after Judge John Durkin suspended all but ten days of a 12-month sentence on convictions of vehicular homicide and leaving the scene of an accident.

He was also ordered to house arrest for 90 days with electronic monitoring, five years of probation, and to perform 200 hours of community service at the Rescue Mission of the Mahoning Valley, performing medical services for those that need it. 

Yurich will also be ordered to take a mandatory course to maintain his boating license. 

The prosecution requested the maximum sentence of 360 days in jail, $2,000 in fines, a five-year license suspension, and mandatory remedial boating courses. 

However, the defense argued that the court was duty-bound, and directed by law, to consider Dr. Yurich's military background and a diagnosis of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. 

During the sentencing, Judge Durkin said that state law dictates that the maximum sentence cannot be imposed when there is a military background, unless it is for the worst possible offense under the charge, or there is a long-standing history of criminal behavior. 

But the judge later said that he was thoroughly convinced that it was the actions of Dr. Yurich that caused the death of another man. 

Earlier this month, Judge Durkin said that he could not convict Yurich on several charges without reasonable doubt. The charges of aggravated vehicular homicide charge, as well as aggravated vehicular assault, and operating a vehicle while impaired was dismissed. 

Yurich's speed boat hit a fishing boat around midnight on May 9, 2015, on Berlin Lake. 

The man in the fishing boat, Neal Cuppett of Akron, died. Another man in Cuppett's boat was injured. 

During the sentencing, Cuppett's wife addressed the court, saying she felt as though Yurich's rights were the only one taken into account. 

"Joe Yurich will never match up to the man my husband was. He simply does not have the character," she said. 

Authorities believed Yurich was intoxicated at the time of the incident, but Judge John Durkin ruled the blood and urine samples taken from Yurich can't be used because they were not refrigerated before being analyzed. 

Defense attorneys argued Wednesday that during the trial an expert witness testified that if a blood sample is not refrigerated it will continue to ferment, making it an unreliable sample. They continued by saying that they had no knowledge of a urine sample, or where that may have gone. 

Judge Durkin addresses concerns, saying he knew the samples were "the elephant in the room". Durkin went on to say that it was clear that a Portage County detective did not follow the Ohio Administrative Code, and failed to refrigerate the samples. 

Attorneys also argued for a lenient sentence by saying that following the charges against Yurich, the State Medical Licensing Board conducted an alcohol liability test, in order to make sure he was fit to maintain his medical license. 

Yurich settled a wrongful death negligence suit filed by Cuppett's estate. 

In May, a second negligence suit was brought against Yurich by the man who was injured in the same incident. 

Yurich is a general surgeon at The Surgical Hospital at Southwoods in Boardman.