AUBURN — A judge sentenced a local man Wednesday to two months in jail for attempting to rob a Lewiston restaurant while masked, gloved and armed with a knife in 2019.

Christian Copeland of Auburn appears in Androscoggin County Superior Court on Wednesday to plead guilty to attempted robbery of a Lewiston restaurant. Christopher Williams/ Sun Journal

Christian Copeland, 21, of 60 Washington St. was in Androscoggin County Superior Court where he pleaded guilty to attempted robbery, a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

Justice Harold Stewart II sentenced Copeland to three years in prison, but suspended all of that time except for 60 days.

Stewart said he believed the experience of being incarcerated would be sufficient to deter Copeland from committing future crimes.

Virgil Taylor, owner of Buddy T’s Pub and Restaurant at 675 Main St., was in the courtroom Wednesday. He told the judge the incident has caused him anxiety. He said Copeland had a choice the night of Dec. 20, 2019, not to go along with the plan to rob the business.

Copeland’s role was to jump Taylor as he was leaving the restaurant and force him to open the safe, according to Assistant District Attorney Neil McLean.

But the plan never got that far.

A police officer in his cruiser noticed the three men and a juvenile outside the restaurant went to investigate.

Had the officer not taken that action, the crime facing Copeland might have been more serious, McLean said. That sentiment was echoed by Stewart.

Taylor said he believed Copeland needed to spend six months in jail.

Stewart said he took into consideration the fact that Copeland had been on house arrest since the incident and hadn’t violated its conditions. He said Copeland was cooperative with police when he was questioned and took responsibility for his actions.

Stewart said he also considered Copeland’s age of 19 at the time of the incident and the fact that he has mental health issues that may have made him impressionable and easy to manipulate.

There is some risk associated with keeping Copeland behind bars too long, Stewart said, that might have an unintended effect on him. But Stewart said the serious facts of the case required that Copeland spend some time behind bars.

Copeland and prosecutors had agreed he would be incarcerated up to six months, but he would be allowed to argue for less time to serve.

His attorney, Heidi Drew, argued her client has autism and was low functioning. She said he had underestimated the risk of his actions and had put a high value on peer acceptance.

She said she worried about the effects incarceration would have on him.

Copeland apologized to Taylor for making him fearful.

Copeland said he lost someone he thought was a friend (a co-defendant) as well as his girlfriend and his housing as a result of his criminal activities. He said he hadn’t comprehended his conduct until afterward. He said it had been a “really good learning experience.”

When Copeland is released from jail, he’ll be on probation for three years. During that time, he’ll be prohibited from having any dangerous weapons, including knives and will be prohibited from contact with Taylor and his former friend and co-defendant Noah Breau, 22, of 64 Oxford St., Lewiston.

McLean said Breau had been the ringleader of the four people involved, although Copeland had helped with the planning.

Breau was sentenced in January on the same charge as Copeland to four years in prison with three years suspended, leaving one year to serve behind bars.

Police were tipped off the night of Dec. 20, 2019, that a group had planned to rob Buddy T’s Pub and Restaurant. An officer drove to the restaurant where he saw four people dressed in dark clothing and wearing face masks while standing next to an exterior door at the restaurant, according to court records. A pat-down of the four men produced four knives, one on each of the suspects.

One of the men was a tipster who had given his boss at another restaurant information that led police to Buddy T’s that night. His boss at The Village Inn on High Street in Auburn had told him to go along with the other three to get information about the plan to rob Buddy T’s.

The same tipster told police after the four men were taken to the police station that one of the four had asked him earlier if he wanted to make $1,000 and told him about the robbery plan.

Breau had given the tipster a face mask, gloves and showed him a map of the layout at Buddy T’s, where Breau had worked.

While the group waited for the last of the customers to leave the restaurant, the tipster texted his boss to inform him of what was happening.

One of the four later told police that Breau had devised the robbery a month earlier. He said he was expected to “go for the safe with the owner. He stated that if the owner would not give them the code to the safe, they would go for the cash register.”

Breau told police the tipster was the one who came up with the robbery plan and had a map of the restaurant’s interior.