Man pleads guilty to knife robbery

A Crimora man awaits a Dec. 7 sentencing after pleading guilty to robbing Greenberry’s Coffee & Tea Company in the Barracks Road Shopping Center at knifepoint in June 2008.

Brian Eugene Brubaker, 42, faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Brubaker’s guilty plea in Charlottesville Circuit Court on Thursday is the latest plea stemming from a number of incidents in the Central Virginia region.

He was sentenced to 11 years in prison in March in connection with robberies at Bootville, Crawford Saddlery and Food Lion in Ruckersville.

In April, Brubaker pleaded guilty to robbing the Augusta County Co-op Farm Bureau in Staunton in June 2008.

Authorities said he also attempted to rob a convenience store near Waynesboro as well as a Cracker Barrel restaurant in Harrisonburg.

Public records show Brubaker, a contractor, was dogged by financial problems but had no prior history of violent crime. He filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in December 2002, then pleaded guilty to construction, check and money fraud in 2003. In October 2007 the Virginia Board for Contractors revoked his license.