NORTHAMPTON — Timothy Lipski doesn’t remember wearing a mask or brandishing a knife when he robbed two businesses in 2013. In fact, he doesn’t remember the robberies at all. But he also doesn’t doubt he carried out the crimes, he told a judge on Tuesday.

The 29-year-old former Easthampton man pleaded guilty Tuesday in Hampshire Superior Court to two counts of armed masked robbery and one count of armed assault. Lipski admitted robbing Doyle’s Package Store, 84 Maple St., in Florence, in January 2013, as well as Main Street Service gas, 317 Main St., in Easthampton.

He initially pleaded not guilty to the crimes in Northampton District Court.

Lipski was ordered held in Hampshire Jail and House of Correction on $5,000 bail on each charge at the time of his arraignment for this crime in June 2015.

At that time, he was already serving a 2½-year sentence for a separate incident that led to a February 2014 conviction on charges of driving while under the influence of drugs, possessing heroin with the intent to distribute, and possession of heroin and cocaine.

After the original sentence for the 2014 case, he made bail and was released in January.

On Tuesday, both the prosecutor, First Assistant Northwestern District Attorney Steven Gagne, and Lipski’s attorney, David Mintz, presented an agreed-upon plea in the robbery case to Judge Mark Mason.

The deal, which the judge accepted, means Lipski will avoid any additional time behind bars and, instead, institutes a five-year probationary period with various conditions. He must also pay back about $1,097 in restitution.

“It would not be sensible at this point to incarcerate him when he’s got a really good program going for himself,” Mintz told the judge, adding that his client successfully completed a nine-month Salvation Army rehabilitation program, where he also now works. “You just don’t see this very often.”

Mintz added that Lipski did not recall the acts due to his heroin-induced state.

The prosecutor echoed Mintz’s argument, telling Mason that he found Lipski’s dedication to his rehabilitation commendable.

“Given that the crimes were … almost four years ago at this point, it doesn’t seem appropriate to derail his progress, send him to state prison, and essentially have him start over,” Gagne said.

Just before the judge accepted the man’s change of plea, he wanted to make himself perfectly clear.

“Make no mistake about it Mr. Lipski, I am mindful, I am sympathetic to substance abuse and the difficulties that you faced,” Mason told him in court. “But the moment anyone puts on a mask and engages in an act of (armed robbery), my sympathy candidly terminates … (this) is a gift from the Commonwealth.”

Michael Majchrowicz can be reached at mmajchrowicz@gazettenet.com.