The good news is that whatever you did you probably won't get
more than probation. Unless you a) attack the cop who is arresting
your or b) kill someone, most people imagine a much greater punishment
than they actually get.
Your emails and IMs can certainly be used against you, though your
lawyer can try a couple of things to keep them out if the prosecutor
isn't very good.
If you reformat your hard drive and say it wasn't you, the computer geek who
looks at your computer after it's brought in for evidence will easily find your IMs,
proving you to be a complete liar who has tried to destroy evidence.
That destruction of evidence, aka obstruction of justice, may well be
a worse crime that whatever you are accused of. Remember, most politicians
and corporate big wigs you see on the news end up getting busted for
obstruction, not for the initial crime. Nixon resigned as he was being
indicted fro obstruction of justice, Clinton's impeachment vote was on
obstruction charges, and Scooter Libby is in prison right now for obstruction -
hiding or destroying evidence. Format your drive now and you're guilty
obstruction whether or not you're guilty of anything else.
Your lawyer could decide to claim that either a) you didn't send the messages
or b) someone altered the messages to have a different meaning than what you
intended, but they'll do that AFTER they ensure that the prosecutor isn't going
to get their hands on your computer. They could also try to keep the evidence
out on grounds of hearsay or chain of custody and authenticity. A good
prosecutor will win that fight and get them in, though. See:
http://www.negotiationlawblog.com/20...ay-exceptions/
It'll be pretty easy to show that the IMs came from you, also, assuming it's a
conversation and not just a couple sentences. Many times I, who am not even
an expert, have shown who wrote something like that based on characteristics
of the writing. For example, in this thread you've used ellipses (...) several times.
Few people use ellipses regularly, but far fewer "misspell" their ellipses by using
only two dots. (An ellipsis has three dots, ... , just as a colon : has two and a
period has one.) Some people use ellipses correctly, some people use them
where a comma should be, and a few people use them where a period should be.
You tend to throw in an ellipsis at almost random points, where no punctuation
should be at all. Your IM conversation probably has four or five such identifiable characteristics which, when combined, make it pretty certain that you are the
person who wrote them. I use the example of the ellipses because they'll stick
out to the lawyers and judge, who regularly see them used correctly, as part of
a quote, and probably use ellipses themselves when quoting. Your writing surely
has other distinguishing features which wouldn't be quite as obvious to a lawyer.
Also note you have publicly admitted that you wrote the IMs right here on this board.