Evidence Tampering in Illinois: Deleted Texts, Hidden Guns

Last Reviewed & Updated: October 7, 2026

By: W. Scott Hanken | Former Sangamon County Prosecutor | Springfield Criminal Defense Attorney | Voted “Best Attorney” — Illinois Times Best of Springfield & State Journal-Register Reader’s Choice | Springfield, IL | Sangamon County | (217) 544-4057 | hankenlaw.com

In Illinois, destroying, hiding, or altering evidence to avoid arrest or prosecution is obstructing justice, a Class 4 felony carrying one to three years in prison. The State must also prove your conduct materially impeded the investigation. A throw the officer watches and recovers in seconds usually does not.

Bottom Line: Illinois charges evidence tampering under the obstructing justice statute, 720 ILCS 5/31-4. It is a felony, which means court supervision is off the table. But the charge has a built-in weak point: the State must prove your conduct materially got in the way of the investigation. If police recovered the phone, the texts, or the gun quickly and easily, that element may be missing.

Facing a tampering or destroying evidence charge in Springfield? Call W. Scott Hanken, Attorney at Law, at (217) 544-4057 before you talk to police or delete anything else.

Key Takeaways:

• Evidence tampering is charged as obstructing justice under 720 ILCS 5/31-4, a Class 4 felony with a range of one to three years in prison.
• Court supervision is not available for any felony, including this one.
• The State must prove your conduct materially impeded the investigation. That requirement comes from People v. Comage and People v. Casler, and Illinois juries are now instructed on it.
• Deleting texts, wiping a phone, or hiding a gun can qualify, but only if you acted to avoid an arrest or prosecution.
• There is no family exception. Hiding evidence to protect someone else is the same crime.

What Counts as Evidence Tampering Under Illinois Law?

Evidence tampering in Illinois is charged as obstructing justice: knowingly destroying, altering, hiding, or disguising evidence, planting evidence, or giving false information, done to prevent someone’s arrest or prosecution. It is not a separate crime with its own name.

The statute is 720 ILCS 5/31-4, last amended by P.A. 97-1079, effective January 1, 2013.

Statute Callout — 720 ILCS 5/31-4(a):

“A person obstructs justice when, with intent to prevent the apprehension or obstruct the prosecution or defense of any person, he or she knowingly commits any of the following acts: (1) Destroys, alters, conceals or disguises physical evidence, plants false evidence, furnishes false information; or (2) Induces a witness having knowledge material to the subject at issue to leave the State or conceal himself or herself; or (3) Possessing knowledge material to the subject at issue, he or she leaves the State or conceals himself…”

Source: Illinois General Assembly, 720 ILCS 5/31-4 (P.A. 97-1079, eff. 1-1-13).

Subsection (a)(4) separately covers a parent, guardian, or caretaker who gives materially false information during an investigation into the disappearance or death of a child under 13.

Three things have to line up for a conviction:

• An act. Destroying, altering, concealing, or disguising physical evidence, planting evidence, or giving false information.
• Knowledge and intent. You acted knowingly, and you did it to prevent an arrest or obstruct a prosecution. Clearing out an old phone for no reason connected to any investigation is not the crime.
• A material impediment. Your conduct actually got in the way of the administration of justice. This element comes from Illinois Supreme Court case law, not from the text of the statute, and it is where many of these cases are won.

Notice the phrase “of any person.” You do not have to be the suspect. Hiding a friend’s gun or deleting a relative’s texts to protect them falls under the same statute.

Is Destroying Evidence a Felony in Illinois?

Yes. Destroying or hiding evidence is a Class 4 felony in Illinois, punishable by one to three years in prison, with no court supervision.

The classification is in 720 ILCS 5/31-4(b)(1). If the State proves the conduct was in furtherance of gang-related activity, subsection (b)(2) raises it to a Class 3 felony. Because it is a felony, both 730 ILCS 5/5-4.5-50(a) and 730 ILCS 5/5-6-1(c) bar court supervision.

That matters more than most people realize. A disorderly conduct or paraphernalia case in Sangamon County can end in supervision and no conviction. Add a tampering count, and that option disappears for the tampering charge.

*Resisting becomes a Class 4 felony if it is the proximate cause of an injury to the officer (720 ILCS 5/31-1(a-7)).

Sentencing authority: 730 ILCS 5/5-4.5-45 (Class 4), 730 ILCS 5/5-4.5-40 (Class 3), 730 ILCS 5/5-4.5-55 (Class A misdemeanors), 730 ILCS 5/5-4.5-50(b) (felony fines), and 730 ILCS 5/5-6-1(c) (supervision exclusions). A Class 4 prison sentence carries one year of mandatory supervised release afterward. Probation is available for most first-time Class 4 offenders.

Does It Still Count if Police Found the Evidence?

Often, no. The Illinois Supreme Court requires proof that your conduct materially impeded the administration of justice, so evidence police recovered quickly and easily usually does not support a conviction.

The statute does not use the words “material impediment.” That element comes from People v. Comage, 241 Ill. 2d 139 (2011), and People v. Casler, 2020 IL 125117. Juries across Illinois are now instructed on it under the pattern jury instructions for obstructing justice, IPI Criminal 22.19, 22.19A, and 22.20 (revisions approved January 31, 2025).

In Comage, the defendant pulled a crack pipe and push rod from his pocket while fleeing police and threw them over a six-foot wooden fence. An officer recovered both items about 20 seconds later, roughly 10 feet away. The Supreme Court reversed his obstructing justice conviction: the officers knew where the evidence was and had no trouble finding it, so he did not “conceal” it and did not materially impede anything. Comage came up from Macon County through the Fourth District Appellate Court, the same appellate district that hears appeals from the Sangamon County Circuit Court.

Look at what was at stake in that case. At his first trial, the jury acquitted Comage of the paraphernalia charge but convicted him of obstructing justice. The trial court granted a new trial, a second jury convicted him of obstructing justice again, and he was sentenced to three years in the Department of Corrections. A toss over a fence that police undid in about 20 seconds became a three-year felony sentence until the Supreme Court stepped in.

Casler extended the rule to false information. Officers found Casler in a hotel-room bathroom, and he gave them a false name. They found his Illinois driver’s license in his wallet and arrested him on an outstanding warrant. The Supreme Court reversed his conviction and sent the case back for further proceedings. It held that furnishing false information under section 31-4(a)(1) requires proof that the false information materially impeded the administration of justice, and that the jury should have been instructed on that element.

In my experience, this is the element that actually moves these cases. At a preliminary hearing in Sangamon County, the question is simple: how long was the item gone, and how much work did recovery take? Bodycam that shows an officer walking ten feet and picking up the bag is a Comage problem for the State. A factory reset that takes a search warrant, a Cellebrite extraction, and three weeks of reports is a different case.

Is Deleting Text Messages a Felony in Illinois?

It can be. Deleting texts is usually charged as obstructing justice, a Class 4 felony, but only if you deleted them to avoid an arrest or prosecution and the State proves the deletion actually got in the way of the investigation.

Prosecutors routinely charge phone deletions and factory resets under section 31-4(a)(1) as destroying or altering physical evidence. The phone is a physical object, and wiping it alters it. What the State must still prove:

• Timing and intent. Deleting messages as a daily habit, or long before anyone suspected anything, is not tampering. The State needs evidence tying the deletion to a desire to avoid arrest or prosecution. That evidence usually comes from timing: a wipe minutes after a crash, after an officer knocked, or after a co-defendant was arrested.
• Material impediment. Much of what you delete survives. Carrier records, cloud backups, the other person’s phone, and forensic extraction can all bring the messages back. If investigators got the same information another way with little effort, the Comage and Casler reasoning gives the defense a strong argument.
• Physical evidence. The statute says “physical evidence.” Whether deleted data, as opposed to the device itself, fits that phrase is an argument worth preserving in the right case. It is not settled law, and prosecutors charge wipes as altering the device.

In Springfield, this comes up most often in cases built on communications: drug delivery investigations, domestic battery cases where the complaining witness and defendant exchanged texts, and DUI crashes where the State wants to know whether a driver was on the phone.

In discovery I look for the extraction report, the tool used, the date of the warrant or consent, and whether the same messages already existed on the other phone or in iCloud. If the Springfield Police Department or the Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office recovered the thread another way within a day or two, that goes in the Comage/Casler file.

What Is the Penalty for Hiding a Gun From Police in Illinois?

Hiding a gun to avoid arrest or prosecution is obstructing justice, a Class 4 felony carrying one to three years in prison, charged on top of any weapons offense. The State must still prove the hiding materially impeded the investigation.

Concealing physical evidence is one of the listed acts in section 31-4(a)(1), and guns and drugs are the most common items in Sangamon County tampering cases. Compare two situations. A driver tosses a baggie out the window during a traffic stop on Dirksen Parkway, and the officer picks it up off the shoulder a minute later. Under Comage, that is a weak concealment case, because police saw it and recovered it easily. A person who hides a handgun inside a wall, buries it, or hands it to someone who drives it out of town has put it somewhere police cannot readily reach. That is the kind of conduct the statute targets.

How Is Evidence Tampering Different From Resisting or Obstructing a Peace Officer?

They are separate crimes. Resisting or obstructing a peace officer punishes interference with an officer’s physical duties and is usually a misdemeanor; evidence tampering punishes interference with the evidence and the prosecution and is a felony.

The same encounter can produce more than one charge. Run from a Springfield Police Department officer and throw a bag over a fence, and you may face 31-1 for the flight and 31-4 for the bag. For a full breakdown of the misdemeanor charge, see our guide to resisting or obstructing a peace officer in Illinois.

One note for readers facing a 31-1 charge: on May 27, 2026, the Illinois Supreme Court agreed to review People v. Carswell (No. 132938), a case about section 31-1(d). It affects resisting charges, not evidence tampering.

Charged with destroying or hiding evidence in Sangamon County? The material-impediment defense depends on facts that fade fast: bodycam timing, recovery reports, forensic extraction logs. Call W. Scott Hanken, Attorney at Law, at (217) 544-4057.

What If the Facts of My Tampering Case Are Complicated?

What if I deleted the texts but police recovered them anyway?

Recovery does not automatically defeat the charge, but it goes straight to the material-impediment element required by People v. Casler, 2020 IL 125117, and People v. Comage, 241 Ill. 2d 139 (2011). In a Sangamon County case, the defense question becomes: how much time, effort, and expertise did recovery take? Messages pulled from the other party’s phone in an afternoon look like Comage. Data that required a warrant to a carrier and weeks of forensic work looks more like a real impediment.

What if I got rid of the gun before I knew police were looking for me?

You can still be charged. The statute requires intent to prevent someone’s apprehension or obstruct a prosecution (720 ILCS 5/31-4(a)), not a pending case number. Getting rid of a gun right after a shooting, to avoid being caught, satisfies the intent element even if no officer has knocked yet. Discarding property with no connection to any known offense, or for a separate, innocent reason, does not. In practice, timing drives the case: the State in Springfield will try to connect the disposal to a specific event, and the defense tests whether that connection is real or assumed.

What if I hid evidence for my son or boyfriend, not for myself?

You face the same charge. Section 31-4 applies when you act to protect “any person,” and the statute contains no exception for family members (720 ILCS 5/31-4(a)). Parents, spouses, and partners are charged under this statute in Sangamon County. The same defenses apply: the State must prove you knew what the item was, that you intended to prevent an arrest or prosecution, and that your conduct materially impeded the investigation. If you were asked to hold a bag and did not know what was in it, the knowledge element is contested.

What if I only gave police a fake name?

It depends on how it is charged. Obstructing identification, 720 ILCS 5/31-4.5, is a Class A misdemeanor for giving a false name, address, or birthdate after a lawful arrest or detention, or when an officer questions you as a witness. Obstructing justice by furnishing false information under 31-4(a)(1) is a Class 4 felony, but Casler requires proof that the false name materially impeded justice. When officers learn your real name within minutes from an ID card, fingerprints, or a database check, the felony charge is vulnerable.

How Does a Tampering Charge Affect My Case in Sangamon County?

A tampering count raises the stakes of the whole case: it turns a misdemeanor case into a felony case, removes supervision on that count, and can affect pretrial release.

• It raises the ceiling. A misdemeanor drug or traffic case becomes a felony case, with a Class 4 range of one to three years in prison.
• It removes supervision on that count, under 730 ILCS 5/5-4.5-50(a) and 5-6-1(c).
• It can surface at a pretrial release hearing. In setting release conditions, the court considers “the nature and seriousness of the risk of obstructing or attempting to obstruct the criminal justice process” that your release would pose (725 ILCS 5/110-5(a)(5)). In plain terms, an allegation that you already destroyed evidence gives the State an argument for stricter conditions. Our post on what happens at a SAFE-T Act detention hearing in Springfield explains how those hearings work.

In my experience, a 31-4 count most often rides along with a drug, gun, or domestic case built on texts. The Sangamon County State’s Attorney uses it as leverage: the felony is the chip the State can dismiss in exchange for a plea on the underlying charge. That leverage is only as strong as the State’s material-impediment proof. When that proof is thin, the first conversation should be about dismissing or reducing the 31-4 count, not treating it as an automatic add-on.

What Defenses Work Against an Evidence Tampering Charge?

The strongest defenses attack the elements the State must prove: material impediment, intent, and knowledge.

• No material impediment. Under Comage and Casler, quick and easy recovery is strong evidence that the State cannot prove a material impediment. Bodycam footage often shows exactly how long an item was out of sight.
• No intent to obstruct. The act must be tied to avoiding an arrest or prosecution. Routine deletions, disposal for an unrelated reason, or conduct before any offense occurred do not qualify.
• No knowledge. If you did not know what you were holding, hiding, or throwing away, you did not knowingly conceal evidence.
• Not evidence of anything. If the item had no connection to an offense, destroying it did not obstruct a prosecution.
• Suppression. If the evidence came from an unlawful stop, search, or phone extraction, a motion to suppress can remove it, and with it the State’s proof of what was hidden or deleted.

The pattern I see is a traffic stop or domestic call, a phone seized, a wipe or deleted thread from the same night, and a 31-4 count added after the lab report. The fight is almost never whether something was deleted. It is whether the deletion changed what investigators could prove.

What Should I Do Right Now If Police Say I Destroyed Evidence?

Stop, delete nothing else, say nothing to police, and call a defense attorney before your first court date.

• Do not delete, move, or discard anything else. Every new act after you know about an investigation is fresh evidence of intent.
• Do not contact witnesses about the case. Asking someone to leave the state or hide is a separate form of obstructing justice under 31-4(a)(2), and other witness-contact statutes can apply.
• Do not explain yourself to police. Your explanation of why you deleted something is often the State’s best intent evidence. You have the right to remain silent and the right to a lawyer.
• Write down the timeline for your attorney only: when you deleted or moved the item, and when you first learned police were involved.
• Call a criminal defense attorney before your first appearance at the Sangamon County Complex.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Further Reading

Related Articles

• Jury Tampering and Juror Intimidation Charges in Illinois: What the Law Says About Photographing or Contacting a Juror — See the other way interfering with a case can turn into a separate criminal charge.
• Pleading the Fifth in Illinois: What You Need to Know — Learn why staying silent about a deletion protects you instead of making you look guilty.
• Can an Illinois Prosecutor Argue That Asking for a Lawyer Shows Guilt? — Find out whether asking for a lawyer can be used against you at trial.
• Federal Gun Deregulation Won’t Save You From an Illinois Weapons Charge — Understand the weapons charge that usually comes with a hidden gun.
• Sangamon County Expungement Process Guide — See what clearing your record actually involves if a case goes badly.

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About the Author: W. Scott Hanken, Attorney at Law
Scott Hanken is a Springfield, Illinois criminal defense attorney with over 37 years of experience, including service as a former Sangamon County prosecutor. He has been voted Best Attorney by the Illinois Times and State Journal-Register, holds an Avvo 10.0 “Superb” rating, and has earned over 270 five-star Google reviews. He serves clients throughout Sangamon County and Central Illinois.

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This article is for general educational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Every case is unique — contact an experienced Springfield criminal defense attorney for guidance on your specific situation.