If a person breaks the law in a manner worse than you broke the law, your infractions dont "fade away" and make you innocent. Dont be an idiot.

And BTW, yes most of the time it does take someone going through something like this to learn not to volunteer information (and various other nifty clues to life that come with experience) UNLESS they were to say actually listen to others and learn from someone elses mistakes. That however, doesnt seem to be human nature in most cases.