ESCANABA, Mich. (WZMQ) – Just over two years after his arrest, an Escanaba man is scheduled for a pretrial hearing regarding the murder of a pregnant woman.
On July 8th, 2023, the Delta County Sheriff’s Office found the body of 22-year-old Harley Corwin in the woods in Ford River Township. Tavaris Lee Jackson, who was 32 years old at the time, was arraigned on a homicide-open murder charge in the following days.
That August, a Delta County judge found probable cause for three charges against Jackson—open murder, felony possession of a firearm at the time of the murder, and assault intentionally causing the death of a fetus. In November, the Attorney General’s Office took over prosecution of the case from Delta County Prosecutor Lauren Wickman, due to Wickman being cited as a potential witness.
Jackson’s trial was delayed several times over the course of the next year. In January of 2025, the trial was postponed indefinitely when Jackson filed an appeal to limit cross-exmination “to what is pertinent to the case.” The appeal was specifically centered on the credibility of Delta County Sheriff’s Department Sergeant Tom Lewis.
Documentation obtained through the Delta County Circuit Court shows the Court of Appeals acknowledged Lewis’ involvement in the investigation. The document cites a complaint made against Lewis by a witness, who claims he told her he was too drunk to drive to her house to discuss evidence, invited her to his house, threatened to “get her in trouble” for dealing cocaine, and “invited her to kiss him and send him sexually explicit photographs of herself.”
In July of 2025, the State of Michigan Court of Appeals issued a decision on Jackson’s appeal, saying in part, “We reverse the trial court’s order granting the prosecution’s motion to limine to preclude cross-examination of Sergeant Lewis on allegations of misconduct relating to the witness.” Jackson is now scheduled for a pretrial hearing on Thursday, August 14.
WZMQ 19 News will be at Jackson’s pretrial hearing and will continue to follow this story as it develops.
