ESCANABA, Mich. (WZMQ) – Just over a week ago, a trial began for the Delta County man accused of murdering 22-year-old Harley Corwin, whose body was found in the woods of Ford River Township on July 8, 2023. Now, the jury is working to reach a verdict.
Tavaris Lee Jackson faces charges of open murder, felony firearm possession, and assault intentionally causing the death of a fetus. Corwin was pregnant with their child at the time of her death, and her body was found with two bullet wounds to the skull.
After several days of calling witnesses, the prosecution rested on Tuesday. On Wednesday, the defense rested after Jackson declined to take the stand. That afternoon, both sides presented their closing statements.
Much of the defense’s statement revolved around the investigation into Corwin’s murder, which attorney Diane Kay-Hougaboom argued local police handled improperly. She recalled testimony about a search warrant executed at Jackson’s home shortly after his arrest.
“The police come in to do a search warrant of a house in a homicide investigation,” she said. “They then are there for a couple hours, take out the things that they think are relevant after having the case for less than a day, leave the place open, don’t put an officer there to watch the place to see if anybody comes in or comes out, and then leave. Then we know that they’re told the next day that somebody with a white truck came and was in that house. We know that the police say, ‘Oh, we had a bag of garbage that’s not there now,’ so we know somebody was in that house.
The defense also cited the testimony of one Delta County Sheriff’s Department deputy who said he did not change his gloves while collecting evidence.
“At least one officer at that search warrant was wearing gloves that had touched God knows what,” Kay-Hougaboom said. “… Deputy [Jared] Syverson said that he executed the arrest of Mr. Jackson earlier and that he can’t remember, but he probably would’ve been wearing gloves when he executed that arrest. Those gloves were not new. They were not in any way sterile… They were regular work gloves. We know from the testimony of the lab technicians that when things are processed with gloves that are not clean—that are not sterile in that way—that there is a danger of cross-contamination. We know that much of the DNA evidence has a mystery third profile involved, which could be involved from a variety of things, but it absolutely could be there because of cross-contamination.”
The prosecution argued that the investigation into Corwin’s disappearance and murder was extensive and thorough.
“They got Life360 records, Snapchat records for six people, Facebook records, Google records, AT&T, Verizon records, more Verizon records, Menards surveillance video, Walmart surveillance video,” said LaDonna Logan of the Michigan Attorney General’s Office. “They went to Wild Bill’s on the off chance that there was information that Harley was seen there on the Fourth of July. Detective Chouinard told you, ‘I watched that video, and it wasn’t Harley.'”
Corwin’s last sighting was on July 3, but her phone sent a handful of text messages to people in the following days. The prosecution asserted that those messages were not actually written by Corwin, as several women in her life testified that the wording and tone seemed “off.” Logan further argued that one message sent after Corwin’s disappearance even includes information intended to “exonerate” Jackson.
“They had a different tone from the messages that she shared back and forth with Harley all day long,” Logan said. “… It talks about, ‘I didn’t meet him at the beach.’ Well, we know that happened because we saw it in the phone records. It talks about, ‘I just wanted to mess up his life.’ The only mention of Harley being in a relationship with anyone else, if you will note, in this case only came from Tavaris Jackson. The only mention of another man in her life romantically came from Tavaris Jackson. You do that to disassociate so that when she’s found to be missing, when her body’s found, they look to someone else.”
The jury began deliberations just before 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday. Deliberations will resume Thursday morning and continue until the jurors reach a unanimous decision.
WZMQ 19 will provide an update on this case once the jury presents its verdict. For our previous report on the trial, click here.
