Noah Johnson | Daily Press Tavaris Lee Jackson, sits with his attorneys before a motion hearing.

ESCANABA — The murder trial of Tavaris Lee Jackson has been rescheduled to next year.

Jackson, accused of murdering pregnant 22-year-old Harley Corwin and leaving her body in O.B. Fuller Park over one year ago, was in the 47th Circuit Court before Judge John Economopoulos Friday for a motions hearing.

The defense motioned for a stay pending the ruling of the Appellate Court related to testimony to Det. Sgt. Tom Lewis.

Lewis had an inappropriate interaction with a potential witness that Defense Attorney Diane Kay-Hougaboom, who is representing Jackson, argued on July 28 would call into question Lewis’ character. In a July 28 hearing, Economopoulos ruled that testimony about the incident “would take us down a rabbit hole that would confuse the jury, perhaps irreparably, and it could mislead the jury as well.”

“The court believes that although the evidence would be relevant, I don’t believe it would pass the standard,” Econompoulous said, referencing court rules, which prohibit evidence — even if relevant — from being presented in certain cases.

Specifically, the court’s evidentiary rules include “extrinsic evidence is not admissible to prove specific instances of a witness’s conduct in order to attack or support the witness’s character for truthfulness.”

The defense appealed Economopoulos’ decision. Kay-Hougaboom said Friday that she spoke to the appeals court to get a timeline for when it can address the issue. The appeals court told her it is waiting on a response from the Attorney General’s Office, which is due on July 24, and then it will look at the case.

“I do believe under the court rules my client is entitled to a stay of proceedings until the Court of Appeals makes a decision,” Hougaboom said.

She added that while the court may not agree with their analysis of the issue, the defense is within its right to file the appeal.

“We do object to the stay and we are ready to proceed to trial,” Assistant Attorney General Shawn Ryan said.

Econompoulos ultimately granted the request to stay Friday, moving the trial start date from Aug. 5, 2024 to Jan. 13 of 2025.

In order to give his ruling, Econompoulous referenced Michigan Court Ruling 6.126 which states:

“Where the court makes a decision on the admissibility of evidence and the prosecutor or the defendant files an interlocutory application for leave to appeal seeking to reverse that decision, the court shall stay proceedings pending resolution of the application in the Court of Appeals, unless the court makes findings that the evidence is clearly cumulative or that an appeal is frivolous because legal precedent is clearly against the party’s position. If the application for leave to appeal is filed by the prosecutor and the defendant is incarcerated, the defendant may request that the court reconsider whether pretrial release is appropriate.”

Econompoulos explained that he was to determine if the request was frivolous based on MCR 6.126.

“Not only would the court have to find the appeal is frivolous, the court would have to find that the appeal is frivolous because legal precedent is not only against the party’s position, but it is clearly against the party’s position,” Econompoulos said.

He ultimately said that he did not find the defendant’s position to be frivolous and granted the defense’s motion

“The defendant’s position is well articulated and they base it upon principles based within the protections of the Sixth Amendment,” he said.

The case will begin trial on Jan. 13, 2025 and is expected to last three weeks.