Suspect in murder of Xiaopeng ‘Pippen’ Yuan to appear for pretrial hearing

One of the men charged with murdering a Syracuse University student is expected to request the dismissal of a separate but related charge of tampering.

Cameron Isaac, 23, will appear in Syracuse City Court on Tuesday at 10 a.m. before Judge James Cecile for a pretrial hearing regarding a charge of tampering with a witness in the fourth degree.

Isaac, along with Ninimbe Mitchell, 20, was arrested in November and charged with murder in the second degree, robbery in the first degree and criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree in relation to Xiaopeng “Pippen” Yuan’s death. He faces those charges in Onondaga County Court.

Isaac was indicted last month on a first-degree murder charge, upgraded from the original second-degree charge.

Isaac last appeared in city court on Jan. 19 for his first appearance in relation to the tampering charge. His lawyer, Lance Cimino, told Cecile that day that he intended to motion to have the tampering charge dismissed.

Isaac received the tampering charge in early December because he asked a witness not to testify against him in the murder case, according to authorities. Cimino said in an interview following Isaac’s January hearing that he was seeking to have the tampering charge dismissed because the information in the charge didn’t indicate a violation.