Suspect charged with murdering SU student to appear in court regarding tampering charge

One of the men charged with murdering a Syracuse University student will appear in Syracuse City Court on Thursday morning for a pretrial hearing, regarding a tampering charge related to the murder case.

Cameron Isaac, 23, was charged in December with tampering with a witness in the fourth degree, a misdemeanor. Isaac last appeared in court in mid-February for another pretrial hearing. At that hearing, they discussed the available evidence in the case.

Isaac’s defense team has spent the last month and a half in the discovery phase, turning over information about evidence and witnesses pertaining to the case.

Isaac’s lawyer, Lance Cimino, has said he will seek to have the tampering charges dismissed, something that could come up at Thursday’s hearing. Isaac received the tampering charge in early December after allegedly asking a witness not to testify against him in the murder case.

Isaac and Ninimbe Mitchell, 20, were charged in the fall with murdering SU student Xiaopeng “Pippen” Yuan, who was from China. Isaac and Mitchell were 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 January, Isaac was indicted on first-degree murder, an upgrade from the original second-degree charge.