Trial set for man accused in fatal stabbing at Allentown hookah lounge; four others face charges

ALLENTOWN, Pa. — An Allentown man arrested more than two years ago after a fatal stabbing outside an East Side hookah lounge is set to stand trial this fall.

Isiah Yeager, 25, is accused of stabbing 29-year-old Kevin Tarafa multiple times during a fight inside Synergy Hookah Lounge during the early hours of June 18, 2023.

Tarafa died about a block away, according to authorities.

Yeager was arraigned more than six months later in January 2024 on a single charge of criminal homicide.

After a series of status conferences and hearings over the past two years, he is due to stand trial Oct. 20, according to Lehigh County court records.

Yeager has been in Lehigh County Jail since his arrest the morning of Tarafa’s death, online records show.

Tampering charges

Four others are accused of tampering with evidence after Tarafa was stabbed inside the former Synergy Hookah Lounge on Union Boulevard.

Authorities allege three — Stefhon Buchanan, 28, of Allentown; Kali Martin, 25, of Whitehall Township; and Jerome Joyner, 40, of Bethlehem — helped clean Tarafa’s blood off the lounge’s floor after he was dragged outside.

Tarafa was found unresponsive in the 1600 block of East Greenleaf Street. He was pronounced dead there at 4:45 a.m. June 18, 2023, by the Lehigh County Coroner’s Office.

Robin Scott, 48, of Allentown, is accused of hiding the knife used during the stabbing. Scott was stopped by police after picking up two men “suspiciously walking away” from the hookah lounge after officers arrived, court documents state.

Authorities said officers found the bloody knife wrapped in a sweatshirt inside Scott's car.

Criminal complaints were filed in mid-June, but all four appeared in court for the first time this month, online records show.

A preliminary hearing for Martin is scheduled for Oct. 2; future court dates have not yet been set for the other three facing tampering charges.

Promised crackdown

Tarafa’s fatal stabbing at Synergy Hookah Lounge led to the business’ eventual closure.

And city officials pledged to crack down on “after-hours” businesses.

City council members days later introduced a resolution that said they want to maintain the “safety of our residents” and protect them from “traffic, noise, loitering, and, often, drug sales that accompany the clubs.”

The measure called on Mayor Matt Tuerk and his administration to take “an active role” in enforcing the city’s nuisance-abatement ordinance.

“Cut the sh*t out. Please,” the mayor said to Allentown hookah lounge owners and employees at a news conference outside Synergy a week after Tarafa’s death.

City officials in February detailed the complicated process to shut down a nuisance business after a fatal shooting outside BKK Lounge that month.

Allentown officers responded to incidents and completed patrols more than two dozen times at or around BKK Lounge in the 18 months before that shooting, Police Chief Charles Roca said.

None of those incidents — which included an assault and several domestic disturbances — reached the threshold to trigger nuisance-abatement measures against the business, Roca said.