NORFOLK, Va. — More than eight months later, the picture of Virginian-Pilot reporter Sierra Jenkins still sits on a Downtown Norfolk sidewalk.
It reminds her cousin, Matheau Hall, how someone shot and killed Jenkins, Marquel Andrews, and Devon Harris outside of Chicho's Backstage in March.
"Sometimes it's hard to walk on that side of the street, but yeah," Hall sighed. "That's my little cousin and her words flow through me every day."
Hall said he and his family are struggling to cope with the fact that they have an empty seat at the tablet his holiday season, saying, "That pain is very deep, and it hits different."
The case has hit a few bumps when prosecutors tried to bring evidence to court.
Two months after the shooting, police officers arrested Antoine Legrande on several charges.
Norfolk's Commonwealth Attorney Ramin Fatehi said he and his team of prosecutors tried for weeks to bring in two key witnesses who say they something pointing toward a specific person who shot the five people that night.
However, prosecutors suspended the charges in November because they couldn't get key witnesses to come forward after paying multiple visits to the witness' homes and submitting subpoenas to summon them to court.
Fatehi sent this statement to 13News Now:
"Witnesses to homicides and other violent crimes often live near perpetrators or their family and friends, are known to them, or both.
Some witnesses and victims fear retaliation if they speak to police or come to court. When witnesses do not come forward, police cannot identify bad actors, and prosecutors cannot secure convictions.
Virginia has no witness-protection program, which means prosecutors cannot offer any resources to witnesses who fear for their safety.
That is why I have advocated with progressive prosecutors and legislators for the General Assembly to fund a Virginia witness protection program."
Court systems have victim services units and the state of Virginia has the Victim/Witness Grant Program, but not an officially established program for witness protection.
Hall said it's painful to see few developments in the case surrounding his cousin's murder.
"People don't know how to do necessarily the right thing," said Hall. "When you grow up in these situations, you're always told not to say anything and so now when it is time to say something, people are biting their tongue."
Despite few answers at hand, Hall said he is hanging onto a small thread of hope someone there that night will come forward with some answers.
"My only advice to them would be... if it's your little sister, if it's your brother, your father, anyone close to you…If they got killed and murdered, would you want someone to hold their tongue or do you want them to speak up and say what happened?" Hall said.
Fatehi says a judge ordered the witnesses to appear in court again on January 17.