BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) – Charges were dropped against an attempted murder suspect after the only witness was murdered a little over one month before the trial was set to begin.

According to District Attorney Hillar Moore, Carlos Sterling was set to stand trial for the attempted murder of Roy Veal.

Sterling was accused of shooting Veal on Nov. 11, 2014.  Veal, who was a juvenile at the time, was shot in the arm. He survived, but was killed on Feb. 28, 2016 during a shooting on Madison Ave.

Veal’s murder is still under investigation.

The trial for the attempted murder charge against Sterling was set to begin on Monday, April 11.

District Attorney Moore explains that his office had no choice but to drop the charges because Veal was the only witness to the shooting. He says Veal’s statements prior to his death were “not perpetuated” and therefore “cannot be used.”

Sterling was released from the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison Tuesday.Copyright 2016 WAFB. All rights reserved.