Boston gang members lose bid for new trial in 1991 killings

BOSTON—Two members of a Boston gang have lost their bid for a new trial in the 1991 killings of a rival gang leader and an innocent bystander at a party.

Craig Holliday, one of the leaders of the gang "Big Head Boys," and gang member Jeffrey Mooltrey were convicted in 1998 in the two killings in Boston. Nathaniel Rivers, the leader of a neighboring gang called "Intervale Street Posse," was fatally shot, along with Mia Sanders, a woman who got caught in the crossfire.

Holliday and Mooltrey challenged a judge's order that prevented them from getting copies of statements from witnesses who talked to police, saying it impaired their right to defend themselves.

But the Supreme Judicial Court ruled Friday that the men were told by their attorneys who the witnesses were and were allowed to see their statements.