RINGGOLD, Ga. - In this old courthouse nearly everyone was praying.
Groups hovered around the door to an empty courtroom, waiting for a verdict. Crowds milled in narrow hallways, trading sympathies, sharing worry and predictions.
"It's just so sad," one woman said to another.
"What will happen?" another pondered.
Down the street, at the Ingles Market or at the post office, cell phone conversations buzzed. Always the words: "Tonya ... those little girls ..."
Nearly a month ago, former kindergarten teacher Tonya Craft was brought to the Catoosa County Courthouse to face 22 charges of child molestation. After hours of back-and-forth testimony and sometimes irritable cross-examinations, the case went to the jury Monday afternoon. A little more than 24 hours later, jurors came back Tuesday afternoon with "not guilty" verdicts on all counts.
Since the trial began - and even more after opening arguments were delivered on April 19 - this community has been baffled and obsessed with the case.
"I was interested because I've always worked with kids," said Barbara James, who drove up from Dalton, Ga., every day for the trial. "Around town it's all people can talk about. Even at the car wash ... people said they heard about the case. I haven't run across anyone that hadn't heard about the case."
Aside from the children's testimony, there was little direct evidence admitted in the trial against Ms. Craft
Prosecutors tried to paint a sordid picture of Ms. Craft. Married three times, she wore thong underwear and mowed the grass in a sports bra and shorts, they said in court. People had seen her drunk and hinted at trysts with other women, according to testimony.
All the private details of her life spilled into open court, filled the Internet, television and newspapers and stung the ears of townsfolk.
Despite scandal and rumors, her supporters said she was being railroaded and called the case a travesty. They kept crosses in their pocket that read "Truth for Tonya" and wore yellow, her favorite color.
The families of the girls accusing Ms. Craft mostly kept to themselves. Awaiting the verdict, they stayed in a guarded room on the first floor of the courthouse and refused to talk.
Toward the end of the trial, the crowd in the small courtroom swelled to more than 130, with backers for both the defense and prosecution, so large that Superior Court Judge Brian House limited attendance when the verdict was read.
Many community members with no stake in the case were mesmerized by the events of the trial. They admit that, with all the media coverage and dozens of Twitter posts per minute, they felt as if they were watching a slow, devastating crash, but couldn't look away.
A handful of older, retired women in the community became loyal followers, sitting through grueling testimony and hanging on the edge of their seats.
Dee Akin, 66, doesn't know a single person involved in the case, but was in court day after day. She started taking the stomach medicine Prilosec because she was so nervous about the outcome. Her husband didn't want her to be there, so she told him she was out running errands.
"I have been so tied up over it," said Mrs. Akin, a Ringgold, Ga., resident. "It's very upsetting... The three kids and Tonya, their lives aren't going to be the same. You just don't ever get over it."
Down the street, at the Courthouse Grill and Cafe, the restaurant's owner, Maine Abbas, made sandwiches, eagerly waiting reports on the zingers and best one-lines from final arguments.
Many of the lawyers in the case came to Courthouse Grill for lunch during the trial. Mr. Abbas wanted to give them advice as he heard them speak in muffled tones about the trial. He wanted to tell them he thought it was unlikely that a mother, even a lesbian, would abuse young girls.
He wanted to tell them how he had caught his own son telling big lies many times.
"Children, they lie, they can't back off," he said. "Did she do it? Maybe she did, but it doesn't add up."
On the town's two-lane main drag which cuts in front of the Civil War-era courthouse, the case was inescapable. Each day, reporters set up camp. Satellite trucks from all three news networks lined up in a nearby church parking lot.
And the trial was felt beyond this little town. In East Brainerd, members of Ms. Craft's church, City Church, waited daily for news. They sent her e-mails, telling her to stay strong. They prayed for her.
"I can't put a stamp on anything because I wasn't there, but it would be the most shocking, surprising thing that the woman I know did the things that have been described," Pastor Mike Chapman said.
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