Bruno Hauptmann, convicted in the Lindbergh kidnapping (AP)

Flemington is a tiny community of gingerbread cottages and Victorian manses. A charming little town, it steadfastly clings to its 19th-century roots. But it is also a place that has seen high-profile criminal cases in the past and has endured the crush of reporters and sightseers that come with them. Sixty years ago, hordes of newsreel photographers and newspapermen trod heavily on the front lawns of this small town to cover the “Trial of the Century” -- when Bruno Hauptmann was tried for his life on charges of kidnapping and killing the Lindbergh baby. More recently, it was the site for boxer Mike Tyson’s high-profile divorce from starlet Robin Givens.

To the residents of Flemington, the trial of Jesse Timmendequas would be just one more case of the sordid meeting the sublime on the treelined streets of their hometown.

It began on May 5, 1997. The courtroom was packed with reporters and curiosity seekers. At the corner of the prosecution’s table was a box crammed with documents and evidence, the clothing Megan wore that night, the belt, prosecutors alleged, that Timmendequas had wrapped around the little girl’s neck. Also in the box was a copy of the confession he had given to police on that summer night three years earlier, just before he had led searchers to Megan’s body.

Maureen Kanka was there that first day, and every day afterwards. She was wearing a pink dress, Megan’s favorite color.

There was someone else in the gallery during the trial.

Her name was Leanna Guido, a then 23-year-old who had driven up from her home on the Jersey Shore because, she told reporters at the time, more than anyone, she knew what Megan’s last few moments on earth must have been like.

Guido was the 7-year-old child that Timmendequas attacked in 1981. She had been riding her bicycle when Timmendequas grabbed her from behind and dragged her to a secluded spot behind the local high school.

"I can still see the face of him putting his hands around my neck with his left cheek going up, and he just had so much anger in him," Guido said at the time

Timmendequas choked her until she passed out, and then left her for dead.  He was arrested 30 minutes after the attack. He was convicted and sentenced to 10 years in prison. But he was a model prisoner. He got out after only six years.

And now, here he was, sitting in the Flemington courtroom, on trial for his life for murder.

Guido had come because she knew that Timmendequs’ lawyers -- desperate to convince the jury to spare his life -- would try to paint him as a victim.

"I know the same face she saw was the same face I saw at the time of her death, and that I will bring with me until my grave," Guido told reporters in 1997. "I just want justice to be served, served the way it should be served, and that is death."