BRISTOL TOWNSHIP
Under cross-examination, however, the neighbor admitted she did not get a very long look at the alleged arsonist. February 6, 2002
Less than 15 minutes before smoke and flames began billowing out of 29 Cornflower Lane, neighbor Linda Snyder said she heard a door slam and saw a woman leave the home and get into a green truck. After calling 911, she testified, she phoned the Almost Free Thrift Shop on New Falls Road, where Darlene Schweikert, the woman who was renting the burning home, worked. A female answered the phone but would not put Schweikert on the line, Snyder said. The woman on the phone said she was Schweikert's mother and started asking Snyder questions. Snyder testified that she told the woman, later identified as Cynthia Efaw, about the person she saw leave the home. After she described the woman's hair and clothes, Efaw allegedly said to Snyder: "That sounds a little like me." Snyder testified yesterday during Efaw's trial in Bucks County court in Doylestown Borough. Efaw, 46, of Bristol Township is accused of setting the Dec. 23, 1995, fire to collect on an $88,000 insurance policy. Efaw is charged with arson, recklessly endangering another person and insurance fraud. If convicted, she faces up to 20 years in prison. Efaw, a businesswoman who owns several homes throughout Levittown, was arrested in 1997 following a seven-month grand jury investigation into the blaze. The trial was delayed by appeals to the state Superior and Supreme Courts. At issue was whether prosecutors could use information collected by Efaw's insurance company against her at trial. The state Supreme Court ruled against Efaw in June. Prosecutors allege that Efaw set the blaze by piling clothes onto a lit electric stove then fleeing the house. She has pleaded not guilty and denies any involvement in the fire. Snyder testified that she saw Efaw several hours after the fire, and that she had straightened her curly hair and was wearing different clothes. Still, she said, she did not go to police because she didn't want to get involved. Snyder talked to officials only after fire investigators told her she could be arrested if she didn't testify. She identified Efaw from a photo line-up. But under cross-examination by defense attorney Mel Kardos, Snyder admitted that she saw Efaw's face only briefly on the day of the fire. She later asked investigators if Efaw had plastic surgery, saying she looked different. Bucks County Judge John Rufe is deciding the case without a jury. Efaw remains free on bail. |