Elijah Stewart is scheduled to appear in Cook County Criminal Court tomorrow to answer charges of first-degree murder in a high-profile Rogers Park homicide case.

On August 6, 2005, Alex Vernon was shot in the head in the North of Howard area of Rogers Park.

On February 19, 2006, three days after his 21st birthday, Elijah Stewart was charged with the slaying.

The summer of 2005 saw a spate of shootings in and around the Gale School and the newly opened Harold Washington Playground. Several of the shootings resulted in fatalities.

Vernon was one of those fatalities.

Vernon's death spurred a controversy in the area over shrines erected to memorialize the victims of such killings.

The Chicago Tribune reported that the shrine which was erected had 'teddy bears and balloons' left by Vernon's friends and relatives.

But shortly after the memorial was erected, Chicago Police dismantled it causing a storm of criticism by relatives, friends and church members.

According to the Chicago Tribune, a police official said the memorial was dismantled because 'the victim was an alleged gang member, which makes the shooting gang-related' and 'increases concerns over retaliation shootings.'

One man quoted by the Chicago Sun-Times said the actions by the police 'made the residents feel like 'trash'.'

Community members disputed the assertion that Vernon was in a gang. And according to the Sun-Times, police declined to say how officers arrived at that conclusion.

As a result of information gathered by detectives, an arrest warrant was issued for Elijah Stewart in connection with Vernon's death.

According to a U.S. Marshals Service press release, Stewart was arrested on February 7, 2006 'while eating strawberry Belgium (sic) waffles at an International House of Pancakes' in Phoenix, Arizona.

Deputy U.S. Marshal Dennis Harkins, of the U.S. Marshals Phoenix office told me, 'The Chicago police had reason to believe that the offender was in the Phoenix area. They notified the Great Lakes Regional Fugitive Task Force who alerted the Phoenix High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) Task Force. HIDTA had information that Stewart would be at the IHOP and indeed he was, eating Belgian waffles.'

He was arrested, extradited to Chicago and booked on February 20, 2006.

Stewart is currently being held without bond in Cook County Jail.