Man charged with carjacking Chicago radio host in the South Loop

Chicago radio host Maze Jackson. | Sun-Times files

Bail was set at $80,000 Thursday for a man charged with carjacking a Chicago radio host earlier this week in the South Loop.

Radio personality Maze Jackson said he was stopped at a traffic light at 24th and State streets Tuesday when a truck rear-ended him and he was suddenly fighting with a man who took his car.

“I’m good physically, but mentally...WHOA! I definitely got caught slipping,” he said in a Facebook post. Jackson is a host on WBGX 1570-AM and previously hosted on WVON 1690-AM.

William Nixon, of Homer Glen, stole Jackson’s Porsche Panamera after striking the sports car’s rear bumper and getting into the driver’s seat when Maze stepped out to exchange insurance information, police said.

William Nixon

Jackson tried to get Nixon, 28, out of the car by striking him several times, but Nixon “made good on his escape,” Cook County prosecutors said in court Thursday afternoon.

Nixon was arrested hours later in the 1200 block of East Indian Trail Road in Aurora when Jackson’s cellphone was tracked to the location and Nixon was found nearby with a key fob for the Porsche in his pocket, prosecutors said.

Nixon was charged with vehicular highjacking and possession of a stolen vehicle.

Nixon has prior convictions for burglary, prosecutors said.

Maze said the carjacking left him in a “complete state of shock, with no phone, no car, no bag, no jacket.”

Nixon is homeless and has previously been diagnosed with mental illness, an assistant public defender said. He had no money to post for bond.

If Nixon does post bond, he’ll be required to submit to electronic monitoring, Judge Barbara Dawkins said.

Nixon was expected back in court Nov. 19.