80 AND ACTIVE -- MAYBE TOO ACTIVE

MUSKEGON -- An 80-year-old Muskegon Heights man is spending his senior
years busy in ways highly unusual for a man his age.

Jimmie DeLoach, also knows as "Cadillac Jimmie," is battling charges he
was selling crack cocaine and marijuana from him home. Prosecutors also
charged him with felony firearms possession.

It isn't the first time DeLoach has come up against such charges. At
ages 71 and 75, he was convicted of selling drugs and spent time in
prison.

"The reason we continue to charge him is because he keeps selling
drugs," Brett Gardner, Muskegon County's chief assistant prosecutor,
told the Muskegon Chronicle.

The new charges could send DeLoach to prison for the rest of his life.

DeLoach was arrested Wednesday, two months after the West Michigan
Enforcement Team and Muskegon Heights police used a search warrant to
raid the home DeLoach was renting.

Police say the raid produced drugs, a loaded gun, and $593 in cash.
DeLoach was arraigned Thursday before 60th District Judge Richard J.
Pasarela and remained in the Muskegon County Jail. His bail had been
set at $50,000.

"Despite four previous convictions, the loss of his home and prison
time, he just won't stop," said Gardner. "I don't think people should
feel sorry for him.

DeLoach's personality is low-key and affable, Gardner said.

"On the outside, he appears to be an old man and the last thing you
would believe is that he's a drug dealer," the prosecutor said.

"The impact of selling drugs is not lessened because the person who is
selling them is 80 years old. He's a dangerous man," Gardner said.

Preliminary examination in the case is set for Aug. 30.