US v. Rodriguez, No. 04-30397 (10-5-06). The 9th continues to find that a recidivist statute does not transform a felony into a qualifying felony for ACCA purposes. Here, defendnat was a felon who wanted to do a friend a favor and get rid of a gun. Unfortunately, the defendant was a felon, on escape status, with drugs in the ap't, and four outstanding warrants. He got arrested, and the 9th wasted little time with the "bad search" arguments. Rather, the 9th turned most of its attention to the gov't's cross appeal that the defendnat should have been ACCA eligible. He had state drug priors that had a stat max of 5 years, but would be ten years if he had a prior drug conviction. he did. The 9th though used Corona-Sanchez to find that in using a Taylor approach, a court looks at the statute of conviction for the offense without the recidivism enhancement.