HOUSTON (FOX 26) -
From college athlete to common criminal -- but now a local man has turned his life back around.
He is a hip-hop artist who goes by the name Von Won. And he once earned a full scholarship to Rice University in track and field.
But a career-ending injury dashed the Olympic hopes of this long-jumper right around the time he learned his father was dying of AIDS.
That's when Von Won let his love for hip-hop lead him into the thug life.
"About 6 years ago," Won recalled, "(I was) stopped by the Pearland police. Almost life-ending altercation, got tased six or more times, almost lost my life. And I call that night ‘shock therapy.'"
But for Von Won, that night sparked a turnaround. He began rapping for Christ and he's now an ordained minister.
Von Won knows all about the church of second chances.
