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At 17 years old, Mitchell Sneed made a life-altering, horrific mistake that could have been the end of his life, but from that mistake he came out stronger and became not just a success in his own life but a positive influence on others in his community. 

Sneed was born and raised in Troy, growing up on Academy Street and the Oakland Heights Community. 

“My childhood was excellent based on my community,” Sneed remembered. “I grew up in a tight knit community surrounded by business people, politicians, educators and some really prominent people along with my family. I had a great childhood.” 

Sneed’s mother, Elnora Sneed, instilled an urge to learn in him at an early age.

“If I asked my mom a question without looking it up in Encyclopedia Brittanica first, she would make me do a report on it, two pages front and back,” Sneed recalled with a smile. “I would have to stand in front of my brothers and sister and give the report on it. She felt like it made no sense that if you had the information there to ask someone else to do it for you.”

Sneed said that his community, along with being raised by his parents and grandparents,  instilled precious values and principles in him that would play a much larger role later on his life. 

Sneed’s father was a successful bodybuilder – on the verge of turning pro before a car wreck badly injured him – but his first love came from a different sport.

“Baseball was my first love,” Sneed said as his eyes lit up. “I played every sport growing up but I was in love with baseball first. Troy is a baseball town.” 

Still, it was basketball that started to get Sneed attention from colleges as a member of the Charles Henderson varsity basketball team. That is, until Sneed began to lose focus.

“I lost my passion for sports overall because I lost my focus,” he said. “I got sidetracked with things outside of basketball and that’s when things started to go downhill for me. I ended up getting a concussion and, during that window of time trying to get back on the court, I just lost my focus and never really got my mojo back.”

Sneed also fell into a crowd of individuals that began to lead him down a dark path. 

“It was really about me being in the wrong circles and being around people I knew I shouldn’t have been around,” said Sneed. “I was a great student, I think I was pretty bright, but some of my peers weren’t. I dumbed myself down in order to fit in and fitting in doesn’t mean you actually fit. Once I started trying to fit into places that weren’t for me, that’s when things began to spiral out of control and I got into trouble.”

While Sneed had never been into any serious trouble up that point, it all changed in the spring of 1995 when he, at just 17 years old, and two older Charles Henderson seniors made the decision to rob a local pawn shop. During the commission of the robbery, one of the older students shot the pawn shop owner multiple times leading to his death.

“When things like that happen at such a young age it’s almost like a numbing feeling,” Mitchell remembered. “I didn’t come from that, that wasn’t me. I didn’t understand what I had gotten myself into, I really didn’t.”

Just days later, at school, the world began to close in on Sneed.

“I was called into the principals office and when I got in there the police were behind the door and that was that,” he said. “Outside of my family seeing me in jail, being taken out in front of all my classmates was the most humbling, embarrassing and humiliating thing that has ever happened to me. I was considered popular in school, a guy that’s supposed to make it, and here I am being marched out in shackles and put into a police car.” 

A decision to go along with a robbery with two older friends led to the death of another person and potentially the end to Sneed’s own life. Sneed and the other two 18-year-olds were charged with Capital Murder. In Alabama, a Capital Murder charge arises from a murder that occurs in the commission of another crime. A conviction in a Capital Murder case means either life without parole or a death sentence, there are no other options. 

In 1996, one of the older students pled guilty to capital murder and admitted to being the gunman, while Sneed and the other perpetrator pled guilty to murder and were both sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole. That word “possibility” became the thing that Sneed focused on.

“It was mind blowing but while it might sound crazy, I felt like God had a plan for me,” Sneed said. “That was my initial thought. I’m not going to die in prison and if there is a possibility of getting out one day then that meant there was an opportunity and I would focus on that.” 

Sneed spent time in multiple prisons in Alabama but at Limestone Correctional Facility he ended up in 23-hour lockdown.

“I was placed in solitary confinement for inciting a riot and assault on two (Dept. of Correction) officials,” Sneed admits. “I definitely wasn’t a model inmate at first. I was placed in maximum security prison under disciplinary segregation. I spent 23 hours in a one-man cell and got maybe one hour ‘outside.’ By outside I mean inside a gated area about the size of a room with shackles on. That was your (recreation time). I did that for 15 months.” 

During that time is when Sneed says he truly began to focus.

“In disciplinary segregation they take your mattress at the beginning of the day and they won’t give it back to you until that night,” he said. “So, that’s part of your punishment. People were kicking their doors and screaming wanting their mattress back. I was like, ‘I’m not doing that.’ They came to get my mattress the next day and I told them to keep it. I told them I would just sleep on the floor. I wasn’t going to be kicking the door and screaming and foaming at the mouth wanting a mattress. That wasn’t going to break me.” 

Sneed said that the prison brought a psychologist to him, which was a turning point in his life.

“He told me that he did a check on me and said that the way I was conducting myself is not who I really am,” Sneed recalled. “He said, ‘You’re running from who you really are and the day you stop running from yourself is the day you will run into greatness.’ So, I stopped running. I stopped being fearful of how people would view me because I was bright or because I came from a certain family or anything else. I stopped caring about how someone else thought of me and focused on being who I wanted to be. That changed everything for me.”

Within six months, Sneed earned his GED and later earned an electrician certification from Calhoun Community College. He also began devouring any book he could get his hands on.

“I knew what I wanted to be and I knew what I had to work on and that was preparing myself,” said Sneed. “I didn’t play basketball or play chess or checkers or anything. I knew I wasn’t going to be a chess champion or play in the NBA if I got out of there. All that was over for me. Now, I had to prepare myself physically, mentally and emotionally that if my freedom was earned that I would be prepared to live a productive life. I read probably 3,000 books easily during my stint in prison.” 

Sneed also said he began becoming a devoted listener of NPR to learn about what has happening in the world and his grandmother would send him old copies of The Messenger to stay up to date with what was happening in his hometown. While Sneed said that prison was far from a pleasant experience, some of those principles that he had instilled in him by his family and community helped make things go smoother.

“Prison is a microcosm of society. Everything you have in society you have in prison,” he continued. “You have gangs, you have skinheads, you have Nazis, you have bright people, you have drug addicts. You just had to be who you were. The last time I tried to be someone else I got a life sentence. So, that wasn’t working. I never had any real issues in there. I was a man of my principles, you respect me and I’ll respect you. I learned that from the men in my community, my teachers, my family and my coaches. Those were things I never thought I would use but ended up being my guiding principles in prison.”

After he served 10 years in prison, Sneed received a letter stating that he would be eligible for parole but he was denied his first time. 

“During that time, I really got myself together and was super focused and I knew I was ready,” he said. “They denied me for another five years. It was crushing because I had all of these lofty plans for myself. I did an additional five years but the second time they granted me parole.” 

After 15 years in prison, Sneed was a free man. He immediately got a job at Wiley Sanders but after less than a year there, he decided to go after some goals he had set for himself.

“I worked there for six months and during this time I started putting together my plan of wanting to get into being a personal trainer,” he said. “The summer was coming up and I decided to quit, I had saved almost all of my money I made at Wiley Sanders. I didn’t even have a car. I went head on into the fitness and wellness world.”

Sneed had also started modeling and jumped into his father’s world, as well, appearing in and winning multiple bodybuilding competitions. 

“I never wanted to be my father or kind of live in his shadow,” Mitchell said. “That was his thing but then I ended up getting into it anyway.”

Sneed became a professional natural body builder – meaning no steroids and heavily drug tested – and even won Mr. Troy, the competition held on Troy University’s campus. Sneed also began his fitness classes at Murphee Park in Troy, which did not get off to a great start.

“I was hyped up and I went around with flyers putting them up at businesses and posting everything to social media,” he recounted. “I had five people show up that first day then two the second day and one the third and zero on the fourth day. The next week no one showed up and none the next and I probably went two months with no one showing up. Every single day I was posting on social media and eventually it went from one person to five to 10.” 

Physiques by SUSO was born.

“My best friend, Christopher Foster, is the one that gave me the SUSO name, Show Up and Show Out,” Sneed said. “He gave me that name. When we were young that’s what we would always say, show up and show out whether it was on the basketball court or showing up dressed a certain way to a party.”

By the winter, Sneed had moved the fitness class into the gym at Academy Street School and eventually to the Troy SportsPlex.

“Academy Street was going to have some work done and I came to Mr. Dan (Smith) and told him what we were doing and he said that’s exactly what they needed,” he recalled. “I started my class out in a room in the Rec Center but eventually we had the whole gym packed out, tearing it up in there.” 

Eventually, Sneed opened up Physiques by SUSO in its own building in Downtown Troy on North Market Street. 

“When I tell you that was the most fulfilling thing ever for me I mean it,” he said. “I had my own legitimate building and business now. I went from having a life sentence spending half my life in jail, to now I’m a legitimate business owner in Troy. The best thing about it was my grandparents were able to see that. That meant everything to me.” 

While Sneed had completed one goal on getting his life back on track – and becoming a success – he still wanted to do more. 

“When I came home, I didn’t see a lot of community outreach programs, I don’t think CommonGround Troy was even here yet,” said Sneed. “So, I started SUSO Community Outreach, just trying to reach out to everyone. That went on for a little while but I realized I was trying to lead from the back.

“I didn’t want the light on me, so I was running away again. I wanted other people to kind of be at the forefront in it. I would do all the work but someone else could be the spokesperson. I realized that’s not what God wanted from me.”

Sneed emphasized he wanted to help other young men, specifically black young men, in his community not go down the same path he and many others had. 

“I saw so many black boys in our community that had been devastated because of the lack of parental guidance and men in their lives,” he said. “They may have had their mothers but they didn’t have men who were consistently in their lives, someone that is present and will hold them accountable.”

From that, the SUSO University Rites of Passage Program began. 

“Often times in the black community they feel like they have three options; sports, some form of entertainment or media or something illegal to feel like you’ve ‘made it’ or to be successful,” he continued. “That’s what they’re bombarded with. That’s a lie. That mindset is usually what leads to a life of crime. With this program they can look at people that look just like them and are doing the opposite of that and are still able to be successful. The principles are faith, integrity, prayer, God and community.”

Sneed and his program does more than just talk about those principles, it also dives into STEM programs, agricultural science, political science, physical science and even the military. Sneed and a number of professionals from different fields – like banking, the military, STEM, etc. – not only talk to the students about these fields but help the young people implement them. The program even teaches young men how to dress, greet others and look individuals in the eyes when speaking to them. 

“It’s almost like teaching but it’s about practical application, too,” said Sneed. “It’s one thing to give instruction but can you apply what you’re being taught in the real world? We teach things like how to set up a business or growing agriculture, investing, things like that.” 

This past fall, Sneed’s program expanded into being implemented at Goshen High School as its Golden Eagle Rites of Passage Program. Graduates of SUSO University move into the SUSO Leadership Foundation.

“It’s based on leadership and building the next future leaders in our community,” Sneed emphasized. “Once they make it through the Rites of Passage, then we send them out into the community to represent SUSO.” 

Sneed, coming from a life sentence is now on the path to helping others, possibly in worse situations than he was, and he says that’s exactly what he’s meant to do.

“I just want to work, I’m thankful to be used in a mighty by God,” he emphatically said. “I’m thankful that I come from a God-fearing family and I can now make my community proud. I can give them a sense of hope for others that didn’t quite make it over the hump. I went through what I went through but look at me now. I’m just thankful to be used as a tool and vessel by God.” 

Any parents that would like to enter their child into the Rites of Passage program can reach Sneed via E-Mail at sneed.mitchell8@gmail.com or contacting him through the SUSO Leadership Foundation’s Instagram and Facebook pages.