Former University of Kentucky competitive cheerleader Laken Snelling has been sentenced to prison after causing the death of her newborn baby boy last year.
Snelling, 22, received a 10-year prison sentence on Friday, October 16. She faced a possible sentence of 13 years after pleading guilty in August to first-degree manslaughter, abuse of a corpse, tampering with physical evidence and concealing the birth of an infant.
At the plea hearing, Snelling told the court, “Instead of helping him, I ended his life.”
Fayette Circuit Judge Diane Minnifield sentenced Snelling to 10 years for manslaughter and one year each for the other charges, but ordered the sentences to run at the same time, rather than one after the other.
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Snelling, a former member of the University of Kentucky’s STUNT cheerleading team, was arrested in August 2025 after her roommates discovered a “blood-soaked towel on the floor and a plastic bag containing evidence of childbirth” in Snelling’s closet.
The roommates called the police after finding the newborn’s body, which was cold to the touch.
Laken Snelling Courtesy of Laken Snelling/FacebookWhen Snelling was initially questioned by police, she “admitted to giving birth” and “concealing the birth by cleaning any evidence, placing all cleaning items used inside of a black trash bag, including the infant, who was wrapped in a towel.”
Moments after giving birth, Snelling told authorities she had passed out on top of the baby’s body, waking up to find it “blue and purple.”
Laken Snelling Fayette County Detention CenterWhen she was questioned by medical staff at the University of Kentucky Labor and Delivery, Snelling said “the baby made a ‘whimper,’ and that she ‘guessed’ the baby was alive,” according to a police report.
After being arrested and released on house arrest, Snelling was hit with an additional manslaughter charge in March after it was determined that her baby was alive at the time it was born.
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The Kentucky Medical Examiner’s Office determined the baby’s cause of death was “asphyxia by undetermined means.”
Prosecutors did not charge Snelling with murder due to the “extreme emotional disturbance” she was under at the time, according to an indictment obtained earlier this year by Us.
Snelling “intentionally abused the infant and thereby caused death to a person twelve (12) years of age or less, or who is physically helpless or mentally helpless,” per the indictment.
At the time of her arrest, Snelling was a student-athlete at the University of Kentucky, where she majored in Interdisciplinary Disability Studies. Shortly after, a spokesperson for the school confirmed to Us that she was no longer enrolled.
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