The former University of Kentucky cheerleader who killed her newborn baby and hid his body in a closet has been sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Laken Snelling, 22, gave birth to a baby boy in her of campus apartment on August 27, 2025 and suffocated the infant in a panic, prosecutors said.
Although she first denied the charges, Snelling pled guilty to manslaughter this past August, telling the hushed courtroom: ‘I deprived him of oxygen.’
Snelling appeared before Fayette County Circuit Court Judge Diane Minnifield this morning and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Prosecutors had recommended the 10-year term as part of the plea agreement.
The judge told the cheerleader that her decision to end the child’s life comes with consequences.
‘And sometimes those choices and consequences affect our future for the rest of our lives, and you’ve made a decision that has affected not only your future but the future of all of [the baby’s] biological paternal side,’ Minnifield said, according to WKYT.
The cheerleader was immediately taken into custody after Friday’s sentencing hearing.
Former University of Kentucky cheerleader Laken Snelling, 22, has been sentenced to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to first-degree manslaughter, abuse of a corpse, tampering with physical evidence and concealing the birth of an infant
Snelling was arrested on August 30, 2025, three days after she gave birth in her off-campus apartment.
Her roommates told police they heard strange noises coming from her room during labor, as the cheerleader gave birth alone and in secret.
After giving birth, Snelling cleaned up the scene and left her home to go to McDonald’s, prosecutors said.
Her roommates said they then discovered the newborn baby dead in a blood-soaked towel and a trash bag hidden on the floor of her closet, wrapped in a plastic bag.
One friend said she reported to police that the infant was ‘cold to the touch’ when they found him.
Her horrified roommates told police that they believed she was concealing a pregnancy for some time.
Photos from last April shows Snelling performing with UK’s STUNT team with what appears to be a pregnant bump on her stomach.
She was initially charged with abuse of a corpse, tampering with physical evidence and concealing the birth of an infant, and she pleaded not guilty to those charges in September.
Following her arrest, Snelling initially claimed the newborn was stillborn. She said she didn’t believe the baby was ‘breathing or alive,’ and then claimed to have passed out ‘on top of the baby,’ and woke up to find him ‘turning blue and purple.’
Court documents said Snelling told investigators she wrapped her newborn up ‘like a burrito’ and ‘laid next to it,’ explaining that she was panicking and it ‘gave her a little comfort in the moment.’
Police later alleged that Snelling told a medical worker that her newborn had shown ‘a little bit of fetal movement,’ and made a ‘whimper’ when he was born.
Snelling was then indicted again in March 2026 on first-degree manslaughter charges after the Kentucky Medical Examiner’s Office determined the baby boy was alive when born and died as a result of ‘asphyxia by undetermined means’.
Snelling previously denied the charges, but in August 2026 accepted a plea deal that saw her admit first-degree manslaughter, abuse of a corpse, tampering with physical evidence and concealing the birth of an infant.
She had been on house arrest in her parents’ Tennessee home since her first arraignment last September, and in March she posted a $10,000 bond to be re-released following her second indictment.
This is a breaking news story. Check back for updates.
