Former University of Kentucky competitive cheerleader Laken Snelling has pleaded guilty to charges related to the death of her newborn baby last year.
Snelling, 22, pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter, abuse of a corpse, tampering with physical evidence and concealing the birth of an infant during a court appearance on Friday, August 21. She had previously entered a not guilty plea in April.
“I was under a lot of emotional stresses, and my baby came unexpected,” Snelling said in the courtroom Friday, according to the Lexington Herald Leader.
Local news outlet WKYT reported that Snelling admitted to “ending” the newborn’s life “instead of helping him.”
A grand jury indicted Snelling on the charges in March.
On Friday, prosecutors recommended Snelling be sentenced to 10 years in prison for manslaughter and one year for each of her other charges, which would equate to a 13-year sentence.
The manslaughter charge was added to the charges against Snelling in March after it was determined her baby was alive when she gave birth in August 2025 before hiding the body in the bedroom closet of her Lexington home.
The Kentucky Medical Examiner’s Office determined the baby’s cause of death was “asphyxia by undetermined means.”
Snelling was not charged with murder due to the “extreme emotional disturbance” she was under at the time, according to an indictment obtained by Us.
The indictment stated that 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.”
Snelling, a former member of the University of Kentucky’s STUNT competitive cheerleading team, was arrested in August 2025, shortly after her roommates discovered a “blood-soaked towel on the floor and a plastic bag containing evidence of childbirth” in her closet.
When she was questioned by police, Snelling “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.”
After giving birth, Snelling told police that she had passed out on top of the baby and woke up to find the body “blue and purple.”
Once the body was concealed in her closet, Snelling told her roommates that she was going to the doctor because “she had not eaten and had not been feeling well,” according to police records.
Snelling skipped her 9:30 a.m. class at the University of Kentucky and ordered McDonald’s through the restaurant’s app. After picking up her order, she drove to a university clinic but did not go inside.
While she was gone, Snelling’s roommates discovered the infant’s body “cold to the touch” and called police.
