Former University of Kentucky cheerleader gets prison time after admitting to killing her newborn baby boy

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Courtroom Insider) — A former University of Kentucky cheerleader is going to prison for killing her newborn infant and hiding his body in her closet.

On Aug. 21, Laken Snelling pleaded guilty to manslaughter, abuse of a corpse, tampering with evidence, and concealing the birth of an infant, according to CBS News affiliate WKYT in Lexington. On Friday, a Kentucky judge sentenced Snelling to 10 years in prison.

Law enforcement first became aware of the case when they were called to a Lexington home due to a report of an unresponsive infant. WKYT reports that responding police officers found a baby boy wrapped in a towel, which was then wrapped in a trash bag, locked inside a closet.

The infant was pronounced dead at the scene, and Snelling was arrested four days later.

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Lexington’s FOX 17 reports that Snelling’s roommates later reported seeing blood in her room and hearing odd noises on Aug. 27, 2025. The outlet says Snelling told investigators that she was awake for approximately 30 minutes after giving birth to the child before she passed out on top of him.

When Snelling woke up, the infant was “turning blue and purple,” according to court documents obtained by FOX 17. Law enforcement determined the infant died of asphyxiation.

Snelling reported she “wrapped him like a burrito” after she thought he was dead and laid next to him on the floor because it “gave her comfort,” the documents state. At the time, she told her roommates she had fainted from not eating and she was going to go to a doctor. Snelling reportedly went to the campus clinic, but did not go inside.

“Instead of helping him, I ended his life,” Snelling said during her plea hearing in August, a report from LEX 18 states.

“You’ve made a decision that has affected not only your future, but the future of all of (the child’s) biological paternal side,” Fayette Circuit Judge Diane Minnifield told Snelling, according to the Lexington Herald-Ledger. “There’s a whole lot of people and lives that’s been affected and that has been turned inside out based on the choice that you made.”

Snelling will be eligible for probation after completing 85% of her 10-year sentence.