Former Cheerleader Laken Snelling's Sentencing Shocks Community After Tragic Event

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.

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.

When 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.”