LEXINGTON, Ky. (Court TV) — A former University of Kentucky cheerleader cried in court as she admitted to killing her newborn.
Laken Snelling pleads guilty in court on Aug. 21, 2026. (Court TV)
Laken Snelling, 22, had been a member of the university’s STUNT team for three seasons when a dead infant was found in her closet, wrapped in a towel inside a trash bag.
Snelling, who has been free on a $100,000 bond since her arrest in 2025, appeared beside her attorney on Friday morning as she changed her plea to guilty on charges of first-degree manslaughter, abuse of a corpse, tampering with physical evidence and concealing the birth of an infant.
“I was under a lot of emotional stress and my baby came unexpectedly,” Snelling said through tears in court. “And instead of helping it … afterward I cleaned up and didn’t help anyone.”
Judge Diane Minnifield prompted her to elaborate, asking, “Tell me, when you said instead of helping him, you did what?”
Snelling: “I ended his life.”
Minnifield: “How did you end his life, ma’am?”
Snelling: “I deprived him of oxygen.”
In an interview with police, Snelling admitted giving birth but tried to suggest the child wasn’t breathing. She told officers that she had been awake for 30 minutes after giving birth, but then fell on top of the baby. When she woke up, the child was “turning blue and purple.”
Snelling’s roommates told investigators that on Aug. 27, 2025, they heard loud noises from the defendant’s room for about an hour. When the noises stopped, Snelling came out and said that she had passed out from not eating and planned to see a doctor. When she left the property, her roommates went into Snelling’s room to investigate and saw a blood-soaked towel on the floor and a plastic bag with “evidence of childbirth.” The roommates then found the child, dead, inside bags in Snelling’s closet.
On Friday, Snelling admitted to putting the towels in plastic bags to tamper with evidence and attempting to conceal the birth. “I didn’t tell anyone after,” she said.
Prosecutors recommended a 10-year sentence for the manslaughter charge and one-year sentences for each of the remaining three charges.
Minnifield said she could impose the sentences consecutively or concurrently before deferring her decision, adding that she wanted a presentence investigation to “give me just a little more information” about the defendant.
After her arrest, Snelling withdrew from the STUNT team. On Friday, she told Minnifield that she had completed her junior year of college; her last job, she said, was last summer, when she worked scooping ice cream.
Minnifield scheduled Snelling’s sentencing for Oct. 16.
