LEXINGTON, Ky. (Court TV) — A former cheerleader at the University of Kentucky was led out of court by deputies on Friday to begin serving a 10-year prison sentence for killing her newborn son.
Laken Snelling leaves court after her sentencing on Oct. 16, 2026. (Court TV)
Laken Snelling, 22, previously pleaded guilty to manslaughter and other charges in the death of the infant, who was found wrapped in a towel and a trash bag inside her closet. “I ended his life,” Snelling tearfully admitted in August when she pleaded guilty.
Judge Diane Minnifield hesitated to impose a sentence in August and ordered a presentence investigation before deciding whether to accept the Commonwealth’s recommendation of 10 years for manslaughter and one year for each of the other three charges Snelling had pleaded guilty to.
On Friday, Minnifield said that the investigation revealed Snelling was raised in a stable home, had no prior criminal record and was unemployed after completing her third year of college. Minnifield told Snelling: “Sometimes we make choices and decisions, and there’s a consequence for each of those. And, you know, sometimes those choices and consequences affect our future for the rest of our lives.”
Neither Snelling nor her attorneys offered any statement at her sentencing. “We chose not to submit any statements from her or from the large number of people who want to send letters in support of her,” one of her attorneys told the court. “One of the concerns we had, this case has had some media attention and we just didn’t want to fuel that fire anymore by letters in support of her. So the fact that we did not submit anything, don’t take that as a reason she doesn’t care about what happened. She is incredibly, deeply saddened by what happened. She’s taking complete responsibility for it.”
Snelling’s roommates called the police on Aug. 27, 2025, after discovering the child inside her closet. The roommates said they had heard loud noises from Snelling’s room for about an hour that day. Snelling then came out of the room, claimed she had passed out from not eating, and left. After she left the property, the roommates went to investigate and found a blood-soaked towel on her floor before finding the dead infant.
In a police interview after her arrest, Snelling said that she tripped and fell on top of the child after giving birth and woke up to find it “turning blue and purple.” She then described wrapping the baby “like a burrito” before lying next to it on the floor.
The child’s father, who named the infant McCoy Cade Hall, spoke briefly at the sentencing hearing, saying, “I don’t wish the worst on Laken. What happened is, it is what it is. I can’t change it.”
His mother also spoke, describing the baby, whom she referred to as Cade, as “a perfectly healthy, beautiful baby boy. A baby who had barely begun its life. A baby that deserved a chance to grow to be loved. … Instead of celebrating his milestones, we’re left mourning the milestones that never were passed. Instead of watching him grow, I’m left wondering who he would have been.”
“Based on the nature of this charge, you’re not even probation eligible to be considered,” Minnifield said as she began to pronounce Snelling’s sentence. “You know, this is a crime of violence. This is a crime that took the life of a baby innocent that did nothing, you know, did nothing but come out and breathe, and that’s it.”
Minnifield accepted the Commonwealth’s recommendation, ordering Snelling to serve concurrent sentences totaling 10 years in prison. “You’re going to have a lot of time,” Minnifield said. “You’re young, you’re 22 years old. You’re going to have a lot of life. This family of Cade is going to have a lot of life ahead of them, but this hole will never go away. This loneliness, this just now in the pit of your stomach, it’s never going to go away. You’re going to have to find ways to live with it and all of that’s only going to come by God.”
Snelling received 415 days of credit for time served under house arrest.
