A former University of Kentucky cheerleader pleaded guilty to manslaughter charges for k!lling her newborn son, whose lifeless body was found stuffed in a trash bag.
An emotional Laken Snelling admitted to “ending” her baby’s life in a Kentucky courtroom Friday morning, after initially pleading not guilty to first-degree manslaughter in April.
Snelling, now 22, also pleaded guilty to 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 while crying in court.
“And instead of helping him I ended his life, and afterwards I cleaned up and didn’t tell anyone.”
Asked by Judge Diane Minnifield how she ended his life, Snelling admitted, “I deprived him of oxygen.”
Lexington cops responded to an off-campus home Aug. 27, 2025, after her horrified college roommates discovered the dead baby boy wrapped in a towel in a black plastic bag stuffed in a closet.
In her room, they also found a “blood-soaked towel on the floor and a plastic bag containing evidence of childbirth,” they told a 911 operator.
Asked what she did with the evidence, Snelling confessed to the judge Friday, “I put the towels in a plastic bag.”
Snelling’s roommates later said they had suspected she was hiding a pregnancy. She admitted in court that she “didn’t tell anyone after” she gave birth.
The Kentucky Medical Examiner’s Office concluded the baby was born alive and died of asphyxia by undetermined means.
In an interview with police, Snelling, who has been free on a $100,000 bond since her arrest last year, initially claimed the baby had fallen on the floor after she gave birth, but she didn’t think he was “breathing or alive.”
However, her story soon changed, claiming instead she had passed out “on top of the baby” and woke up to find him “turning blue and purple.”
She later told medical staff that the newborn had shown “a little bit of fetal movement” and made a “whimper” after being born, court documents state.
Cops said she also took several photos while in labor, but deleted them “in an attempt to hide the birth.”
Prosecutors have recommended a 10-year prison term for manslaughter, and one year each for abuse of a corpse, tampering with physical evidence, and concealing the birth of an infant.
Snelling is set to be sentenced on October 16.