Former University of Kentucky cheerleader Laken Snelling, 22, has been sentenced to 10 years in prison after admitting to killing her newborn son. The baby’s body was found inside a trash bag in a closet at her off-campus home in August 2025.
What Snelling told police after the birth
Snelling’s college roommates had found the baby boy wrapped in a towel inside a black plastic bag stuffed in a closet. That is why they called police. The Kentucky Medical Examiner’s Office found that the baby was born alive and died of asphyxia by undetermined means. She later changed her story. She had been a member of the school’s competitive cheer STUNT team and was a decorated beauty queen.
Snelling was sentenced on Friday, October 16, after pleading guilty to first-degree manslaughter, abuse of a corpse, tampering with physical evidence and concealing the birth of an infant in August 2026, according to the Louisville Courier Journal . Lexington police went to an off-campus home on August 27, 2025. They told a 911 operator they had also found a “blood-soaked towel on the floor and a plastic bag containing evidence of childbirth. As reported by People, this happened 30 minutes after the birth, according to the affidavit. As per reports, Snelling withdrew from the University of Kentucky days after her arrest in August 2025.
The roommates said they had suspected she was hiding a pregnancy. The roommates became worried after finding blood in her room and hearing her make strange noises, according to an arrest affidavit. Snelling first told police that the baby had fallen on the floor after she gave birth, and that she did not think he was “breathing or alive. She said she had passed out “on top of the baby” and woke up to find him “turning blue and purple,” as per the NY Post . Snelling also told medical staff the newborn had shown “a little bit of fetal movement” and made a “whimper” after being born, according to court documents. Cops said she took several photos while in labor but deleted them “in an attempt to hide the birth,” as per the NY Post.
Before Judge Diane Minnifield gave the sentence, the court heard that the baby boy was called McCoy Cade Hall and that his family was crushed by his death. She added that she had looked forward to “first words, kisses, and all the little moments that become lifelong memories. “For Cade, those possibilities were taken away before he ever had the chance to experience them.
Snelling will be up for parole after serving 85% of her sentence, but she is not eligible for probation. Prosecutors had asked for a total of 13 years, as per People. This was 10 years for manslaughter and one year each for the other charges. Snelling got 10 years.
“As a grandparent, you imagine the memories you’ll make with your grandchildren,” one relative told the court. “You look forward to watching them grow and seeing the person they become,” the woman added.
Snelling first pleaded not guilty in April. Later, she admitted she had ended the baby’s life by depriving him of oxygen. “And instead of helping him I ended his life and afterwards I cleaned up and didn’t tell anyone.
“I was under a lot of emotional stress and my baby came unexpectedly,” Snelling said while crying in court in August. She also told the court at the plea hearing, “Instead of helping him, I ended his life,” according to WLEX .
