A former University of Kentucky cheerleader who admitted to 𝘬iᩚlling her newborn son, whose lifeless body was found stuffed in a trash bag, has been sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Laken Snelling, 22, pleaded guilty at Fayette Circuit Court in August to first-degree manslaughter, 𝘢bu𝘴e of a corpse, tampering with physical evidence and concealing the birth of an infant.
She was sentenced to 10 years Friday after telling the court at the previous plea hearing, “Instead of helping him, I ended his life,” according to WLEX.
Prosecutors had recommended a 10-year prison term for manslaughter, and one year each for the remaining charges.
Before Judge Diane Minnifield delivered her sentence, the court heard that the baby boy had been named McCoy Cade Hall and that his family had been crushed by his dєatᩚh.
“As a grandparent, you imagine the memories you’ll make with your grandchildren,” one relative told the court, adding that she had looked forward to “first words, kisses, and all the little moments that become lifelong memories.”
“You look forward to watching them grow and seeing the person they become,” the woman added. “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 is not eligible for probation, Fox 56 reported.
She originally pleaded not guilty in April but later admitted that she had ended the baby’s life by depriving him of oxygen.
“I was under a lot of emotional stress and my baby came unexpectedly,” Snelling said while crying in court in August.
“And instead of helping him I ended his life and afterwards I cleaned up and didn’t tell anyone.”
Lexington police responded to an off-campus home Aug. 27, 2025, after Snelling’s horrified college roommates discovered the dead baby boy wrapped in a towel in a black plastic bag stuffed in a closet.
They told a 911 operator that they had also found a “blood-soaked towel on the floor and a plastic bag containing evidence of childbirth.”
Snelling’s roommates said they had suspected she was hiding a pregnancy.
The baby was born alive and died of asphyxia by undetermined means, the Kentucky Medical Examiner’s Office found.
Snelling initially told police the baby had fallen on the floor after she gave birth, but she did not think he was “breathing or alive.”
She later changed her story to say that she’d passed out “on top of the baby” and woke up to find him “turning blue and purple.”
Snelling told medical staff the newborn had shown “a little bit of fetal movement” and made a “whimper” after being born, according to court documents.
She also took several photos while in labor but deleted them “in an attempt to hide the birth,” cops said.
