Former University of Kentucky cheerleader Laken Snelling pleading guilty to manslaughter charges for killing her newborn baby boy and stuffing him in a trash bag.
Snelling, now 22, first pleaded not guilty in April, but on Friday morning in court, she admitted to “ending” her child’s life, the New York Post reported.
Snelling also pleaded guilty to several other charges, including abuse of a corpse, concealing the birth of an infant, and tampering with physical evidence.
“I was under a lot of emotional stress and my baby came unexpectedly,” Snelling said in court through tears. “And instead of helping him I ended his life and afterwards I cleaned up and didn’t tell anyone.”
Snelling admitted she “deprived him of oxygen” when Judge Diane Minnifield asked her how she ended her baby’s life.
Law enforcement in Lexington responded to the off-campus home Snelling was living in on Aug. 27, 2025 after her college roommates discovered the baby boy dead, wrapped in a towel, shoved in a black plastic bag, and hidden in a closet, according to the report.
Her roommates also told dispatch they found a “blood-soaked towel on the floor and a plastic bag containing evidence of childbirth.”
Snelling confessed to the judge on Friday that she put the evidence “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,” according to the report.
The Kentucky Medical Examiner’s Office conducted an autopsy and confirmed the baby was born alive and died of asphyxia by undetermined means, the report states.
Snelling first told police the baby fell on the floor after she gave birth, and she did not believe he was “breathing or alive.” She then changed her story and told police she had passed out on top of her son and woke up to find him “turning blue and purple.” Snelling later told hospital staff her baby had made a “whimper” after being born and showed “a little bit of fetal movement.”
Law enforcement said she also took several pictures while she was giving birth, but she deleted them in an effort to “hide the birth,” per the report.
Snelling has been free on $100,000 bond since she was arrested last year. Prosecutors have recommended at least ten years behind bars for manslaughter and one year each for the other charges.
Snelling’s sentencing is set for Oct. 16.