{"id":221519,"date":"2026-08-22T01:08:18","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T01:08:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/laken-snelling-ex-kentucky-student-whose-infant-was-found-dead-in-closet-pleads-guilty-to-manslaughter-nbc-news\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T01:08:18","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T01:08:18","slug":"laken-snelling-ex-kentucky-student-whose-infant-was-found-dead-in-closet-pleads-guilty-to-manslaughter-nbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/laken-snelling-ex-kentucky-student-whose-infant-was-found-dead-in-closet-pleads-guilty-to-manslaughter-nbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Laken Snelling, ex-Kentucky student whose infant was found dead in closet, pleads guilty to manslaughter – NBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A former University of Kentucky student-athlete pleaded guilty Friday to first-degree manslaughter in the death of her infant son, whose body was found inside a trash bag in a closet.
Laken Snelling had initially pleaded not guilty<\/a> after a grand jury indicted her on several charges, including first-degree manslaughter, abuse of a corpse, tampering with physical evidence and concealing the birth of an infant.
Snelling, 22, changed her plea to guilty on Friday, NBC affiliate in Lexington, Kentucky, WLEX<\/a> reported.
Appearing before Fayette County Circuit Court Judge Diane Minnifield, Snelling began crying as she entered her guilty plea.
\u201cI was under a lot of emotional stress and my baby came unexpectedly,\u201d Snelling tearfully told the judge. \u201cAnd instead of helping him, I ended his life. And afterwards I cleaned up and didn\u2019t tell anyone.\u201d
When Minnifield asked how she ended his life, Snelling answered, \u201cI deprived him of oxygen.\u201d
When asked about the tampering of physical evidence charge, Snelling replied, \u201cI put the towels in a plastic bag.\u201d
Asked bout the charge of concealing the birth of an infant, Snelling said, \u201cI didn\u2019t tell anyone about it.\u201d
Minnifield accepted the guilty plea and then set a sentencing hearing for Oct. 16. Snelling faces up to 10 years in prison on the most serious charge of manslaughter.
Officers responded to a residence on Aug. 27 for a report of an unresponsive infant, according to a press release<\/a> from the city of Lexington.
The Kentucky Medical Examiner\u2019s Office determined the baby was born alive and his cause of death to be \u201casphyxia by undetermined means.\u201d
Police said Snelling hid her dead infant, found wrapped in a towel, inside a black trash bag in a closet.
The former member of the university\u2019s STUNT team allegedly told police that she tried to conceal the evidence of giving birth from her roommates, a police citation stated.
Minyvonne Burke is a senior breaking news reporter for NBC News.
© 2026 NBCUniversal Media, LLC<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

news AlertsThere are no new alerts at this timeA former University of Kentucky student-athlete pleaded guilty Friday to first-degree manslaughter in the death of her infant son, whose body was found inside a trash bag in a closet. Laken Snelling had initially pleaded not guilty after a grand jury indicted her on several charges, including […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":221520,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-221519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221519"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221519\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}