Prosecutor Says Laken Snelling Is Being Judged Without Any ‘Legitimate Fact’

A prosecutor in Kentucky said former college cheerleader Laken Snelling, who was arrested last month in connection to the death of her baby, is being unfairly judged in the court of public opinion.

“The first human reaction is that people are mad and angry and they want someone to blame,” Ronnie Bowling, Commonwealth’s Attorney for the 34th Judicial Circuit of Kentucky, told WKYT on Tuesday, September 9. 

Bowling, who is not affiliated with the Snelling investigation, said the former University of Kentucky athlete has been vilified on social media before being granted her due process. 

“So much opinion-forming gets had before anyone hears the first real, legitimate fact, and that’s not fair to the defendants, just as much as it’s not fair to our victims,” he said. 

When a case like Snelling’s gets so much media attention, Bowling said prosecutors will often be incredibly proactive about looking at stories when it comes to putting together a jury. 

“If we have a high-profile case, we’ll catalogue that story and try to, in some way, even save the post or screenshot and print the post, and people that have commented on it, we try to cross reference that with our jury list to see if people have predisposed opinions that need to be set aside in the jury selection process,” Bowling explained. 

Snelling, 21, was arrested on August 30 at her home in Lexington, Kentucky, and charged with abuse of a corpse, tampering with physical evidence and concealing the birth of an infant.

Authorities had been dispatched to Snelling’s residence on August 27 after receiving a call about an unresponsive infant. According to an arrest citation, the “infant was located wrapped in a towel inside of a black trash bag.” 

Snelling “admitted to giving birth” and to “concealing the birth by cleaning any evidence, placing all cleaning items used inside of a black trash bag, including the infant, who was wrapped in a towel.”

She pleaded not guilty to all charges and was released on $100,000 bond. She is now living on “home incarceration with no ankle monitor” with her parents in Tennessee.

The infant’s manner of death was listed as inconclusive, according to a coroner’s report obtained by Us Weekly on Thursday, September 4. 

Snelling is a former student at the University of Kentucky and a three-year member of the school’s STUNT cheerleading team. A spokesperson for the university confirmed to Us on Friday, September 5, that she is no longer enrolled at the school or on the STUNT team. 

Snelling is due in court on September 26 for a preliminary hearing.