Laken Snelling Gets 10-Year Sentence After Pleading Guilty to Manslaughter

Laken Snelling is going away for a long time ... because a judge slapped her with a 10-year sentence in connection with the death of her infant son last year.

The 22-year-old former University of Kentucky cheerleader was sentenced Friday, several local news outlets reported.

Snelling pled guilty to first-degree manslaughter, abuse of a corpse, tampering with physical evidence, and concealing the birth of an infant back in August ... one year after her roommates found the boy's body in her room after hearing strange noises the night before.

While entering her guilty plea, Snelling said, "I was [under] a lot of stress, and my baby came unexpectedly, and instead of helping him I ended his life."

She specifically admitted to having "deprived him of oxygen" ... before cleaning up the mess of the birth by throwing him and towels in a plastic bag.