Judge throws the book at a West Virginia couple convicted of treating adopted Black kids as ‘slaves’
In January, a jury found Jeanne Whitefeather and Donald Ray Lantz guilty on multiple counts of forced labor, human trafficking, and child abuse and neglect
A West Virginia couple found guilty of abusing their adopted children by locking them in a shed, forcing them to sleep on the floor and to use buckets as toilets, have been sentenced to decades in prison.
Jeanne Kay Whitefeather, 62, and her husband Donald Lantz, 63, received maximum sentences, to be served consecutively, a judge ordered in Kanawha County Circuit Court on Wednesday.
Whitefeather, who was sentenced to 215 years, will have to serve at least 40 years before she is eligible for parole while Lantz, who got 160 years behind bars, will have to serve at least 30. They will each also have to pay $280,000 in restitution to the children.
The couple, who are white, adopted the five Black siblings, ranging in age from 5 to 16, moved to West Virginia in 2023, and were arrested after two of the children were found locked in a shed in unsanitary conditions.
“You brought them to West Virginia, a place I know as almost heaven, and you put them in hell,” Judge Maryclaire Akers told the couple before handing down the sentence. “This court will now put you in yours. May God have mercy on your souls because this court will not.”
The sentencing comes nearly two months after a jury on January 29 found the pair guilty on multiple counts of forced labor, human trafficking, and child abuse and neglect. Whitefeather also was convicted of civil rights violations based on race.
In court on Wednesday, the couple’s oldest daughter read a letter she had written to her parents.
“I don’t understand at all how you were able to treat any person the way you treated me and my siblings and then preach the name of God right after that,” she read.
“I feel like I went through a lot more mentally because I had to watch my siblings go through those things… I felt hopeless in those situations. I felt a lot of anger.”
Before handing down the sentence, the judge denied the couple’s motion for a new trial.
When given a chance to address the court, Whitefeather offered an apology.
“I have made mistakes, and I'm very sorry for that,” she said. “I love my children and I have never done anything .. to harm them intentionally.”
Lantz also spoke, directing his comments to the children who were present in the courtroom.
“I would just like to say, children, I do love you.”
Victim advocate Brittany Leavitt read letters from some of the other children, all of whom are siblings.
“I was taught to laugh at my siblings and told they were bad,” the youngest daughter wrote in her letter that was read in court. “Now in my new home, I see that everything was not right there...They were mean and kids should not be picked on by their parents. They should be loved.”
In the letter from the middle daughter, she wrote: “Hello, I am a little girl ... and I am working on changing my life. I will be something amazing. I will be strong and beautiful. You will always be exactly what you are — horrible.”
The couple had adopted the children while living in Minnesota, before moving to a farm in Washington state in 2018, and then brought the family to West Virginia in May 2023.
Five months after their arrival in Sissonville, they were arrested after neighbors saw Lantz lock the oldest girl and her teenage brother in a shed and leave the property. A deputy used a crowbar to get them out.
Inside the main residence, a 9-year-old girl was found crying in a loft alone with no protection from falling, according to a criminal complaint. The children were found in dirty clothes and smelling of body odor, deputies said, and the oldest boy was found barefoot with what appeared to be sores on his feet.
A fourth child was with Lantz when he eventually returned, and deputies were later led to a 5-year-old girl. All five children were turned over to Child Protective Services after the couple’s arrest.
Last month the oldest daughter, now an adult, sued the couple, alleging severe physical and emotional abuse and neglect that has scarred her permanently.
During trial, neighbors testified they never saw the children play and witnessed Lantz make them stand in line or perform difficult chores around the yard, including lifting heavy items. After Lantz noticed the curious neighbors, the children mostly stayed indoors.
The eldest daughter testified the outdoor work occurred mostly in Washington and that some of them were forced to use their hands for digging. She also said the children were cursed at “all the time” and that Whitefeather used racist language.
The daughter said Whitefeather gave preferential treatment to the youngest child, who wasn’t involved in any of the charges, and that Whitefeather had told the other children that she wished for a life without them.
The daughter also said the children were fed a steady diet of peanut butter sandwiches at scheduled times, some left over from a previous meal. Some kids were forced to stand in their rooms for hours and keep their hands on their heads.
The oldest girl and boy shared a room, were forced to sleep on the floor and used the same bucket for the bathroom while the other held up a sheet for privacy from the home’s security cameras, according to testimony.
The couple and their attorneys pushed back on the accusations, with Lantz testifying that the chores were assigned to teach the children responsibility.
The defense argued the couple was simply overwhelmed with trying to get help for the children’s mental health issues, abuse and trauma from their biological home. Lantz’s attorney, John Balenovich, said the state’s child welfare agency, which the family requested help from several times, “dropped the ball the most in this case.”
A forensic psychologist for the prosecution testified that the couple’s treatment of the children had worsened their conditions.
Assistant Prosecutor Madison Tuck said the couple never sought help for the oldest boy despite a behavioral health clinic being just minutes from their home. The boy, whose physical altercation with Whitefeather in 2022 was cited by attorneys as the start of the family’s internal struggles, currently is receiving full-time care in a psychiatric facility.
Whitefeather’s attorney, Mark Plants, said during closing argument that the couple was only guilty of making poor parenting decisions.
“These are farm people that do farm chores,” Plants said. “It wasn’t about race. It wasn’t about forced labor.”