Wednesday, a couple from West Virginia got the maximum sentence of 20 years in jail for abusing their adopted children by making them do hard work, locking them in their rooms, sleeping on concrete floors, and standing with their hands on their heads for hours on end.
The jail sentence for Jeanne Kay Whitefeather was up to 215 years, and the sentence for her husband, Donald Lantz, was up to 160 years. One of the charges against them was forced labor, and the other was child abuse and neglect. The jurors in Kanawha County found them guilty on January 29. Also, Whitefeather was found guilty of violating civil rights because of his race.
Whitefeather will be able to get out of jail after 40 years, and Lantz will be able to do so after 30.
“You put these kids in hell when you took them to West Virginia, a place I call “Almost Heaven.” “You will now be in your own court,” Circuit Judge Maryclaire Akers told the people who were being charged. “May God forgive you and keep you.” Because this court won’t let them.
The victim advocate for the prosecutor’s office read letters written by four of the kids one at a time in court. Some of the kids stood next to the lawyer while she read. According to the letters, the kids have been through unbearable trauma and now have trouble believing people. They also have nightmares and question and fear affection.
“I’ll never understand how you sleep at night,” the oldest girl, who is now 18 years old, told Whitefeather straight in front of the court. “I want you to know that you’re ugly.”
At one point, Akers told the news sites not to use the kids’ names or pictures.
The white couple adopted the five black brothers while living in Minnesota. In 2018, they moved to a farm in Washington state, and in May 2023, when the kids were between 5 and 16 years old, they brought the family to West Virginia.
They moved to Sissonville five months ago. Five months later, they were caught after neighbors saw Lantz lock the oldest girl and her teenage brother in a shed and then leave the property. They were let out with a crowbar by an officer.
A criminal charge says that inside the main house, a 9-year-old girl was found crying in a loft by herself with no way to keep her from falling. Deputies said the kids were wearing dirty clothes and smelling like body odor. The oldest boy was found barefoot with what looked like sores on his feet.
When Lantz finally came back, he had a fourth kid with him, and deputies were later shown a 5-year-old girl. The five kids were given to Child Protective Services after the couple was caught.
The oldest daughter sued the couple last month, saying they abused and neglected her severely and left her with lasting scars.
Akers said Whitefeather and Lantz wouldn’t take blame for what they did after they spoke briefly in court.
The judge showed a report from the sentence hearing in which the couple said their real estate agent was to blame for not finding a place that was far enough away from everything else. You should have told your real estate agent that you needed a place away from everyone else so that you could keep abusing your kids, though.
Kids were made to dig with their hands.
Neighbors testified in court that they never saw the kids play and saw Lantz make them stand in line or do hard yard work, like lifting big things. When Lantz told the kids about the nosy neighbors, most of them stayed inside.
The oldest daughter said that most of the work was done outside in Washington, and that some of them had to dig with their bare hands. She also said that Whitefeather used racist words and that the kids were cursed at “all the time.”
The daughter said that Whitefeather chose to focus on the youngest child, even though that child wasn’t involved in any of the charges. She also said that Whitefeather had told the other children that she wanted to live without them.
The daughter also said that the kids always ate peanut butter sandwiches at set times, sometimes with extra peanut butter from a previous meal. Some kids had to stand with their hands on their heads in their rooms for hours. The oldest girl and boy had to share a room, sleep on the floor, and use the same bucket for the bathroom. One held up a sheet to hide from the home’s security cameras, according to the evidence.
The couple and their lawyers fought back against the claims. Lantz said in court that the chores were meant to teach the kids how to be responsible.
Defense says the couple was too much to handle
According to the defense, the couple was just too busy trying to get help for their kids’ mental health problems, abuse, and stress at home. John Balenovich, Lantz’s lawyer, said that the state’s child welfare office “dropped the ball the most in this case,” even though the family had asked for help from them several times.
A forensic psychologist working for the prosecution said that the way the couple treated the kids made their conditions worse.
Assistant Prosecutor Madison Tuck said that the parents of the oldest son never got him help, even though there was a mental health office just a few minutes away. The boy is currently getting full-time care in a psychiatric facility. Lawyers say that his physical fight with Whitefeather in 2022 was the start of the family’s problems.
Mark Plants, Whitefeather’s lawyer, said in the final arguments that the couple was only guilty of making bad parenting choices.
Plants said, “These are farm workers who do farm work.” ‘Twas not about race. It had nothing to do with forced work.
