Judge throws the book at a West Virginia couple convicted of treating adopted Black kids as ‘slaves’
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 will have to serve at least 40 years before she is parole eligible while Lantz 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.”
