A white couple received heavy prison sentences for using their five adopted black children to work on their property like “slaves” in Sissonville, West Virginia.
Jeanne Kay Whitefeather and her husband, Donald Lantz, were collectively sentenced to 375 years behind bars after they were convicted of forced labor, human trafficking, and child abuse and neglect in January, the New York Post reported Friday.
West Virginia couple convicted of abusing adopted children is set for sentencing https://t.co/atiRCnqfiK
— The Associated Press (@AP) March 19, 2025
In court on Wednesday, Circuit Judge Maryclaire Akers said, “You brought these children to West Virginia, a place that I know as ‘Almost Heaven,’ and you put them in hell. This court will now put you in yours.”
She added, “And may God have mercy on your souls. Because this court will not.”
The abuse against the five children included heavy labor, locking them in bedrooms, and forcing some of the children to sleep on hard floors, the Associated Press (AP) reported on Wednesday.
The couple adopted the siblings “while living in Minnesota, moved to a farm in Washington state in 2018, then brought the family to West Virginia in May 2023, when the children ranged in age from 5 to 16,” the AP article said, noting that Whitefeather was also convicted of civil rights violations.
Law enforcement arrested the couple in October 2023 once a child welfare call ended up in authorities discovering two teenagers locked in a shed on the couple’s property.
Following the couple’s arrest, neighbors in the area told WSAZ they had been deeply concerned for the children. The outlet’s report details how law enforcement made contact with the children:
After the couple was indicted, Akers said, “these children were targeted because of their race, and they were used basically as slaves.”
Additional video footage reported in January shows the conditions in which the children lived, per WCHS. The outlet said when the couple moved into the area, neighbors felt something was not right and began calling CPS and police about the situation.
“I was afraid that they would move away and those little kids… nobody would be there to help them,” one woman testified in court:
The children endured abuse such as mostly being fed peanut butter sandwiches and being forced stand with their hands on their heads for hours. The eldest boy and girl were forced to use the same bucket for a restroom.
According to the AP, “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 news comes after two men in Georgia were sentenced to 100 years in prison for sexually abusing their two special needs adopted sons, Breitbart News reported in December.
