A West Virginia couple convicted of abusing their adopted Black children and treating them like slaves has been sentenced to more than a century in prison.
According to the Independent, Jeanne Kay Whitefeather, 62, and her husband, Donald Lantz, 63, received maximum sentences to be served consecutively. Judge Maryclaire Akers of the Kanawha County Circuit Court sentenced Whitefeather to 215 years in prison and Lantz to 160 years.
Whitefeather must serve a minimum of 40 years before being eligible for parole, whereas Lantz must serve at least 30. Furthermore, both will have to pay $280,000 in restitution to the children.
Judge Akers chastised the couple for moving the five Black siblings, ages five to 16, to West Virginia in 2023, where they were forced to sleep on the floor and use buckets for toilets. The couple was arrested after two of their children were discovered locked in a shed in filthy conditions.
“You brought them to West Virginia, a place I know as almost heaven, and you put them in hell,” Judge Akers told the couple before passing sentence. “This court will now place you in yours. May God have mercy on your souls, as this court will not.”
The sentencing comes nearly two months after a jury found the couple guilty of multiple charges, including forced labor, human trafficking, and child abuse and neglect. Whitefeather was also convicted of civil rights violations related to race, which contributed to her longer sentence.
In court, the couple’s oldest daughter confronted her parents for mistreating her siblings through a letter.
“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 wrote.
“Observing my siblings’ experiences impacted my mental health significantly…” I felt hopeless in those circumstances. “I was very angry.”
In February, the couple’s eldest daughter, now an adult, filed a lawsuit against them, accusing them of severe physical and emotional abuse and neglect that has left her permanently scarred.
