West Virginia Couple Who Enslaved Adopted Black Kids Sentenced To Decades In Prison—‘You Put Them In Hell, The Court Will Put You In Yours’

A US Circuit Court Judge sentenced a West Virginia couple to decades in prison for subjecting their adoptive Black children to harsh living conditions and forcing them to perform hard labor. Judge Maryclaire Akers sentenced Jeanne Kay Whitefeather (63) and Donald Lantz (62) to respectively serve up to 215 and 160 years each after a jury found the couple guilty of human trafficking of a minor child, use of a minor in forced labor, gross child neglect, and child abuse by a parent causing bodily injury. While Whitefeather will eligible for parole in 49 years, Lantz will also qualify for the same in 36 years.

Jeanne Kay Whitefeather, 62, has been sentenced to 225 years and husband Donald Lantz, 63, got 160 years for treating five Black siblings - aged from five to 16 - they adopted as slaves. They must also pay them $280,000. How were they allowed to adopt one child let alone five? https://t.co/w4NA83W6m8 pic.twitter.com/ujmuFTMgIt

— Lorraine King (@lorrainemking) March 21, 2025

Jeanne Whitefeather was also convicted of a civil rights violation after prosecutors revealed that she had used racially derogatory language to describe the children. Judge Akers, during her ruling, stated that while the couple moved to West Virginia in hopes of finding a place isolated enough for them to abuse the children, what they actually found was a "state of people who will not tolerate the abuse of children of any race." Lashing out at Whitefeather and Lantz, Maryclaire Akers said, You brought these children to West Virginia, a place that I know is ‘almost heaven,’ and you put them in hell. This court will now put you in yours. And may God have mercy on your souls, because this court will not." John Balenovich, Donald Lantz's lawyer, in an interview, remarked that Lantz "maintains his innocence as to the charges" and that his client was considering an appeal. Whitefeather's attorney, Mark Plants, justified the West Virginia couple's crude background for their parenting choices, saying, "These are farm people that do farm chores. It wasn’t about race. It wasn’t about forced labor." 3 out of the 5 adopted children, who are 18, 16, 13, 10, and 9, respectively, testified against the West Virginia couple. The 18-year-old, at the sentencing, told Jeanne Whitefeather, "I’ll never understand how you can sleep at night. I want you to know that you are a monster." The children were adopted in Minnesota in 2018, as per prosecutors, and lived with Whitefeather and Lantz in Washington State before moving to Kanawha County in May 2023.

A horrific case has emerged from West Virginia, where a white couple was arrested for subjecting the Black children they adopted to inhumane conditions, forcing them into labor akin to slavery and brutalizing them into compliance. Reports indicate that these children were… pic.twitter.com/fVa35Nuxzt

— IG: RahiemShabazz (@rahiemshabazz) January 25, 2025 County Sheriff's deputies responded to the couple's home in October 2023 after neighbors reported that they had seen some of the children "locked in a barn for days at a time" and were "forced to perform farm labor." Prosecutors found that the children were forced by the West Virginia couple to perform outdoor labor such as carrying buckets up and down a hill and pulling grass by hand. Madison Tuck, a Kanawha County prosecutor, while lauding the children for their resilience said, "They are so wonderful, so smart, so funny. They are going to do amazing things in this world, and I’m so grateful to be a part of getting them some semblance of justice."