White Couple Who Forced Adopted Black Kids to Work As ‘Slaves’ Sentenced to Prison

A white West Virginia couple who forced their five Black adoptive children to work as “slaves” were each sentenced to more than 100 years in prison on Wednesday, The New York Times reported. U.S. Circuit Court Judge Maryclaire Akers sentenced wife Jeanne Kay Whitefeather, 62, to 215 years, while husband Donald Lantz, 63, received a sentence of 160 years for locking the children in a shed and forcing them to perform heavy labor. “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,” Akers told the couple. In January, a jury convicted the pair of human trafficking, child abuse, and neglect. During court proceedings, three of the children testified about the abuse they had endured. “I’ll never understand how you can sleep at night. I want you to know that you are a monster,” the eldest daughter, 18, told the court at sentencing. The five siblings were between the ages of 5 and 16 when the couple adopted them from Minnesota. Lantz and Whitefeather were arrested in October 2023 after a child welfare call led police to discover two teenagers locked in a shed.