Parents Who Locked Adopted Children in Barn, Forced Them to Work 'as Slaves' Convicted of Human Trafficking

A West Virginia couple accused of locking their adopted Black children in a barn, making them use buckets as toilets and forcing them to work “as slaves” has been found guilty of human trafficking and other charges.

After eight hours of deliberation, a Kanawha County jury convicted Jeanne Kay Whitefeather, 62, of Sissonville, of all 19 counts against her, including human trafficking, forced labor, gross child neglect and child abuse, WCHS reports.

Donald Lantz, 63, was also convicted on the same charges, but was acquitted of four counts of civil rights violations, the Associated Press reports. His wife was convicted of civil rights violations.

The couple adopted the children from a shelter for homeless and vulnerable youths, choosing them to perform labor because of their race, the indictment alleged, NBC News reported. 

The family moved to a farm in Washington in 2018 and then to West Virginia in 2023, when the children were ages 5 to 16, the AP reports.

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Lantz and Whitefeather were first arrested in October 2023 when neighbors reported seeing Lantz lock their eldest adopted daughter and her teenage brother in a barn and then leave the property, according to a criminal complaint, the AP reported.

A deputy who needed a crowbar to free the children from the barn found a 9-year-old girl inside the family’s home crying alone, according to the criminal complaint, the AP reported.

The parents were arrested again in June 2024, charged this time with human trafficking of a minor child, use of a minor child in forced labor, and child neglect creating substantial risk of serious bodily injury or death, the AP reports.

During the trial, the eldest daughter, now 18, testified about the horrific conditions under which the children lived.

She said the children had to stand in their rooms for hours “to prevent us from falling asleep,” she testified, and were pepper sprayed when they didn’t obey orders, such as keeping their hands atop their heads for prolonged periods, the AP reported.

Lantz hit one of the boys over the head with a pipe when he didn’t listen to him, she testified.

The children, all of whom were Black, were called racial slurs, wore dirty clothes and subsisted on a diet of peanut butter sandwiches, she said. The teen said she went about two months without showering or brushing her teeth and said she and her siblings rarely took baths or showers.

In June 2024, Kanawha County Circuit Judge Maryclaire Akers alleged that the couple violated their five adopted children’s human rights by forcing them to work, West Virginia Metro News reported.

Despite that, a financial intelligence analyst testified that Lantz and Whitefeather received $318,000 in child assistance from the state of Minnesota, the AP reports.

Whitefeather’s attorney, Mark Plants, disputed the allegation she had forced the children to work.

“These are farm people that do farm chores,” Plants said, per AP. “It wasn’t about race. It wasn’t about forced labor.”

The couple is scheduled to be sentenced on March 19. Whitefeather faces a maximum of 215 years in prison while Lantz could receive up to 75 years in prison.