Honk News (CHARLESTON, WA) – A couple from West Virginia faced a jury on Wednesday and was found guilty after eight hours of careful consideration, following allegations of neglect and forced labor concerning their adopted children.
In mid-January, Jeanne Kay Whitefeather and Donald Ray Lantz stood trial, confronting more than a dozen serious charges, such as forced labor, civil rights violations, human trafficking, and child neglect.
A couple has faced allegations of abusing their children, who are of a different race, by confining them in a shed, making them sleep on the floor, and requiring them to use buckets as toilets, among other accusations.
A jury in the Kanawha County Circuit Court found Whitefeather guilty on all 19 charges, which included violations of civil rights. Lantz faced a verdict of guilty on 12 out of 16 charges. He was found not guilty on four charges related to civil rights violations. Neither displayed much feeling when the decision was announced.
Debra Rusnak, the Prosecuting Attorney for Kanawha County, expressed her emotional response as she listened to the word “guilty” being echoed repeatedly.
Whitefeather and Lantz took in the five siblings while residing in Minnesota, relocated to a farm in Washington state in 2018, and subsequently moved the family to West Virginia in May 2023, with the children aged between 5 and 16.
In October 2023, authorities took the couple into custody following reports from neighbors who witnessed Lantz confine the eldest daughter and her teenage brother in a shed before departing the premises. A deputy employed a crowbar to extricate them.
A 9-year-old girl was discovered alone in a loft, crying and without any safety measures against falls, as detailed in a criminal complaint. Upon his eventual return, Lantz was accompanied by a fourth child. Authorities subsequently located the couple’s youngest daughter.
The couple’s arrest led to the transfer of all five individuals to Child Protective Services.