Overview

• Jeanne Kay Whitefeather, 63, received a 215-year sentence, and Donald Lantz, 64, was sentenced to 160 years for enslaving their five adopted Black children and subjecting them to severe abuse.
• The couple targeted the children for forced labor based on their race, using racial slurs and treating them as 'slaves' on their property in West Virginia.
• The abuse was uncovered in October 2023 after a neighbor reported two of the children being locked in a shed without running water, prompting a welfare check and their arrest.
• The eldest daughter, now 18, testified against the couple, describing long-term trauma and filing a lawsuit in February 2025 seeking further accountability for the abuse.
• The court ordered the couple to pay $280,000 each in restitution to the victims, highlighting the lasting physical and emotional impact on the children.