A white West Virginia couple was sentenced to a long time in jail this week for abusing a few of their adopted kids, who’re Black, together with by forcing them to carry out heavy labor like “slaves.”
Donald Lantz, 62, was sentenced to 160 years in jail after being discovered responsible of pressured labor, human trafficking, little one abuse and neglect, the New York Times reported.
His spouse Jeanne Kay Whitefeather, 63, who was convicted of the identical costs plus violating her kids’s civil rights, was sentenced to 215 years behind bars.
The couple was convicted in January,
“You introduced these kids to West Virginia, a spot that I do know is ‘nearly heaven,’ and you place them in hell,” Eighth Judicial Circuit Courtroom Choose Maryclaire Akers mentioned throughout sentencing, per WCHS. “This court docket will now put you in yours. And will God have mercy in your souls, as a result of this court docket won’t.”
The couple adopted the 5 kids in 2018 and ultimately moved to Kanawha County in Might 2023, prosecutors mentioned, per the Instances.
Associated: Indictment Accuses White Couple of Forcing Adopted Black Children to Work as ‘Slaves,’ Says Judge
They had been arrested in October 2023 after a neighbor referred to as Little one Protecting Providers, alleging that two youngsters, 14 and 16, had been locked in a shed on the couple’s house in Sissonville, based on court docket paperwork obtained by WCHS-TV. Different neighbors additionally claimed the youngsters had been “pressured to carry out farm labor and weren’t permitted contained in the residence,” per the paperwork.
Deputies responded to the house and alleged two kids had been locked within the shed with a transportable rest room and no working water, based on an indictment cited by West Virginia MetroNews. The youngsters informed authorities they had been pressured to sleep on the ground and had been locked within the shed for about 12 hours, per the indictment.
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The youngsters had been carrying soiled garments and the oldest boy had what seemed to be sores on his toes, per the Associated Press.
A 16-count indictment was filed in opposition to the couple.
“It alleges human trafficking, human rights violations, using pressured labor,” Akers mentioned throughout a 2024 listening to in regards to the indictment, based on West Virginia Metro News. “Human rights violations particular to the truth that these kids had been focused due to their race and so they had been used principally as slaves from what the indictment alleges.”
The oldest daughter testified throughout the trial that the youngsters had been usually cursed at and a few of them needed to stand of their rooms for hours with their fingers on their heads, per the AP.
Lantz’s lawyer John J. Balenovich tells PEOPLE his consumer, who was not discovered responsible of a civil rights violation, “maintains his innocence of all costs.”
Whitefeather’s lawyer couldn’t be reached for remark.
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