A West Virginia mother refuted claims of forcing two of their adopted children to stay in a shed despite police discovering them there behind a locked door.
Jeanne Kay Whitefeather provided her testimony on Tuesday during the second week of the trial involving her and her husband, Donald Ray Lantz. The couple is accused of mistreating four out of their five children, who are all black. Facing several felony charges, including forced labor, civil rights violations, human trafficking, and gross child neglect, Whitefeather and Lantz were arrested in October 2023 after neighbors reported seeing Lantz locking two teenagers, a girl and a boy, in the shed on their property in Sissonville, West Virginia.
Whitefeather claimed that the shed served as a “teenager hangout.”
“They weren’t locked in,” Whitefeather testified. “They had a key. They could come and go as they pleased.”
However, the oldest daughter, now 18, testified that she was unaware of the key’s existence. A detective had previously testified that a key was found hidden on top of a cabinet in the shed.
The girl also stated that the children were only allowed to eat peanut butter sandwiches at specified times and were not permitted to eat outside of those designated times, regardless of hunger.
Whitefeather asserted that the children had access to the refrigerator, and she cooked for them every night.
Following the arrest of the couple, the five children were placed under the care of Child Protective Services.
The pair adopted the five siblings while living in Minnesota, then moved to a farm in Washington state in 2018 before eventually relocating to West Virginia in 2023, when the children’s ages ranged from five to 16.
The oldest boy is currently receiving full-time care in a psychiatric facility.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
