A West Virginia couple, sentenced last week to centuries behind bars in a notorious child abuse case, made a last-ditch motion for a new trial before the judge shut them down with a scathing send-off, telling them, “May God have mercy on your souls.”  Attorneys for Donald Lantz and Jeanne Wh itefeather of Sissonville indicated they will pursue appeals after the couple was found guilty on March 20 of keeping their adopted children locked in a barn, forcing them to work as slaves. Lantz, 65, received the maximum 160 years behind bars and won’t be eligible for parole until he’s 101 years old. Whitefeather, 63, received a maximum 215 years in prison, and would need to live to 112 for any chance of parole. The couple is also required to pay restitution of $280,000 each. West Virginia couple Donald Lantz (left) and Jeanne Whitefeather (right) were sentenced to 215 years. (Credit: Video Screengrab WSAZ) “You brought these children to West Virginia, a place that I know as ‘Almost Heaven,’ and you put them in hell. This court will now put you in yours,” Circuit Judge Maryclaire Akers scolded the defendants. “And may God have mercy on your souls. Because this court will not.” The judge’s rebuke came after the parents were convicted of multiple felonies beyond child abuse, including human trafficking of a minor child, use of a minor child in forced labor, and child neglect, creating a substantial risk of serious bodily injury or death. With sentences stretching multiple decades, Lantz and Whitefeather will almost certainly die behind bars, leaving the appeals as their only shot at redemption. It’s unclear what legal grounds Lantz and Whitefeather might use to challenge their convictions. They could potentially hinge their hopes on a legal technicality or procedural misstep, as evidence of their guilt had been proven beyond a reasonable doubt, and the trial ended in two guilty verdicts. The case centered around the horrific abuse of their two oldest adopted children—a son and daughter forced into relentless labor by day and locked away in a dusty old barn by night.  The couple adopted the victims — five Black children, all siblings — while living in Minnesota more than a decade ago. The white couple took the kids with them to Washington state in 2018 before settling in West Virginia in May 2023, when the children ranged in age from 5 to 16. Inside the barn, where the children were isolated, there was no running water, no furniture, no blankets, and nothing to occupy their time. Just bare particle board walls, a few empty shelves, and exposed sub-flooring covered with a tarp. The wretched living conditions were documented with motion-activated cameras installed by Lantz and Whitefeather to keep an eye on the captives around the clock — video that was shown to the jury over several days, along with other disturbing evidence.  The children slept on the bare concrete with no bedding and used a shared a bucket as a toilet. While one went, the other held up a sheet to block the ever-watching eye of the camera.  Inside the main house, a 9-year-old girl was housed alone in a loft with no guardrail, according to prosecutors. The children endured a daily ordeal, forced to wake up early and stand for hours with their hands on their heads and denied the chance to shower or use the bathroom in private.  The were fed sparingly with peanut butter sandwiches, often left over from a previous meal. They were not allowed to eat except during those scheduled feedings and drank only water after their meals, the 18-year-old testified. Investigators had a warrant to get into Whitefeather’s cellphone, where they found incriminating text messages between her and Lantz, referring to the children as “monkeys” and “pigs.” In one text exchange, the couple joked about the ongoing abuse, saying, “Somebody didn’t say thank you, and his sandwiches disappeared.”  The message was sent with the crying laughing emoji, showing cold indifference to the daily ritual of misery, prosecutors said.  Whitefeather and Lantz were arrested in October 2023 in their home near Charleston, West Virginia, after a neighbor spotted him locking the couple’s two oldest children into the barn. Deputies responding to the neighbor’s 911 call required a sledgehammer to break into the facility, where they found the 16-year-old girl and 14-year-old boy reeking of body odor with sores on their feet.  The kids were turned over to state child protective officials. The ensuing investigation uncovered the full scope of the horrors the children endured since being adopted into the family with several other children. Videos found on Whitefeather’s phone revealed even more abuse from when the family lived in Washington state, showing the children being made to stand in military formation. Before issuing her sentence, Judge Akers listened to impact statements written by four of the children and read in court by the prosecutor’s office’s victim advocate. They told of the nightmares that terrorize them, how they have difficulty trusting anyone, and question and fear affection. The oldest girl, now 18, addressed her adopted mother directly, telling Whitefeather, “I’ll never understand how you can sleep at night. I want you to know that you are a monster.” The couple were found guilty in late January of more than 31 counts of child neglect and human trafficking, among other charges, following 12 days of shocking testimony about the horrors endured by their adopted kids. The siblings proved to be quite lucrative for Whitefeather and Lantz. A financial intelligence analyst who reviewed the couple’s bank statements testified they pocketed $318,000 in child assistance from the state of Minnesota alone. Videos and Racist Texts Expose White West Virginia Couple Who Enslaved Black Adopted Children, Forcing Them to Stand for Hours, Starve, and Bucket as Toliet—Now They Want an Appeal ...read more read less