UPDATE 1/17/2025 7:25 — The eldest child and forensic experts took the stand Friday afternoon in the trial of the Sissonville couple charged with 20 counts of child neglect, child trafficking and forced labor.
Jeanne Whitefeather and Donald Lantz were arrested in 2023 after authorities found two of their adopted children locked inside a shed on their property.
The testimony of the oldest child, now an adult but 16 at the time, took up most of the afternoon. She testified about horrible living conditions during their time in Minnesota, Washington and finally West Virginia.
She told the court that while living in Washington and West Virginia she and her siblings were forced to sleep in sleeping bags on the floor and in tents on a hill near their house. Their bathroom was a portable toilet.
When asked why they were forced to sleep outside, she said it was because Whitefeather said that they “were dirty and stunk.” She said they used disposable wipes to try to clean themselves and that they were denied clean clothes.
She said their meals were often limited to cereal or waffles with water or juice. If they were working they would get snacks in place of the meals.
There was forced physical labor, she said, including working in a garden without any tools. She told of the time she ran away for two days because Lantz hit her because she didn’t do what she was told.
She said when they arrived in West Virginia, she and her siblings initially lived in a van until the police were called. After that, they moved to a bedroom inside the house. She said they often did not have access to food or drink other than peanut butter sandwiches.
She said she and were brother were living in the shed for two months before the police arrived. During that time they were only allowed out when she would drag out the camping toilet so it could be dumped.
When the police returned in October, 2023, she initially did not want to talk with them because she was worried that she would say something to make Whitefeather mad. She also recounted many times that Whitefeather would pepper spray the younger children.
During cross examination, Mark Plants, Whitefeather’s attorney, asked if the kids willingly went inside the shed or did anything willingly. She said “It was never voluntarily.”
Jacob Hewitt, a digital forensic examiner from the West Virginia Fusion Center, also testified for the prosecution Friday about photos and text messages on one of the defendant’s phone that was confiscated as evidence. He was asked under cross examination if he knew for certain who sent the text messages and he responded that he did not.
Another worker from the Fusion Center, Alyssa Ledbetter, a forensic analyst testified about the finances of Whitefeather and Lantz.
“Specifically, it was bank statements that were reviewed and prepared for the report that I had made,” Ledbetter said.
The report detailed payments that Whitefeather and Lantz received from the Minnesota Department of Management and Budget for adoption assistance. For each child, they started receiving payments in 2018, but they stopped May 1, 2024, six months after the kids were taken away.
In cross-examination, she was asked if the payments were made because they children were doing chores, she said she could not tell. She was also asked if she knew where the money was being spent and she said she could only analyze what she was given and did not know where the money was used.
The trial is expected to resume Tuesday morning when more testimony is expected from the children.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Explicit text messages off one of the defendant’s cell phones are under review during the fourth day of the Sissonville couple’s trial who are charged with 20 counts of gross child neglect, child trafficking and forced labor.
A digital forensics examiner with the West Virginia Fusion Center, Jacob Hewitt took the stand Friday morning during the ongoing trial for Jeanne Whitefeather and Donald Lantz and reviewed a series of text messages taken off an iPhone that was confiscated as evidence.
The phone was confiscated from Whitefeather by detectives from the Kanawha County Sheriff’s Office on the day of the couples’ arrest on October 2, 2023.
Hewitt said on July 3, 2024 Detective Anna Pile with the Kanawha County Sheriff’s Office contacted their lab requesting an analysis of the submitted evidence.
“We took the digital download into custody and stored it securely and then the scope, we were tasked with, as I mentioned earlier, was to find artifacts relating to child abuse and human trafficking,” said Hewitt.
During Friday morning’s trial Hewitt read off a portion of hundreds of messages from the user of the phone alleged to be Whitefeather’s dating back from July of 2023. The texts were presumed to be a conversation with Lantz.
The conversations within the texts appeared to primarily be in reference to their five adoptive black children, the two oldest of whom were found locked in a barn on their early October 2023 arrest.
The messages depicted potential evidence of abuse toward the children, often alluding to beating them, locking them up among other cruel punishments, as well many times the use of profanity and potential racial slurs such as referring to them as “monkeys.”
Hewitt pointed out one message in particular that used the word “monkey” to refer to the children sent on June 14, 2023.
“The device owner sends another message at about 9:22 p.m. and says, “Your two monkeys are so f****** up then follows up to that message and says “next time I will pay you to take four of them,” with a smiling laughing smiling emoji,” Hewitt said reading the message.
Hewitt said another message sent on June 26, 2023 alluded to more racist language the couple shared between one another in referring to the children.
“It’s a picture of three juveniles who are sitting and the picture is captioned, “He shows all of the signs of a useless black dude,” Hewitt read.
On July 7, 2023, Hewitt said the device owner, alleged to be Whitefeather to Lantz, also alludes to locking the children up.
He said the message stated that one of the children was laughing over quote, “pisshead,” and then followed that by saying quote, “please make sure she’s facing away, wish we had a place to put her.”
“This is in response to that message by the other person who says, “the crawlspace might be an option,” Hewitt continued to read.
In addition, multiple media files were found on the confiscated phone, as well, dating all the way back to 2021 and 2022 during the family’s time living in Washington prior to moving to West Virginia in the spring of 2023.
Some of the media taken at their Washington ranch residence were videos depicting the oldest boy having what appeared to be a mental breakdown as well as another video of Lantz sharply berating the children and threating to hurt them after the oldest boy allegedly tried to hit Whitefeather.
The video depicts Lantz yelling and cursing at the boy while he hit a table with a stick.
The following media files found on the phone appeared to be taken at their Sissonville home in West Virginia at 225 Cheyanne Lane where they were arrested. One of those media files depicts a still image of what looks to be Lantz raising up a PVC pipe toward the oldest boy as if he were about to hit him.
Hewitt said he had collected around 1.3 million pieces of data from the confiscated cell phone which would take about six months to actually go through all of it.
The trial was expected to reconvene Friday afternoon after starting Tuesday in a Kanawha County courtroom before Judge Maryclaire Akers. It’s expected to recommence next Tuesday and will take about two weeks altogether.
Earlier this week the court heard from a few different Sissonville neighbors who reported concerns of continuously seeing the children working as well as various law enforcement officers who initially responded to the scene when one of the neighbors called 911 on Oct. 2, 2023.