West Virginia
West Virginia couple convicted of abusing adopted children is set for sentencing
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A West Virginia couple convicted in the mistreatment of their adopted children, including locking some in a shed, is due in court Wednesday for sentencing.
A jury on Jan. 29 found Jeanne Kay Whitefeather and her husband, Donald Lantz, guilty on multiple counts of forced labor, human trafficking, and child abuse and neglect. Whitefeather also was convicted of civil rights violations based on race.
Whitefeather faces up to 215 years in prison and Lantz up to 160 years when they are sentenced Wednesday in Kanawha County Circuit Court.
The couple, who are white, adopted the five Black siblings while living in Minnesota, moved to a farm in Washington state in 2018, then brought the family to West Virginia in May 2023, when the children ranged in age from 5 to 16.
Five months after their arrival in Sissonville, the couple was arrested after neighbors saw Lantz lock the oldest girl and her teenage brother in a shed and leave the property. A deputy used a crowbar to get them out.
Inside the main residence, a 9-year-old girl was found crying in a loft alone with no protection from falling, according to a criminal complaint. The children were found in dirty clothes and smelling of body odor, deputies said, and the oldest boy was found barefoot with what appeared to be sores on his feet.
A fourth child was with Lantz when he eventually returned, and deputies were later led to a 5-year-old girl. All five were turned over to Child Protective Services after the couple’s arrest.
Last month the oldest daughter, now an adult, sued the couple, alleging severe physical and emotional abuse and neglect that has scarred her permanently.
During trial, neighbors testified they never saw the children play and witnessed Lantz make them stand in line or perform difficult chores around the yard, including lifting heavy items. After Lantz noticed the curious neighbors, the children mostly stayed indoors.
The eldest daughter testified the outdoor work occurred mostly in Washington and that some of them were forced to use their hands for digging. She also said the children were cursed at “all the time” and that Whitefeather used racist language.
The daughter said Whitefeather gave preferential treatment to the youngest child, who wasn’t involved in any of the charges, and that Whitefeather had told the other children that she wished for a life without them.
The daughter also said the children were fed a steady diet of peanut butter sandwiches at scheduled times, some left over from a previous meal. Some kids were forced to stand in their rooms for hours and keep their hands on their heads. The oldest girl and boy shared a room, were forced to sleep on the floor and used the same bucket for the bathroom while the other held up a sheet for privacy from the home’s security cameras, according to testimony.
The couple and their attorneys pushed back on the accusations, with Lantz testifying that the chores were assigned to teach the children responsibility.
The defense argued the couple was simply overwhelmed with trying to get help for the children’s mental health issues, abuse and trauma from their biological home. Lantz’s attorney, John Balenovich, said the state’s child welfare agency, which the family requested help from several times, “dropped the ball the most in this case.”
A forensic psychologist for the prosecution testified that the couple’s treatment of the children had worsened their conditions.
Assistant Prosecutor Madison Tuck said the couple never sought help for the oldest boy despite a behavioral health clinic being just minutes from their home. The boy, whose physical altercation with Whitefeather in 2022 was cited by attorneys as the start of the family’s internal struggles, currently is receiving full-time care in a psychiatric facility.
Whitefeather’s attorney, Mark Plants, said during closing argument that the couple was only guilty of making poor parenting decisions.
“These are farm people that do farm chores,” Plants said. “It wasn’t about race. It wasn’t about forced labor.”
Because of what Darian DeVries accomplished with West Virginia in his one and only year, it heightened expectations to some degree, leading people to believe that achieving that type of success in year one is the bar.
The reality is, if you don’t have a group that has a clear identity, it’s going to make life extremely difficult. This team prides itself on its defensive play, but against high majors, they’ve allowed teams to shoot 38%, 46%, 45%, and 51%. I bet you can guess which one the Pitt game is, and what we’ve learned since the Backyard Brawl is that the Panthers aren’t very good, even dropping a buy game to Quinnipiac.
If you’re not elite or, at the very least, really good at the one thing you’re supposed to be good at, well, you better make up for it somewhere else. And to this point, West Virginia has found zero answers. Aside from Honor Huff, they don’t shoot the three-ball well as a team, they don’t dominate the interior, and they aren’t a good free-throw shooting team.
When the opposition solves the Mountaineers’ plan on defense, it puts a ton of pressure on Honor Huff offensively to keep this team in a game. No offense to Huff because he’s elite at what he does, but you can’t have a player who is strictly a three-point specialist as your one and only reliable offensive threat. You need a presence in the paint, someone to put pressure on the rim, or both.
Chance Moore has been able to do the latter, but the floor spacing for him hasn’t been ideal. He’s had to just fight his way to the cup because the defense doesn’t respect any of the Mountaineers’ shooters not named Huff.
The reality is, this team does not have the pieces to replicate what happened a year ago. Javon Small was able to create his own shot, scoring from any spot on the floor. Honor Huff, while a great shooter, doesn’t have the same skillset or ability as Small, and quite honestly, that’s what this team needs to be able to overcome its offensive shortcomings.
There is still plenty of time for this group to figure things out, but as I’ve stated on numerous other occasions, everyone else is getting better throughout the season, too.
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West Virginia dropped to 7-3 on the season following a 75-66 loss to Wake Forest in Charleston.
Here are a few of my initial thoughts from this one.
Sloppy first half offense
I don’t know what’s worse, the 12 turnovers or the 4/18 mark from three-point range, with most of those attempts not coming off a paint touch. Brenen Lorient had four turnovers himself, one of which was a questionable travel call, but there were way too many live-ball turnovers, leading to points the other way.
Good response, bad response
After falling behind 10, the Mountaineers turned things around quickly, largely due to Honor Huff heating up for a few possessions. During that stretch where they fell behind, the ball-handling was sloppy, shot selection wasn’t the greatest, and Wake Forest just out-physicaled them on the interior. Weathering that storm and tying the game up at the half was big. The punch Wake threw in the second half? Yeah, WVU must have been weak on the ropes because they had no answer.
Still no offensive identity
Aside from Honor Huff jacking up a bunch of threes every game, I’ve yet to see an identity pop up for this team offensively. What do they do extremely well? I haven’t seen anything above average play through the first ten games of the season. They haven’t shot it well or attacked the paint consistently to dominate the interior either. Something has to emerge before conference play, or it’s going to be a big uphill battle.
Allergic to passing the ball inside
I understand Wake does a pretty good job of closing out the paint, but this is something that’s been a bit of a problem all year for WVU when not playing the low major scrubs (no offense to those programs). Swinging the ball around the perimeter isn’t going to open anything up. You have a 7-footer (Harlan Obioha) and an athletic freak (Brenen Lorient) down there for a reason — pound the ball inside. If they take away the passing lanes, they need to get more downhill, and Chance Moore can’t be the only one capable.
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Every game is considered a “must-win” when you really think about it, but in some instances, certain games feel a little more important than others.
Even after a slow start, there was no worry whatsoever that West Virginia would lose to Coppin State on Wednesday night. Getting out to a slow start in tonight’s matchup against Wake Forest could be troublesome, and it’s a game that the Mountaineers absolutely need to have.
The season is still young, but West Virginia enters tonight’s game ranked 95th in the NCAA’s NET Rankings, and if you drop this one, you’re really digging yourself quite a hole before Big 12 Conference play even begins.
According to the ESPN Basketball Power Index (BPI), the Mountaineers have a 61.6% chance to take care of business, while Wake Forest has a 38.4% chance to spoil the fun for WVU fans from the southern part of the state.
West Virginia’s recent games
After going a disappointing 0-2 in the Charleston Classic, the Mountaineers have bounced back, as expected, beating Mercyhurst by 32 and Coppin State by 42. For the first time, really this season, the Mountaineers opened the game a little flat, even falling behind to Coppin State in the first handful of minutes of the game. They eventually turned things around and held them to just 17 second half points en route to a dominant victory.
Wake Forest’s recent games
The Demon Deacons saw their three-game winning streak come to an end earlier this week with a blowout loss to Oklahoma. Their two other losses came by a single point each, falling to No. 6 Michigan in overtime and No. 15 Texas Tech. Of their six wins, American is the only team they’ve beaten with a winning record. Although they played extremely well against two top-15 teams, they were unable to reach the finish line, so this one is just as important for them.
West Virginia and Wake Forest are slated to get the action started at 6 p.m. ET on ESPN2.
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