A woman in West Virginia has denied locking her and her husband’s adopted Black children in a shed amid their ongoing trial, a court has heard.
Donald Ray Lantz and Jeanne Kay Whitefeather, who are both white, were initially arrested in October 2023.
As previously reported by PEOPLE, they have been accused of locking their children in an outbuilding and forcing them to work in a case that authorities allege was fueled by racism, per court documents cited by multiple news outlets.
The couple’s trial began on Tuesday, Jan. 14 in Kanawha County Circuit Court, before Whitefeather took the stand a week later on Tuesday, Jan. 21, according to the Associated Press.
The pair are facing more than a dozen felony counts including civil rights violations, human trafficking, forced labor and gross child neglect, the news agency stated.
PEOPLE previously reported that Lantz and Whitefeather were in police custody after two children were allegedly found locked in a shed in Sissonville, the Kanawha County Sheriff’s office said in an October 2023 release. A caller was said to have seen a man open the shed, speak to the minors, and then lock the shed behind him.
During Tuesday’s trial, Whitefeather insisted the shed was a “teenager hangout,” per the AP, testifying, “They weren’t locked in … They had a key. They could come and go as they pleased.”
The news agency stated that the oldest daughter, now 18 — who was found with a then-14-year-old boy in the shed at the time, per WSAZ — said during a previous trial date that she didn’t know they had access to a key.
The daughter said the kids weren’t allowed to eat aside from being given “a steady diet” of peanut butter sandwiches at scheduled times, per the AP. However, Whitefeather insisted they had access to the refrigerator and said she cooked dinner every night.
According to the AP, Lantz and Whitefeather adopted the five siblings — four of which they are accused of mistreating — while they were living in Minnesota. They moved to a farm in Washington state in 2018, before heading to West Virginia in 2023. The children range from ages 5 to 16, per the outlet, which stated that the oldest boy is “receiving full-time care in a psychiatric facility.”
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During the Jan. 14 trial, Whitefeather’s attorney, Mark Plants, said the case was “about adoptive parents struggling to deal with their children’s past trauma and severe mental illness,” stating that the kids suffered “physical, sexual and emotional” abuse by their biological mother, per the news agency.
“This is a normal family,” Plants insisted. “They have Christmases. All of them. They have Christmas presents. They have family vacations. They sit around dinner tables and eat.”
When news of the couple’s indictment was reported in June 2024, Kanawha County Circuit Judge Maryclaire Akers said, “Human rights violations specific to the fact that these children were targeted because of their race and they were used basically as slaves from what the indictment alleges,” per West Virginia Metro News.
Attorney Mark Plants and the Kanawha County Circuit Clerk didn’t immediately respond when contacted by PEOPLE for comment.
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