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.
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 where he 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.