CHARLESTON, W.Va.— One of the defendants in the Sissonville abuse case trial testified Tuesday after the state rested its case.

Jeanne Whitefeather

Jeanne Whitefeather said she and co-defendant Donald Lantz never forced the children into doing any physical labor and did not lock them up inside a shed.

“I’ll just get some questions out of the way, did you lock your kids up in a barn,” Mark Plants, Whitefeather’s lawyer asked Tuesday.

“No, I did not,” Whitefeather responded.

“What about the classroom, did you lock them up in a classroom?” Plants asked.

“I did not,” she responded.

“I saw eight hours of video here, looked like they were locked in, you’re telling me they weren’t locked in?” Plants asked.

“They weren’t locked in, they had a key, and they could come and go as they pleased,” she said.

Both Whitefeather and Lantz deny the 20 criminal counts of child abuse, neglect and forced labor.

The siblings were all adopted when Whitefeather got a call for a newborn baby, she said.

“Well, they told me that this baby maybe (up for adoption), I didn’t know if it was a boy or girl, all I knew was the baby was, when I got the phone call, was 22 hours old. I didn’t know what the race of the baby was,” she said. “On the way to the hospital, I asked my husband, I’m like, if this baby is available, I want to adopt this baby, it didn’t matter to me, I wanted to be a mommy.”

In testimonies from the children, they said that they were forced to sleep in a tent on a hill near their house when they moved to Washington.

Whitefeather said that wasn’t true, because it was the middle of April, and it was still cold.

Donald Lantz

“We got the tents that first summer, because the children had never been in a tent before, they had never been camping before. We had this really nice big lawn in the back of the house, and I thought that it would be a really fun experience,” she said.

She said the kids slept in an apartment area that was attached to the house, she clarified that it was not a garage that they slept in. They separated the area to accommodate for the privacy of the four kids.

Plants showed family pictures of the family visiting extended families and having Christmas and birthday parties. He would then asked Jeanne to describe where the picture was taken and when they were taken. Most of the pictures were before they moved to West Virginia. Whitefeather said she loved the children “unconditionally.”

Plants asked her about the oldest boy’s mental health struggles. She testified saying that she and Lantz both asked for help from CPS on multiple occasions because they didn’t know how to deal with his mental health.

Whitefeather described an altercation between herself and the oldest boy, where she said he hit her with firewood and then pushed her down. She said things started going downhill, because of the episodes he would have. She also said they moved to West Virginia so they could seek more help with his mental struggles.

Prior to Whitefeather testifying, John Balenovich, Lantz attorney gave his opening statement.

He laid out their defense in the case, saying that the jury was finally going to see the big picture, with Whitefeather and Lantz getting up and testifying to the struggles that they faced with the older boy.

He said that a doctor was going to testify to mental health according to the boy and a CPS worker will testify saying that when she walked through the house, she didn’t see anything wrong.

Balenovich wanted the jury to keep in mind that Whitefeather and Lantz were trying to handle a situation that they were given as best they could.

“I want you to keep this one thing in mind, Don Lantz and Jeanne Whitefeather, are not horrible people, they were put into a horrible situation,” he said Tuesday afternoon.

He also said that they will hear from people who know the couple, on how they fostered 30 kids while in Minnesota and that they are not prejudice.

Before the afternoon session started and before the state rested their case, the called the younger boy and girl onto the stand.

The boy and girl, 12 and 10, both testified to earlier testimony that was made by the eldest child, how they were forced to live in what they described as horrible conditions, they didn’t have free access to food, only eating peanut butter sandwiches or water, how they barely brushed their teeth or showered and barely changing their clothes.

The boy testified that while they were living in Washington, they had beds, but they were taken away because Jeanne thought they stunk. He said that Whitefeather kept his youngest sister away from the rest of them.

“Losers is what she called us,” the boy said on Tuesday morning.

The younger girl even said that Whitefeather would often call them lazy, make the youngest girl laugh at them and call them names.

She even said that Whitefeather called her specifically “Black monkey” and “fat pig.”

Trial is expected to resume Wednesday morning with Whitefeather still on the stand.