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SALT LAKE CITY - Ruby Franke, the mother of six children from Utah who once gave parenting advice via a popular YouTube channel, apologized to her children in tears for abusing them physically and emotionally before a court handed down a sentence that could send her to prison for many years if she is not already there.
Franke claimed she was "manipulated" as well by her YouTuber and business associate.
Franke said she would not ask for a lighter sentence, but she did thank the local police officers, doctors, and social workers who she said were "angels" for saving her children when she claims she was being influenced by her business partner Jodi Hildebrandt. The Utah mental health counselor, who was hired to work with Franke’s youngest son before going into business together, received four consecutive prison terms of between one and 15 years.
The women, however, will only spend up to 30 years in prison because of a Utah law that limits the maximum sentence for consecutive punishments. The Utah Board of Pardons and Parole is going to consider the women's behavior during their incarceration and decide how long they will be behind bars.
Franke told her children who were not in attendance at the St. George sentencing hearing, "I will never stop weeping for having hurt your delicate souls." "My willingness for all to be sacrificed for you has been masterfully manipulated and turned into something very ugly." I took away all that you considered soft, safe, and good.
Franke, 42, and Hildebrandt 54 each had pleaded guilty on four counts of child abuse. They were trying to convince Franke’s two youngest kids that they were evil and possessed and needed to be punished to repent. They were arrested in August at Hildebrandt’s home in Ivins, a southern Utah town. Franke’s 12-year-old son had escaped from a window. He asked a neighbor for help and the women were taken into custody.
The boy had wounds all over him and duct tape wrapped around his wrists and ankles. According to a search order, he told investigators Hildebrandt used ropes to wrap his limbs as well as cayenne pepper to treat his wounds.
Eric Clarke, the state prosecutor, described the conditions in which Franke Hildebrandt and Franke had kept their children as "concentration camp-like settings." This term is most closely associated with the Nazi camps that were established to starve and overwork Jews and other minorities throughout Europe during the Holocaust.
Clarke stated that while Franke showed remorse, and worked with attorneys, Hildebrandt did not, and continued to blame the children. Douglas Terry, Hildebrandt’s attorney, stated during the live-streamed trial that his client was not as remorseless as she had been depicted to be. She accepts full responsibility for her actions.
Hildebrandt did not apologize in her brief statement but stated that she loved the children and wanted them to heal. She told Judge John J. Walton she took the plea bargain instead of going to court because she didn't want to make the children relive trauma by having to testify.
In December, the mental health counselor pleaded guilty to four of six charges of child abuse. Two counts are dismissed as part of her plea bargain. Franke also pleaded not guilty to two of her charges but pleaded guilty to four.
Franke and Kevin Franke launched "8 Passengers," a YouTube channel, in 2015. They gained a huge following by documenting their experiences of raising six children. Later, she began working for Hildebrandt’s counseling company ConneXions Classroom. She offered parenting seminars, launched another YouTube channel, and published content on the "Moms Of Truth" Instagram account.
Franke confessed in her plea agreement to kicking her child while wearing boots, submerging his head, and covering his mouth and nose. She and Hildebrandt claimed they forced him to do hours of physical work in the summer heat, without food or water. This caused dehydration and blistering burns. According to the plea agreements, everything that was done to him by Hildebrandt and She was an act out of love.
Hildebrandt has also admitted that he forced Franke's 9-year-old daughter to repeatedly jump into a cactus and run on dirt roads barefoot until her feet became blistered. After the arrests, the boy and girl were taken by ambulance to the hospital and two other siblings were placed in custody.
Ruby Franke had already been a controversial figure in the world of parent vlogging before her arrest in 2023. Online, the Frankes were criticized for their parenting decisions. For example, they banned their son's bedroom for 7 months because he pranked his younger brother. Ruby Franke also talked in other videos about refusing lunch to a kindergartener who forgot it at home and threatening to chop off the head of a girl's stuffed animal to punish her.
Kevin Franke, the creator of "8 Passengers", has divorced.
Franke and Hildebrandt both have 30 days in which to appeal their sentences.
