Ruby Franke, the Utah mom of six who ran a popular parenting advice YouTube account, has pleaded guilty to four counts of child abuse as part of a plea deal offered by state prosecutors.
Franke was originally charged with six counts of child abuse in September 2023 but two counts were dropped as part of the plea deal, per KUTV.
Ruby Franke will be sentenced on February 20.
Judge John J. Walton accepted Franke’s plea on Monday, December 18 and set her sentencing hearing for early 2024. Per the plea agreement, Franke will serve a mandatory prison term, and the sentences for each count will run consecutively.
How long she will receive is up to the judge. However, second-degree aggravated child abuse carries a sentence of anywhere between one and 15 years each in Utah.
Her lawyers described her as a “devoted mother.”
Winward Law claimed that Ruby Franke’s severe abuse of her two oldest children was due to her being influenced by relationship counselor Jodi Hildebrandt, her co-defendant, who gave her a “distorted sense of morality.”
Ruby Franke is a devoted mother and is also a woman committed to constant improvement,” Winward Law said. They added that she believed Hildebrandt would “offer a path to a continual improvement” but that instead, Hildebrandt “took advantage of this quest and twisted it into something heinous.”
The abuse Ruby Franke subjected her kids to was horrendous.
As part of her plea deal, Franke admitted to torturing her 12-year-old son between May 22 and August 30. Not only did she force him to work for hours in the hot sun with no access to water, but he was also covered in sunburn blisters, denied food, and regularly bound with ropes and handcuffs which led to injuries in his limbs.
Franke also admitted that she kicked him while wearing boots, smothered his mouth and nose with her hands, and held his head underwater, telling him that all of this abuse was actually an “act of love.”
She also admitted to forcing her 9-year-old daughter to work outside, go without food and water, and run on dirt roads without shoes on.
“She was also repeatedly told she was evil and possessed, the punishments were necessary for her to be obedient and repent, and these things were being done to her in order to help her,” the plea agreement read, adding that the child “was convinced” that her mother was telling the truth.
Ruby Franke’s husband, Kevin Franke, has since filed for divorce.
