DISGRACED family YouTuber Ruby Franke and her business partner Jodi Hildebrant now face less jail time after the Utah women pleaded guilty to four counts of child abuse.
Previously, the business partners were facing six child abuse charges each, which could have resulted in up to 90 years in prison.
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Each charge of aggravated child abuse carries a penalty of up to 15 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.
DROPPED CHARGES
However, the potential jail time that Franke and Hildebrant now face has become lighter due to separate plea deals that resulted in two charges being dropped.
Franke first signed the plea agreement on December 18, appearing to turn on Hildebrandt just before she pleaded guilty.
In a statement released ahead of her court appearance, Franke’s attorney's blasted Hildebrant claiming she took advantage of Franke’s quest to continual improvement.
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"Over an extended period, Ms. Hildebrandt systematically isolated Ruby Franke from her extended family, older children, and her husband Kevin Franke,” the statement read.
"This prolonged isolation resulted in Ms. Franke being subjected to a distorted sense of morality, shaped by Ms. Hildebrandt's influence."
Franke later signed the plea agreement, which dropped two charges in return for the disgraced YouTuber pleading guilty to four charges of aggravated child abuse.
When she entered her plea on the fourth charge, Franke appeared to get emotional saying in court: “With my deepest regret and sorrow for my family and my children, guilty."
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Judge John J. Walton confirmed that the prison is the appropriate sentence for the Utah mother of six, saying there won’t be any argument about the matter.
Nine days later, Hildebrant entered a similar plea deal and pleaded guilty to four counts of child abuse on Wednesday.
Hildebrant was visibly emotional during her hearing.
Both Franke and Hildebrant have been scheduled for their sentencing on February 20, 2024, according to NBC News.
They now face up to 60 years in prison.
SICK ABUSE
The two Utah women first shot to fame in 2015 as a result of Franke’s YouTube channel called 8 Passengers.
Franke regularly uploaded vlogs revolving around her six children, then-husband Kevin Franke, and life.
At the same time, Franke and Hildebrant shared family and relationship advice on the channel.
Up until the channel was deleted in 2022, Franke began to receive much backlash over the content and choice of punishment against her children.
After the channel was removed, Franke and Hildebrant continued to work together on a counseling program called ConneXions.
The abuse against Franke’s children was discovered in August after a child climbed out of a window at Hildebrant’s home and ran to a neighbor asking for food and water.
The neighbors called the police after observing duct tape on the children's wrists and ankles.
Police later found additional children in the home, both of whom were malnourished, according to court documents.
One of the children was also described as severely emaciated and having open wounds.
The children were later identified as Franke’s.
During the investigation into the abuse, Franke admitted to physically torturing her kids, saying she kicked them while wearing boots, held a child’s head underwater, and cut off air supply by covering their mouths and noses, court documents reveal.
Court documents also claim that Franke starved two of her children and told them they were possessed.
She allegedly told her children she was inflicting severe punishments to help the children repent.
“[The victim] was also repeatedly told she was evil and possessed, the punishments were necessary for her to be obedient and to repent, and these things were being done to her in order to help her,” court documents claim.
“The daughter became convinced that she was evil and needed to go through these things in order to repent."
The discovered abuse left many neighbors and friends shocked.
One neighbor told The U.S. Sun that while they were completely unaware of the abuse the children had been facing, there was a strange shift in the family's dynamic.
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Specifically, the neighbor said that the two youngest children — who suffered much of the abuse — "kind of disappeared."
"We haven't seen them for months, and normally those two were riding their bikes and scooters and walking their dog around the neighborhood almost daily and seems like this last, I don't know, six or nine months, or maybe even longer we just haven't seen them at all," the neighbor said.
