YouTuber Ruby Franke Sentenced To Up To 60 Years in Prison

Ruby Franke, the popular momfluencer and family Youtube vlogger, has been sentenced up to 60 years in prison: One to 15 years per chid abuse charge she faced, meaning she can serve between four and 60 years for all four charges she plead guilty to in December. Before her sentencing, Franke broke down in tears as she said to the Utah court, “My charges are just. I ... believed dark was light and right was wrong. I would do anything in this world for you. I took from you all that was soft, and safe, and good," she said, as if addressing her children.  Franke and her business partner (slash debatable self-help cult co-founder) Jodi Hildebrandt were arrested late last summer after two of Franke’s children were found malnourished and with duct tape on their wrists and ankles by neighbors, after having escaped Hildebrandt’s Utah home. Police found another one of Franke’s six children inside the home in a similarly horrific state. Both women were initially charged with six felony counts of aggravated child abuse but two were dropped as part of their plea agreement. On Monday, Ruby’s estranged husband Kevin Franke released the following statement to Law & Crime through his legal team: “The treatment these children received at the hands of those whom the children had a right to trust, was horrific and inhumane, both physically and psychologically. Kevin remains focused on the rehabilitation of these sweet and vulnerable children so that they might return to a normal life as soon as possible.” The Frankes hosted the wildly popular Youtube series “8 Passengers” that started off as a window into their family life. Between 2015 and 2020, their channel amassed over 2.5 million subscribers. But over the years, the family’s modes of punishment and moral judgment were brought into question. One year, they withheld all Christmas presents for two of their children to teach them a lesson that would “really hit them.” Another time, Ruby Franke talked about refusing to bring her 6-year-old daughter's lunch to school after the child had mistakenly forgotten it at home. “The natural outcome is, she’s just going to need to be hungry,” she explained. “Hopefully nobody gives her food and nobody steps in and gives her a lunch.” The punishments, which Franke cheerfully detailed as sound parenting advice to millions of viewers, were exceptionally cruel. Time and time again, parenting influencers are revealed to not have their children’s best interests at heart.  Franke and Hildebrandt, a Utah counselor previously put on probation for unrelated malpractice, formed an authoritative parenting support group and Youtube channel in 2022 called ConneXions, which many onlookers described as cult-like. By that point, Kevin Franke was out of the picture and the two eldest children had distanced themselves from their mother. Judge John J. Walton gave Hildebrandt the same sentence as Franke.