Ruby Franke’s business partner pleads guilty after forcing daughter to jump into cactus, handcuffing son

The business partner and co-defendant of former YouTuber Ruby Franke has pleaded guilty in her child abuse case.

As acknowledged in her plea agreement, Jodi Nan Hildebrant, 54, engaged in a series of physically and emotionally damaging behaviors against two children between May 22 and Aug. 30 of this year.

Documents list an array of grotesque treatment, which the defendant ostensibly committed in the name of discipline. For example, she forced the children to do physical tasks for days and left them outside so long in the summer heat this year that they experienced repeated, blistering sunburns and “sloughing skin.”

She bound a boy in handcuffs at his wrists and ankles. Bindings cut through his skin, damaging muscle and tissue, documents said.

“Additionally, the defendant either physically forced or coerced [the girl] to jump into a cactus multiple times,” documents said.

Hildebrant pleaded guilty to four counts of aggravated child abuse on Wednesday in a court in Washington County, Utah. Prosecutors dropped two counts of the same charge as part of a plea agreement.

Hildebrandt’s attorney, Douglas Terry, told reporters after the hearing that she took responsibility for her actions, and that she pleaded guilty so that the children did not have to testify. She decided to plead guilty before Franke entered her plea agreement, he said. Franke had agreed to testify against her as part of her agreement.

“It is her main concern at this point that these children can heal both physically and emotionally,” he said.

Each charge carries a one to 15-year prison sentence, documents indicate. Terry acknowledged that his client, like Franke, agreed to be sentenced consecutively, but he declined to discuss her possible term.

Her sentencing is set for Feb. 20, 2024.

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