Plea deal: Ruby Franke admits to torturing children, calling abuse 'acts of love'

SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) Editor's note: The included plea agreement contains descriptions of child abuse. Discretion is strongly advised. ***** Following Ruby Franke's guilty plea to four second-degree felony counts of child abuse, 2News obtained the plea deal she struck with prosecutors in Utah's Washington County that dropped two additional child abuse charges.

Editor's note: The included plea agreement contains descriptions of child abuse. Discretion is strongly advised.

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Following Ruby Franke's guilty plea to four second-degree felony counts of child abuse, 2News obtained the plea deal she struck with prosecutors in Utah's Washington County that dropped two additional child abuse charges.

In exchange for her guilty plea on four of the six charges, Franke agreed "to testify truthfully against Jodi Hildebrandt," according to the agreement signed before Monday's waiver hearing.

WATCH: Ruby Franke's full waiver hearing appearance

"... In return the Washington County Attorney's Office agrees to remain neutral regarding future hearings before the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole," the agreement adds.

Franke agreed to serve consecutive prison terms for all four counts, which each carry a potential prison term of between 1 - 15 years, under Utah law. That term will be decided at a sentencing hearing on Feb. 20, 2024.

What Ruby Franke Admitted

The agreement paints a gruesome image of actions at Hildebrandt's Ivins home. In August, one of the children was able to escape and ran to a neighbor's house for help. Police affidavits stated there was evidence the juvenile had been bound with duct tape and had wounds consistent with abuse.

The plea agreement revealed the child had attempted to escape on more than one occasion.

Franke admitted to knowingly or intentionally playing a part in the abuse, which the deal states had begun in late March and continued over three months.

Count No. 1: Franke admitted to physically torturing her children in a multitude of ways, which at a point included kicking them while she was while wearing boots, holding the victim's head under water, and cutting off the children's oxygen supply by using her hands to cover their mouths and noses.

The two victims were first "forced to do physical tasks for hours and days at a time" doing tasks like carrying boxes full of books up and down stairs and working outside in desert climate.

Those tasks evolved over the period of time covered in the plea agreement.

"Eventually, (the victim) was forced to do outside labor without shoes and in the summer heat," the agreement states. "He was forced to stand in the direct sunlight for several days. He was forced to remain outside at all hours of the day and night for extended periods of time," resulting in multiple blistering, sloughing sunburns.

The child was also "denied adequate water for several of the days he was required to remain in the summer heat, and he was punished when he secretly consumed water."

Part of the abuse included isolation from other people, according to the agreement, and the children had no access to books, notebooks, electronics, or any other form of entertainment.

The abuse described was mostly the same for both victims, the agreement states, though one of the victims experienced a separate form of abuse.

According to the document:

"In addition, after RF attempted to run away in July, his hands and feet were regularly bound. Binding included being tied to the defendant and to weights. Many times, the binding included using two sets of handcuffs, one on RF's wrists and one on his ankles. At times, with RF lying on his stomach, ropes were used to tie the two sets of handcuffs together so that his arms and lower legs were lifted of the ground. The bindings resulted in injuries to RF's wrists and ankles where the handcuffs cut through the skin and damaged the muscle/tissue. These injuries were treated with homeopathic remedies and covered with duct tape. Then the bindings were placed on top of the duct tape."

Count No. 2: The victims endured "severe emotional harm" over the three months in which they were being abused, Franke admitted.

Beginning on May 22, she "and another adult regularly sought to indoctrinate (the victim) and convince him that he was evil and possessed. And that he needed to willingly be obedient to avoid punishments. And that the punishments were necessary to repent, according to the agreement.

"He was also told that everything that was being done to him were acts of love."

Count No. 3: Similarly, the second victim was told she was evil, that she was possessed, and "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."

According to the agreement, the child was convinced of these claims and thought the she had to endure the abuse as part of a repentance process.

Count. No. 3: The second victim was also forced to "run barefoot on dirt roads for an extended period of time," according to the plea deal.

"(The victim's) feet were repeatedly injured by, and she was repeatedly sunburned. When examined on August 30, these wounds were apparent by scabs, blisters, and sloughing skin."

The full agreement continues to below and includes the four specific charges of abuse to which Franke admitted.

FULL PLEA AGREEMENT

Warning: Document contains descriptions of child abuse

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