Morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to district Court.

For the past four years, I've chosen to follow counsel and guidance that has led me into a dark delusion.

Ruby Franky, the Mormon mom fluencer whose controversial tough love videos hid a dark reality, was back in court today, giving a tearful statement during her sentencing hearing.

I was so disoriented that I believe dark was light and right was wrong.

Her estranged husband, Kevin, and two oldest children sitting in the front row behind prosecutors as she apologized to them directly.

Kevin, my husband of more than 23 years, you are the love of my life. I'm so sorry to leave to you to finish what we both started together. To my babies, my six little chicks. You were part of me. I can see now that over the past four years, I was in a deep undercurrent that led us to danger.

After pleading guilty to four counts of child abuse back in December, Frankie was sentenced to four consecutive prison terms ranging from 1-15 years.

We're not going to find out what that jail time is anytime soon because it's not the judge who decides the length of a sentence in Utah. Instead, it's the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole that will evaluate the case to determine how long they'll end up spending in prison.

Franky's former business partner and therapist, Jody Hildebrand, was also sentenced to the same consecutive prison terms. She was brief in her statement to the court.

I sincerely love these children. I desire for them to heal physically and emotionally.

Throughout the hearing, the prosecution detailing at length the abuse that occurred inside Jody's Utah home.

In addition to physical abuse, the children were emotionally abused to the extent that each believed, to some degree, that they deserved what was being done to them. Had the older of the children not had the courage to run away and ask a neighbor to call the police, heaven only knows how much longer he could have survived in that situation.

That call to police came in August of 2023.

I'm on the address of your emergency.

I just had a 12-year-old boy still up here at my front door asking for help. When Ruby Franky's 12-year-old son son ran to a neighbor's home begging for help.

He's emaciated. He's got tape around his legs. He's hungry and he's thirsty.

What's your mom's name?

Ruby Franky. Ruby Franky. He is his mom's name.

His pain bringing the neighbor to tears.

This boy has been...

This kid has always been He's obviously covered in wounds. The house the boy says he escaped from, Jody Hildebrand, which appeared to be where Ruby and her kids were spending more and more time, hours away from their home.

I'm Jody Hildebrand, and I'm Ruby Franky.

Hildebrand was a marriage counselor who also treated sex addiction through her work with a counseling network, Lifestar. She joined forces with Franky on a life coaching business called Connections.

All of us want connection. We want to have relationships where we feel close and where there's love.

But Franky now says their relationship was more complicated than that.

We've always said that Ruby Franky is a business partner of Jody Hildebrand, but she made a very strong point to say, This is a paid mentor. I was looking for advice. I paid her to give me that, and she led me astray. Something that the board and many others evaluating her jail sentence will consider when thinking about when she should be released.

After the arrest of both, Franky and Hildebrand, many wondered if there were missed warning signs. Franky had been a high-flying, Mormon mom fluencer, attracting 2.5 million followers on her YouTube channel, 8 Passengers. Her personal brand was built around tough love.

I was really hoping that keeping them home from school and wiping the floorboards would really bring pain.

Many of the viewers of 8 Passengers over the past two or three years became more and more disturbed and started turning Ruby and Kevin into child protective services in Utah.

People have been pointing out how problematic this family is for a while. When does the way a parent Parents go from cringeworthy to child abuse. My bedroom was taken away for seven months, and then you give it back a couple of weeks ago. I don't think our viewers know that. You've been sleeping on a bean bag. I'm sleeping on a bean bag.

In 2020, a change. Org petition requesting that CPS check on the children received hundreds of signatures. Abc has obtained records showing police responded to the Frankie home more than a dozen times over the past few years, including several reports of juvenile problems in 2018 and 2019, and multiple welfare checks in 2022. There was also a recently released 911 call made in September of 2022 by Frankie's her own daughter, Sherry, alleging neglect and concern for the other children in the home.

Hi, my name is Sherry Franke. My four younger siblings are living in Springville, and my neighbors have been telling me that they have been left home alone for about four or five days.

You two stay on that corner. It all came to a head in August of 2023 when police arrested both Franke and Hildebrandt. Body camera footage obtained by ABC News showing the intense moments when Franky was taken into custody. Police Department. After the arrest, there were also questions raised about Jody Hildebrandt and her past as a licensed therapist. My colleague, Juju Chang, sat down late last year with Jessie Hildebrandt, who lived with her aunt Jody as a teenager.

She made me sleep outside in the snow. She duck-taped me. I wasn't allowed to speak to anyone. What, in theory, was the justification for the duck tape? The duck tape was, in her words, an external a reminder to me that I'm a liar and that every word that comes out of my mouth is a lie. It's 100 %, Jody. I understand why the public is focusing on Ruby. It's Ruby's children. But all of these theories and these modalities, and these parenting ideas, that all comes from Jody.

This account, eerily similar to details that emerge when Frankie and Hildebrandt both pled guilty in December. The plea agreement describing Franky's children facing physical torture, one child referred to as RF, had his hands and feet regularly bound with handcuffs. The handcuffs cut through the skin, and his injuries were treated with homeopathic remedies and covered with duct tape. It also detailed the abuse committed by Franky included kicking RF while wearing boots, holding his head underwater, and cutting off oxygen by placing her hands over his mouth and nose. Jody Hildebrand and Ruby Franky are now waiting to be transported to prison, where the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole will ultimately decide their fate.

So when I look at this case, you're probably looking in that 8-10-year range for both of them. But for Ruby Franky, probably on the lower end, again, because of the remorse. I wouldn't be surprised if Ruby Franky gets high single-digit jail sentence, and Jody Hildebrandt gets low double digits.

As for the children, after Franky's arrest, they were placed into child protective services. Kevin Franky Ruby Franky, who's been separated from his wife for more than a year, is seeking custody of his four minor children, but that case has been closed off from the public.

Right now, we know that Ruby Franky's children are wards of the state. The father is petitioning to get custody of them and also to sue Jody Hildebrand for the damage that occurred onto the children because of her practices and what Ruby Franky did as well. So it's going to be up to the father to really battle it out.

Hi, everyone.

George Stefanopoulos here. Thanks for checking out the ABC News YouTube channel. If you'd like to get more videos, show highlights, and watch live event coverage, click on the right over here to subscribe to our channel. And don't forget to download the ABC News app for breaking news alerts. Thanks for watching.