Steven Gress, 37, smiled as he walked into a Pinellas County courtroom in Florida before pleading guilty to charges in the kidnapping, murder and dismemberment of Miranda Corsette, 16, whom he met on a dating app.
He maintained that he did not kill the victim, but he was “involved in certain things that led to her death”. He said a guilty plea was the right thing to do, before asking the judge to grant him the death penalty. In a chilling explanation while laughing, he said “life or death is a lose-lose,” adding: “I would rather do the lesser time than spend the next 53 years of my life behind bars.”
Guilty plea and sentencing options
His guilty plea means he waives his right to a trial, where the jury typically decides between the death penalty or life in prison as a sentence.
Gress met the teenager on a dating app and lured her to his apartment in St Petersburg on Valentine’s Day last year, where his partner, Michelle Brandes, was waiting. The pair then allegedly beat, tortured and sexually assaulted Miranda over the course of a week.
Alleged abuse and killing
Three witnesses, including his mother, told the court that Gress had sent images of Miranda naked, bruised, and in a deteriorating state. They then allegedly killed her over a stolen ring. “This little bi*** stole my ring and won’t give it back, so I’ve been beating her ass,” he told one neighbour who saw the victim at his home, reports the New York Post. Police said there is no evidence Miranda took the ring.
Gress claims that his partner shoved a billiards ball down the girl’s throat and then covered her face with plastic wrap. He told police that, after learning what Brandes did, he rushed to poke holes in the plastic to let her breathe, but Miranda had already died.
Court statements and next steps
Gress told the court on Wednesday that he was not fully responsible for her death because she was “free to pull it off her face”. He said: “I would like to say that I do believe that she killed herself. I say that because she had the Saran wrap on her face, but she was free to pull it off her face.”
Using a chainsaw, Gress then allegedly dismembered her body and abandoned it in a bin in Hillsborough County. Police believe Miranda was killed sometime between February 20 and February 24. Gress and his co-defendant, Michelle Brandes, were indicted on a first-degree murder charge in April 2025. A pretrial hearing for his penalty phase is scheduled in November. A pretrial hearing for Brandes will take place in October.
While Gress largely blamed Brandes for the worst of the violence, in her own interview with detectives, she depicted him as the main aggressor. A woman who lived with the couple told investigators that Gress had also killed animals he got through Craigslist and disposed of them. She alleged he had also beat her and Brandes.
