SerpApi.Org
At a routine pretrial hearing Wednesday morning, Steven Gress listened as lawyers told the judge about their progress preparing for trial in the kidnapping, murder and dismemberment of a Gulfport teen he met on Grindr.
Gress, clad in an orange jail suit, sat next to his two lawyers at the defense desk.
“I’ve been ready to plead guilty to this since last April,” Gress blurted out. “I’ll take the death penalty; I don’t want to go to trial.”
Pinellas Judge Philip Federico was taken aback. He questioned Gress about whether he’s given weight to the severity of his decision.
Gress told Federico he wants to “get out of jail as soon as possible” and go to prison. He said he doesn’t want a trial and doesn’t want to go through the penalty phase, in which a jury typically decides whether a defendant should be sentenced to life in prison or head to death row.
Gress has been in custody at the Pinellas County Jail for about a year and a half and said he’s held this belief the entire time.
Federico and the lawyers then discussed how to proceed. Under state law, a defendant facing the death penalty has to undergo a penalty phase, even if they plead guilty to the crime.
“If you plead guilty and we move onto the penalty phase, are you going to want a jury to make a recommendation to the court, or are you going to want me to?” Federico asked Gress.
“You can make it,” Gress replied.
Gress and his co-defendant, Michelle Brandes, were indicted on a first-degree murder charge in April 2025 for the killing of 16-year-old Miranda Corsette. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for both individuals. Federico agreed to try the cases separately at a hearing last summer.
Gress, 37, met the Gulfport teen on the dating app Grindr in February 2025. He picked her up from her grandmother’s home in Gulfport and took her to the apartment he shared with Brandes on 27th Avenue North in St. Petersburg.
The couple beat and tortured Miranda for a week because Gress accused her of stealing a ring from the apartment, authorities said.
At least six people saw Miranda or knew she was being held against her will before she was killed, according to a search warrant affidavit filed in April 2025.
“This little bitch stole my ring and won’t give it back,” Gress told one neighbor who saw Miranda, according to the warrant. “So I’ve been beating her ass.”
Three people, including Gress’ mother, later told police that he had sent them photos of the girl that showed her nude, bruised and in increasingly worse physical condition.
Gress told police that Brandes shoved a billiard ball into Miranda’s throat and covered her face in plastic wrap. He said he couldn’t get to her quickly enough to poke holes in the plastic so she could breathe, according to the affidavit.
After the teen died, the couple drove to Brandes’ mother’s house in Largo, where Gress used a chainsaw to dismember Miranda’s body, according to police. They put the remains in trash bags and the next day left them in a dumpster in Ruskin, investigators said. Police learned the contents of the dumpster likely went to the county’s incinerator.
Police said there is no evidence Miranda took the ring, and Brandes later claimed to have found it in Gress’ car.
Gress was arrested March 5, 2025,after police said he threatened Brandes with an air-powered harpoon gun when she tried to leave their apartment during an argument.
Brandes turned herself in to police three days later. While the affidavit states that 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 Gress and Brandes told investigators that Gress frequently beat and abused her and Brandes. She also said Gress killed animals he got through Craigslist and disposed them near the Bob Graham Sunshine Skyway Bridge.
On Wednesday, defense lawyers didn’t object to Gress’ decision to move forward with a plea.
“Whether he wants to waive mitigation and a jury is his choice, not ours,” said defense attorney J. Andrew Crawford.
Federico appointed a doctor to evaluate Gress to ensure that he’s competent before he formally enters a plea.
Gress will return to court Aug. 19.
