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Steven Robert Gress, 35, pleaded guilty in Pinellas County on August 19, 2026, to first-degree murder and kidnapping in the death of 16-year-old Miranda Corsette. He told the judge, "I've been ready to plead guilty to this. I'll take the death penalty. I'll take the death penalty. I don't want to go to trial." Gress waived a jury for the penalty phase, leaving sentencing to the judge. A hearing was set for November 4, 2026, and he has not been sentenced.

A grand jury indicted Gress and his domestic partner, Michelle Brandes, on first-degree murder, with Gress also charged with kidnapping. Both initially pleaded not guilty. State Attorney Bruce Bartlett filed notice of intent to seek the death penalty against both, citing that the killing was cold, calculated and premeditated. Brandes, now 38, has pleaded not guilty, faces a possible death sentence and has said she acted under duress from Gress. She has not been tried, and her next pretrial hearing was set for October 22, 2026.

Corsette lived in Gulfport, Florida, with her grandmother and had an infant child, not named in reporting. Gress lived with Brandes, then 37, in a duplex at 2708 27th Ave. N. in St. Petersburg. Gress contacted Corsette through Grindr, and they met on February 14, 2025. She returned to the duplex the next day and stayed with Gress and Brandes.

Police said the three argued over a missing piece of jewelry on February 20. Corsette was beaten and tortured from February 20 through February 24 because it could not be found, and investigators believe she was killed during that period. Police allege a billiard ball was forced into her mouth and her head was wrapped in plastic, suffocating her.

A woman who lived at the apartment told detectives the two suffocated Corsette. She said the three drove the body to a house on Mallory Drive in Largo belonging to Brandes' mother, where Gress and Brandes dismembered her. The remains were left in a dumpster in Ruskin, in Hillsborough County. Its contents went to the county waste-to-energy incinerator, and Corsette's remains were never recovered. Court documents say six people saw or knew she was being held and beaten in the week before her death and none called 911. Three had been sent photographs showing her bruised and worsening.

Corsette was reported missing to Gulfport police on February 24, 2025. Gress was arrested March 5, 2025, on unrelated drug-possession and harpoon charges. A witness gave St. Petersburg detectives an account of the killing on March 6, and Gress was charged with first-degree murder the next day. Brandes surrendered March 8 and was charged with first-degree murder.

St. Petersburg police interviewed Gress at the jail where he was held on the unrelated charges. He told the detective he had an appointed attorney but did not want one and was initiating the conversation, after which the detective read him his rights. Gress said, "This was never supposed to happen," described meeting Corsette on Grindr and said she initially told him she was 20. According to the affidavit, he blamed Brandes for the death. A companion recording contains Brandes' separate police interview. Corsette's estate also sued Grindr, but U.S. District Judge Tom Barber ruled on November 3, 2025, that the claim must go to arbitration, finding she had agreed to the app's terms of service despite being a minor.

The video is a police interview-room recording that runs about 37 minutes. It presents the interview itself without narration or a presenter.

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Police investigating the disappearance of 16-year-old Miranda Corsette questioned Steven Gress and his domestic partner, Michelle Brandes, after a witness said the teen had been killed. Miranda was reported missing on February 24, 2025; the witness account on March 6 turned the missing-person case into a homicide investigation. In his own interview, Gress blamed Brandes for the death. This recording is the separate police interview of Brandes that followed. Brandes has pleaded not guilty and has not been tried.

The video is an interview-room recording that runs about 76 minutes. It shows the police interview itself, with no narration or presenter.