Steven Gress is 37 years old and laughed in court.
It was August 19, in Pinellas County, Florida, when he changed his plea to guilty for the kidnapping and murder of 16-year-old Miranda Corsette. The girl had met him through Grindr on February 14, 2025, Valentine’s Day. According to court documents, she was tortured for nearly a week after an argument over a ring, until his partner, Michelle Brandes, allegedly shoved a billiard ball down her throat and covered her face with plastic wrap. Miranda’s body was then dismembered with a chainsaw at Brandes’s mother’s house and discarded in a dumpster. It has never been found.
Gress denied killing her with his own hands, but admitted to participating in the events that led to her death. And before Judge Philip Federico, with a smile, he said something that no one expected to hear from the mouth of a confessed murderer: “Life or death is a lose-lose. I would rather serve the lesser sentence than spend the next 53 years behind bars”. The sentence will be determined in November. Miranda’s family has already sued Grindr for negligence.
