{"id":402876,"date":"2026-09-17T21:15:27","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T21:15:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/402876\/"},"modified":"2026-09-17T21:15:27","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T21:15:27","slug":"man-laughs-in-court-after-pleading-guilty-to-murder-of-tortured-dismembered-teen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/402876\/","title":{"rendered":"Man laughs in court after pleading guilty to murder of tortured, dismembered teen"},"content":{"rendered":"

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (WKRC) – A Florida man pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the death of a 16-year-old girl who authorities said was tortured for days before her body was dismembered and discarded.<\/p>\n

Steven Gress, 35, entered the plea in the killing of Miranda Corsette. <\/a>His plea was not part of an agreement with prosecutors, according to court records. <\/p>\n

Authorities said Gress met Corsette through Grindr and brought her to his St. Petersburg home in February 2025.<\/p>\n

According to investigators, Corsette was accused of stealing a ring and was repeatedly beaten over several days. Authorities said Gress sent photographs showing the teenager’s worsening injuries to several people. <\/p>\n

Investigators said Corsette was eventually suffocated. After her death, Gress dismembered her body with a chainsaw, and her remains were placed in trash bags and later discarded in a dumpster about 50 miles away, according to authorities.<\/p>\n

Gress confessed to participating in the abuse and dismemberment but previously told investigators that his girlfriend, Michelle Brandes, caused Corsette’s death, according to court documents. <\/p>\n

Brandes has also been charged with murder and kidnapping and has pleaded not guilty.<\/p>\n

During his plea hearing, Gress acknowledged that he faces at least life in prison without the possibility of parole. Prosecutors are also seeking the death penalty.<\/p>\n

When the judge discussed the possible sentences, Gress laughed and said he would prefer execution to spending the rest of his life in prison.<\/p>\n

Gress is scheduled to return to court Nov. 4 for the penalty phase of the case.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (WKRC) – A Florida man pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the death of a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":402877,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-402876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=402876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402876\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/402877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=402876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=402876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}