DEATH-PENALTY SHOCK: Killer Laughs in Court and Asks to Die After Admitting He Lured Girl, 16, to His Home Before Murdering and Dismembering Her
A SICKO laughed in court as he pleaded guilty to torturing and killing a 16-year-old girl he met on a dating app in Florida – and demanded the death penalty.
Steven Gress, 37, walked into a Pinellas County courtroom with a smile on his face before admitting to charges in the killing of Miranda Corsette.
The court heard he felt it was “the right thing to do” – but he maintained that he did not actually kill the victim.
“I did not kill Miranda, but I was involved in certain things that led to her death,” Gress told the judge.
Offering a chilling explanation to his plea, which means that he will receive the death penalty, he said that “life or death is a lose-lose,” the Tampa Bay reported.
Chuckling, the defendant added: “I would rather do the lesser time than spend the next 53 years of my life behind bars.”
Gress met the teenager on a dating app and lured her to his apartment in St Petersburg on Valentine’s Day last year.
His partner, Michelle Brandes, was waiting for them there.
The pair beat, tortured and sexually assaulted Miranda over the course of a week before eventually killing 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, the New York Post reported.
Three other witnesses, including his mother, told the court that Gress had sent them images of Miranda naked, bruised, and in a deteriorating state.
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 when he learned what Brandes did he rushed to poke holes in the plastic to let her breathe, but Miranda had already died.
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.”
Police believe Miranda was killed sometime between February 20 and February 24.
Using a chainsaw, Gress then dismembered her body and abandoned it in a dumpster in Hillsborough County, it was alleged.
After entering his guilty plea, he waived his right to a jury trial for the penalty phase of the case.
A pretrial hearing for his penalty phase is scheduled in November.
