Law&Crime Sidebar - Florida Man Texted Photos of Beaten Teen Before Dismembering Her: Cops

Episode Date: April 9, 2025

Sixteen-year-old Miranda Corsette’s remains may never be found, after police in St. Petersburg, Florida say a man and woman tortured and dismembered her. New court documents reveal that multiple people knew that Steven Gress and Michelle Brandes were hurting Corsette inside their home, but didn’t report it. Law&Crime’s Jesse Weber discusses the horrific new details with practice law professor Marian Braccia.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW:Get 50% off of confidential background reports at https://www.truthfinder.com/lcsidebarHOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael Deininger, Christina O'Shea & Jay CruzScript Writing & Producing - Savannah Williamson & Juliana BattagliaGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. A 16-year-old girl was allegedly tortured for days, beaten, suffocated, then dismembered, and dumped in a trash bin. And according to police, at least six people knew what was going on, but no one called for help. Now, explosive new documents reveal the horrific final days of Miranda Corsetti and the two suspects who, could face execution for her murder. Welcome to Sidebar. Presented by Law and Crime, I'm Jesse Weber.

In the sun-drenched neighborhood of Ponce de Leon nestled in St. Petersburg, Florida, a 16-year-old girl allegedly endured six days of unimaginable torture before she died. According to police, this teen girl, Miranda Corsetti, a slender, dark-haired teen from Gulfport was held captive, beaten, and ultimately murdered in a first floor duplex. Now, we brought you the news of this case on sidebar back when the investigation was still unfolding, but now what makes this case even more chilling is that according to a newly unsealed 25-page search warrant, at least six people either saw this girl suffering or new shoe is being held against her will, and yet no one called police. No one

did anything. Now, two people, Stephen Gress, Michelle Brandis, they have been indicted on first-degree murder charges and kidnapping charges, and prosecutors say they will seek the death penalty here. Now, these two are accused of not only killing Miranda, whose body has never been found, but also of incinerating her remains and dumping her into a trash bin. This is incredibly horrifying. Now, in case you haven't been following this, I'm going to get you up to speed on what you missed, but the last time we brought you this case, authorities did arrest this man, 35-year-old Stephen Gress, along with his girlfriend, 37-year-old Michelle Brandis, for alleged. luring this teen girl that they had interacted with on a dating app to the home, torturing her beyond anything comprehensible.

And this included assaulting her over some dispute about a missing piece of jewelry, which we don't really know a whole lot about. We know certain details we'll get into. But the allegations are that they continue to beat her for the next several days before suffocating her and getting rid of her body. St. Petersburg Police Chief Anthony Holloway told reporters of this horrifying ordeal in a press conference following the couple's arrest last month. There was some type of dispute over some missing jewelry. So from the 20th through the 24th, she was beaten and tortured because they could not find this piece of jewelry. We noticed sometime there she was then killed.

Mr. Gress placed her body in his car, along with his domestic partner, Michelle Brandis, and they drove her to Largo. In Largo, the detectives found evidence that Miranda was, Excuse me, Miranda was this member at that location. They didn't place her in the car and they drove her down to Ruskin where they dumped her into a dumpster. And her body is somewhere possibly in a landfill somewhere in that county.

Now, it is worth mentioning that Miranda had actually been at the couple's home prior to the day in question. You see, police say she was picked up on February 14th where she and Gress spent the day together before he drove her back home. And it was when she returned the very next day, February 15th, that she would. never leave again. And while we don't know exactly when Miranda died, police do estimate that she was killed anywhere between February 20th and February 24th. This is according to NDTV. Now Miranda's grandmother reported her missing on February 24th, and interestingly, she mentioned to the Gulfport police that Miranda was in fact a frequent runaway, but that she'd always returned home. And on March 6, the witness contacted police with a tip, and that is what broke this whole case open. And it

led authorities first to Stephen Gress, and Gress was actually already in custody on unrelated charges he had been arrested for allegedly threatening Brandis during an argument. We'll talk more about that. But as for Michelle Brandis, police didn't really have to go searching very far for her because she ended up turning herself in. And when Gress made his first court appearance, he actually asked the judge why Brandis was not there with him. Where's Michelle Brandis? I would not. I would not. Talk to your lawyer. Thank you, everybody. Where's Michelle Brandis is it? So as I mentioned, both Gress and Brandis, They're facing charges of first-degree murder and kidnapping.

They are being held at the Pinellas County Jail without bond. And by the way, Gress has a long history with the legal system, dating back to when he was a teenager. So we typed in his name and location into Truthfinder.com, and we were able to trace the whole criminal history, which includes everything from armed burglary, felonious possession of firearms, threats to kill or do bodily injury. And by the way, long crime, we partner with Truthfinder.

We use it to good details on people involved in our stories. But even if you don't work in true crime, it can be an excellent resource to give you some pieces. of mine. After all, it's one of the largest public record search services in the United States. And with a paid subscription service, you can get access to unlimited reports about almost anyone. So right now, if you're interested, you can get 50% off of your first month of confidential background reports. Just go to truthfinder.com slash LC sidebar. But now we're going to get into these big revelations from this new warrant, but I'm not going

to do it alone. I want to bring on a special guest. We're joined once again, friend of the show, Marion Bracha, Professor of Law, Temple University. Thank you so much for taking the time. I'm just going to start in a human point of view. What do you think about this? Well, Jesse, it's unimaginable, right? For a human being, two human beings, to do such vile and cruel things to another human being, especially one as young as the decedent, as the victim in this case. It's just unimaginable.

From a legal point of view, if they're prosecuting them and they are seeking the death penalty here, The fact that Miranda's body was never recovered, does that hurt the prosecution's case? What challenges could they have? Talk to us about that. Certainly. It could hurt the prosecution's case. I think the strength here that we see in the information and the discovery that is available is that there were witnesses, that there were people who can identify or who would be able to testify that Miranda had been in their home, had been with them for a certain number of days, that at some point in time, the male defendant carried her out, I think covered in a blanket and transported a body, presumably Miranda's body

to another location to dispose of it. So while there is no physical body to perform an autopsy on or to present photos of in court, there are other circumstantial ways of proving that there had been a life and being and then it was no longer a life of being after the defendants had done what they did to it. Now this warrant, and I'll get more into the defendants in a second, but this warrant says that six people knew what was going on with Miranda. They knew that she was being held captive. They didn't intervene. At least that's my understanding from the warrant and the reporting on it. Does Florida have any laws that could hold bystanders criminally liable for not reporting? Not necessarily that they engaged in

the attack on her or tried to cover it up, but look the other way. Right. So it's a question of what we know as what we call good Samaritan laws and what our responsibilities are as citizens just to each other. I think an argument against charging these bystanders, if you will, these people with knowledge would be that do we have a duty to all the world to protect everyone else? And of course, there's a philosophy, another line of thought that says, yes, we do. If you know that there is harm being done to another person, especially one who's underage, that yes, you do have a duty to step forward, to at least report. I think what is most troubling about this case

is that there were people with more than information that this was happening, there was at least one person who was arguably an eyewitness to it and who had more than a mere presence that Miranda was being held, certainly against her will, and being exposed to this very serious bodily injury and eventual death. Yeah, it's hard to fathom that.

It really is. Speaking of which, hard to fathom, when you look at when Gress asks the judge, He's not really supposed to say anything like this, but he goes, where's Michelle Brandis at during his hearing? What does that tell you? And by the way, could that statement actually be used at trial in any way? So it's a problematic statement. And you're absolutely right that the defendant probably should have been advised not to say anything at that proceeding.

As of course, you know and your viewers know both defendants have a constitutional Fifth Amendment right to remain silent. He was in an official proceeding that was being recorded. Technically, he was not being questioned, so there is no constitutional claim. There's no claim that he was being cut custodially interrogated. However, that blurred out, while it might be evidence used against him, against Bress, for consciousness of guilt or an acknowledgement that he had engaged with someone else to support the conspiracy charge, the real legally problematic question would be is if that statement is admissible. against Brandis because there is, again, a constitutional right for her to confront her accusers. And if he is then accusing her of participating in this conspiracy, she would have a right to cross-examine or her attorneys would have a right to cross-examine that statement, but

he has a right to then shut his mouth and not take the stand and submit to cross-examination. So it is a really interesting legal and constitutional question. My inclination would be that it's not usable against Brandis as a non-examination. testifying co-defendant, but that'll be up to the judge in a suppression hearing. That's a really interesting point. I'm glad you brought it up. I didn't even think about that. I am curious, though, when you mentioned Brandis, right, it seems to me, and we'll get a little bit more into this, this could be a situation where each side's pointing the finger at the other, right? You know, he was responsible. I was in fear for my life. Or no, she was responsible. I didn't

have a part in this. And we'll get into what the motivations could have been. But the fact that Brandis turned herself in. Does this support her? Obviously, she can still be prosecuted. The death penalty can be on the table. But does it help her potential narrative that I'm just trying to do the right thing here. I was being pressured by Gress. You know, the idea that she turned herself in. What does that tell you? I think it does vote in her favor, to be perfectly honest. I think that whenever there is something given from the defense part in terms of saving on resources, saving on investigative time and effort to locate the wrong. or to really investigate what happened in any particular case, there is a certain consideration given to that volunteerism, to that participation, that cooperation in the process. And the fact that she, I believe, admitted to what turned out to be a tipster that she had been involved in a homicide will certainly come in and be used against her. That is a party statement and that will be used against her. Will it help her that she did turn herself in and cooperate with

authorities. Probably it may. What may also support her is that there seems to be evidence that this was an abusive relationship. There's evidence after the fact that she was being threatened or assaulted by dress even after this homicide allegedly had taken place. I don't know if she would assert a battered woman's defense. That might be something her teen would consider. But there are certain aspects of the relationship between these two defendants that we know of so far that that do vote in her paper, I believe. I want to get into a little bit more of the details of the case, and I want to get into more of what we're learning from the warrant.

So this filing that was reviewed by the Tampa Bay Times, it was submitted by a St. Petersburg police detective to obtain permission. It's a application for a warrant to search the phone of Stephen Gress's mother. And we're going to get into why that is in a second. But within the pages of this affidavit lies what appears to be a meticulously documented account of Miranda's torment. and the missed opportunities to save her. Now, I mentioned earlier that there was some kind of dispute over jewelry.

It was really about a ring that authorities documented. And while apparently, according to the accounts of a couple neighbors, Gress actually mentioned this incident to them. One neighbor recounted that Gress said, according to the warrant, this little B stole my ring and won't give it back, so I've been beating her A. But these neighbors, they didn't intervene. Now, why exactly?

unclear, but Marion, you know, the warrant sought access to Gress's mother's phone. What are the, what's the legal standard that would justify that search, given that she wasn't directly involved in the crime? There is still a warrant. She still has a Fourth Amendment right into privacy in her belongings. But if the police believed or had probable cause at the warrant stage that her phone would have contained incriminating evidence, not not necessarily against her, but contained evidence that would go to support this prosecution or would go to further investigate the involvement of Gress, then a magistrate or if a judge in Florida found that there was probable cause to search that phone and the warrant was validly issued.

The affidavit documents that neighbors heard Gress basically make this confession, is that hearsay in any way or will this, could this be admissible? Well, it is hearsay. It is hearsay to repeat what the neighbors said. So hearsay, as again, Jesse, I know you know, and many of your viewers will know, hearsay is any out of court statement that's being offered for the truth. So hearsay means that someone told me on the street that so-and-so had done something, right? Now, if the neighbors come in and testify, if the neighbors come in and say,

I saw Gress, and Gress told me this little bee did something and this is what I'm doing to her, The neighbors would be permitted to testify as to what Gress had said. Why? Because he's a party in the case. He's there to hear them and his attorneys are there to confront those neighbors and to cross-examine them. If the police wanted to come in and say the neighbors reported that Gress had said, that would be a layer of hearsay that's not admissible in our courts of law. Let me just tell you, and this is why I think you're an incredible educator, that was probably

the easiest and simplest and clearest explanation of hearsay I've heard in quite some time. The question is, why did police obtain a warrant to search the phone of Gress's mother, right? Well, that seemingly has to do with disturbing communications that Gress is alleged to have sent to her regarding Miranda, according to the warrant. Three people, including Gress's mother, told police that Gress had sent them photos of Miranda in horrifying shape, naked, bruised, her condition just getting worse and worse and worse. Now, even though Gress's mother seems to claim she was sent the photos, she denied looking at them, seeing them. Instead, she told police that she was informed of the ring

incident and responded saying, good people don't want to know bad things before cutting off communication with him. Marion, is that going to be enough to protect the mother, legally speaking? Unfortunately, I'm not seeing so far enough evidence to charge the mother. And this is, you know, my exposure and my expertise is really in Pennsylvania law, but even looking at the Florida statutes, the mother is involved insofar as saying what? I'm shutting down. I'm closing off conversation. Even to consider accomplice liability, even to consider a conspiracy charge, you need participation to some extent in the object of the conspiracy. Mom didn't do anything insofar as helping to dispose of the body. Mom didn't do anything in so far as planning the attacks or

results. And of course, we are basing all of this knowledge on what's included in the affidavit. If further investigation reveals that there were additional steps or additional, that there was additional involvement on the mother's part, then maybe. But so far, I'm not seeing quite enough to bring mom into the prosecution here. Well, I'll tell you what, look, the most damning admission, I think, from this warrant actually comes from a woman who lived with Gress and Brandis, who claims that she had once been involved with Gress. But she describes this really volatile, tumultuous household that Gress allegedly dominated through violence that even beat her and Brandis. And she went on to make even more bizarre claims, including that Gress killed

animals that he bought over Craigslist, that this incident with Miranda was not isolated, that he brought other women back to his home that were apparently struggling with homelessness or substances. And as far as what this woman had to say about Miranda, she told police that Gress met Miranda on the dating app Grindr. It's an app that caters to the LGBTQ community, though what's usually geared towards men specifically. But she then said Miranda was brought back to the apartment and that the next day when Gress discovered his ring was missing, he confronted Miranda about it.

Now, Miranda, according to this woman, would not return the ring and thus that is when the beatings began or allegedly began. And the warrant also mentions that Brandis later told this woman that she discovered the ring in Gress's car, but this woman says she didn't believe Brandis. No, instead, she apparently told police that she believed Brandis had the ring all along and was simply concocting a story that it was stolen in order to get Gress to turn on Miranda. So maybe a jealousy thing. I don't know.

And this is important because this woman also claims that Gress wanted an open relationship with Brandis, but that the latter didn't want that kind of arrangement. So for nearly a week, the woman says Gress and Brandis tortured Miranda, described this abuse in horrific detail, and this all came to a head the night of February 23rd when she claims Brandis wrapped Miranda's head in plastic. Gress allegedly told her not to cover Miranda's nose, but Brandis did anyway, and Miranda suffocated. That's the allegation.

Very, very horrifying. We don't know if it's for sure because we don't have a body, which I think makes this very difficult, Marion. But how might the roommate's testimony about Gras's behavior or pattern of violence against women and animals? Let's start there. Do you think that that establishes a motive or intent? Can that come into evidence?

or is that bad character evidence that shouldn't be allowed in? So since we're talking a lot about evidence today and the rules of evidence, you're absolutely right. This is it would be considered bad evidence or bad character evidence. However, there is an exception in the rules of evidence that allows for other act evidence. Now, we can't use those other acts. We can't use prior instances of abuse. We can't use prior acts of cruelty against animals to convince the jury to say to make an argument, well, he did these violent things in the past, so he must have done this bad thing now.

That's a classic what we call propensity argument. That means that you are just inclined to be a violent person. That means that you're inclined to be bad or criminal or otherwise aggressive. However, there are exceptions in the rules of evidence to allow for certain uses of that proof. Things like, as you mentioned, motive or plan or preferential. or intent. So if the prosecution can develop an argument that these prior instances of abuse, both against other women, other romantic partners, even against animals, that that shows an escalation of violence or a plan to perpetrate this violence against Miranda as his most recent

victim, so to speak. So there are certainly avenues within the rules of evidence that would allow this evidence to come in and be used against dress, not to say that just because he did violence in the past, he must have done it again in this case, but in order to show a certain course of conduct. What I think is interesting, the substance of this conversation, because again, it goes back to the idea where I anticipate both sides pointing the finger at one another, right? You're hearing this idea, was Brandis the one who wrapped Miranda's head and, you know, wrapped her nose, or was she doing the bidding of Gress because she was in fear for her life? I mean, it seems to me that if this roommate isn't ultimately charged,

she's going to be this roommate's going to be a central figure in what this the story is absolutely because there's certainly no other witness there and unfortunately Miranda cannot testify for herself and I'm sure it will be revealed also that I believe this roommate went with or admitted to going with Brandes and dress to disposable body so that's really the only evidence there is of what happened to Miranda after the fact let's talk about that because after Miranda died this warrant reveals that Gress allegedly carried her body, wrapped in a purple blanket to the trunk of his Honda Civic, and then this trio, again, this roommate, then drove to Brandes' mother's house in Largo.

Yes, this woman told police she was, in fact, with Brandis and Gress when they went to allegedly dispose of Miranda's body, and the next morning, the woman told police that Gress and Brandis took Miranda's body to a semi-private pathway behind this house, and there, and I'm sorry to say it, the allegation is that they used a chainsaw to dismember. remember this 16-year-old's body before stuffing her remains into white trash bags. And the woman said she waited inside the house while Brandis's mother, another resident, and a home health aide. Again, it seems they were either completely unaware of what was happening.

Maybe he didn't ask questions, not entirely sure. But in an even more bizarre fashion, the day this all took place, it was allegedly Brandis's birthday. The woman told police that they celebrated by eating Popeye's fried chicken and playing mini golf at the Congo River in Clearwater, all while this was going on. Afterward, she says that they drove around Tampa Bay searching for a place to dump Miranda's remains. And they settled on a green dumpster in Ruskin near where aggress's grandparents live. I'm listening to this.

And I'm thinking to myself, if this is all true, this has to be a death penalty case. And it's not necessarily the jury will agree, but I mean, which aggravating factor do you want to talk about first? Right. Yeah, of course, with first-degree murder cases, when there are certain aggravators present, Like the abuse of a corpse and the dismembering of a body, that would be an aggravating factor that might lead the prosecutors to pursue the death penalty and would be a basis of their argument before the jury. Of course, that would come after the trial. There needs to be a finding beyond a reasonable doubt of guilt on the first-degree murder charge, and then there would be a whole separate proceeding where there would have to be another unanimous verdict to inflict the death penalty by the jury. Now, let me add one more thing. This investigation, it all began with that tip that was supposedly from a man who knew Brandis, told police about what was going on that he apparently confessed.

And after detectives first interviewed Gress on March 6th in the Pinellas County Jail, where he was being held for allegedly threatening Brandis, by the way, with an air-powered harpoon gun during an argument. This is also documented, according to the Tampa Bay Times and the warrant. But according to the reporting, Gress showed no reaction when detectives mentioned the murder. But the next day, he apparently made a shocking admission telling police, this was never supposed to happen. He then claimed that he thought Miranda was 21 when he picked her up from her grandmother's home in Gulfport, later realized she was 16. He then became obsessed with retrieving his missing ring, even admitted that he, quote, lumped her up for days. And when she trembled in fear, he took it as a sign that she was making fun of him.

As for what he told police about Miranda's death, according to the warrant, he blamed this all up Brandis. His initial arrest affidavit states that after he and his co-defendant, allegedly held Miranda against her will, they stuffed a billiard ball into her mouth and wrapped her face with plastic wrap, causing her to suffocate. But what the affidavit doesn't say, he claims, is that he tried to poke breathing holes into the plastic wrap, but was too late. And as for the allegations about killing animals, Gress confessed to that, said that he would dispose of them in his apartment's trash bin, but he chillingly admitted that this was an outlet

to avoid harming people. Now, Brandis, who turned herself in, according to this filing, played the reverser. Uno card, Painting Gress is the true monster, talked about being a victim. Before we wrap things up, Marion, his account, again, putting the blame on Brandis. It's hard to know if he's credible. There's parts of it. I always wonder, you know, if you're specific or you admit certain things, it makes you more credible in the long run.

What do you take away from this? Well, I take away from from both of their statements that they might either be intentionally or just inadvertently setting up defenses for themselves. I think we already talked about Brandis, potentially setting up a duress defense. setting up a defense that she was under Gress's thumb, that she was under his influence and just doing as she was told as an abused woman. I fear

that Gress may also be setting up a guilty but mentally ill defense because he is admitting that he's had these inclinations, these inclinations to harm, these inclinations even to kill, and he's using animals as an outlet for that. I'm wondering if there will be a psychological

or psychiatric test before this case goes anywhere further in the proceedings. I think it's something else that might be a consideration for the defense is that he was arrested with a certain amount of narcotics, especially methamphetamine. As you know, again, first degree murder is a specific intent crime. There needs to be specific intent to premeditate and to take the life of another human being. And I'm sure that your viewers will not be thrilled to hear this, but intoxication is a defense to specific intent crimes. I'm not saying that the jury will buy that.

I'm not saying that jurors or your viewers have to agree with it, but that is legally an available defense. So if he can claim that he was under the influence of drugs or that he wasn't thinking clearly, that would undercut the requirement and he have specific intent to kill. So it sounds like both of these defendants are setting up their defense. And they might have some legs to stand on depending on how their defense teams use this evidence. And as for the possibility of more charges coming down, Pinellas, Pascoe County, State Attorney Bruce Bartlett said the case is still open and there's still a pretty good likelihood of more charges to come. One more thing I'll mention is that Miranda's grandmother, Rita Farnham, initially told the Tampa Bay Times that she wasn't ready to speak about the case.

But later wrote to the outlet in a text message expressing gratitude for the man who tipped off police saying, if not for him, we would never know what happened to Miranda. My family is very grateful. And one more sad detail about this case, aside from the fact that Miranda was 16 years. years old. She's leaving behind a one-year-old child now in her grandmother's care. Just a really, really sad case. Marion Brachia, thank you so much for taking the time. It was great seeing you in excellent, excellent analysis. Thank you, Jesse. Great to see you, as always. All right, everybody, that's all we have for you right now here on Sidebar. Thank you so much for joining us.

And as always, please subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcast, Spotify, wherever you get your podcast. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll speak to next time. You can binge all episodes of this law and crime series ad free right now on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.