An Ivy League-trained surgeon who chose to represent himself in his first-degree murder trial has been convicted in the killing of an attorney and could now face the death penalty.
Tomasz Kosowski, 47, was found guilty Wednesday of killing 41-year-old lawyer Steven Cozzi in the bathroom of his Clearwater, Florida, office and placing his body in a dumpster near a highway in March 2023.
Prosecutors described the killing as “cold, calculated and premeditated.” After the nearly weeklong trial, Pinellas County Judge Joseph Bulone deliberated for roughly 15 minutes before finding Kosowski guilty, rather than leaving the decision to a jury.
“I don’t anticipate me disagreeing with myself that much,” Bulone joked before taking a break. “So we’ll take a 15-minute break and I’ll be back.”
Kosowski and Cozzi had been involved in a dispute over medical billing. Prosecutors alleged that the disgraced plastic surgeon killed the lawyer for “financial gain.”
Kosowski, who attended the prestigious Dartmouth College, had called Cozzi a “scumbag” several months before the murder.
The prosecution also presented evidence that Kosowski researched Cozzi online and maintained what investigators described as a “murder bag” containing a Taser, brass knuckles and a crowbar.
He also searched for information about the paralyzing drug succinylcholine, including how long its effects would last.
Blood belonging to Cozzi was found not only inside the office bathroom but also splattered throughout the car Kosowski allegedly used afterward.
“The overwhelming totality of the evidence in this case demonstrates that he had the obsession, and he prepared, and he had a plan, and he effectuated that plan, and murdered him,” Nathan Vonderheide, an assistant state attorney, told the court while seeking the death penalty.
“This man murdered Steven Cozzi and he murdered him in a violent way, leaving his blood in a multitude of locations.”
Cozzi’s body has never been recovered. Bulone said that, because of that fact, prosecutors could not establish that the murder was heinous—one of the aggravating circumstances required for a death sentence.
The death penalty remains possible, however, because only one aggravating factor must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Kosowski’s next hearing is scheduled for October 8.
Before the judge issued his ruling, Cozzi’s family described the pain of living without answers or the chance to bring him home.
“The most unbearable part is that we were never able to bring Steven home,” Michael Montgomery, Cozzi’s husband, said.
“I cannot describe the horrors this has brought me, and all of Steven’s loved ones. It brings me more anger than I can put in words.”
Kosowski continued to deny responsibility, despite investigators finding a mixture of his DNA and Cozzi’s outside the bathroom door.
“It is entirely uncertain of what happened to Steven Cozzi in that bathroom,” he told the court.
“No one heard a thing. No one saw anything. I also do not leave a speck of DNA in that bathroom.”
A man was seen entering Cozzi’s law office at about 8:30 a.m. on the day the attorney was last seen.
Around two hours later, a man was seen wheeling a heavy wagon out of the building and struggling to pull it onto a gray Toyota Tundra truck.
“It is physically impossible to transfer a body in the manner that the state suggests,” Kosowski said, as he denied claims one man could move someone who weighed 190 to 195 pounds single-handedly.
“The wheelbase of that Gorilla Cart is much, much shorter than the height of the tailgate of that truck
“You take that full weight, that 200 pounds in a big and bulky cart. You take that, you lift it up straight in front of you and you get it onto that truck.
“That’s physically impossible. I mean, maybe not for, like, an Olympic-caliber deadlifter.”
Cozzi’s body was never found despite several searches.
Investigators suspect his remains were put in a dumpster before being moved to a landfill.
