PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 A Bay area doctor accused of murdering the attorney on a civil case he was involved in is pleading his case before a Pinellas County judge \u2014 and he is representing himself.<\/p>\n
The case made headlines in 2023 because of all of the evidence police say they had against the popular plastic surgeon and the outpouring of attorneys who were friends with the victim.<\/p>\n
Investigators say\u00a0Tomasz Kosowski stalked Steven Cozzi for months, plotted and planned and then murdered the attorney representing the company he was suing.<\/p>\n
Kosowski on Monday was dressed in his jail-issued clothing, sitting alone at the defense table. The judge asked Kosowski if he wanted to continue representing himself, and the suspect said yes. He faces charges of first-degree murder.<\/p>\n
On Monday, prosecutor\u00a0Assistant State Attorney Alexandra Spadaro said: “He (Cozzi) was murdered in the bathroom of his law firm. His body was then placed in a wagon. And it was drug out into the parking lot, where it was loaded onto a gray Toyota Tundra. And ultimately, his coffin was a dumpster, his hearse was a dump truck, and his burial site where he lays to rest in tiny, unidentifiable, little pieces is at the Collier County landfill.”<\/p>\n
Prosecutors say they plan to prove Kosowski stalked Cozzi at his home and his office.<\/p>\n
Cozzi was representing the medical practice Kosowski was suing.<\/p>\n
In that civil case, Kosowski, who is a plastic surgeon, was representing himself then, too. Witnesses confirmed the civil case was contentious, with Kosowski being “terrible to deal with” and aggressive.<\/p>\n
The case dates back to March 2023, when Cozzi disappeared midmorning while at work at the Blanchard Law firm in Largo.<\/p>\n
At the time, Kosowski was suing his former employer, a Dunedin-area cosmetic surgery practice. Cozzi was an attorney representing the practice and some related clients in that litigation.<\/p>\n
Court records filed by prosecutors describe growing tension between the two men before Cozzi disappeared. During a January 2023 deposition at Cozzi’s law firm, Kosowski and Cozzi encountered each other in a bathroom, according to court filings. Prosecutors say Kosowski confronted Cozzi, called him a “scumbag” and told him he would “win in the end.”<\/p>\n
“He made accusations about Steve which were completely unreasonable and unwarranted,” witness Jacob Pillsbury said on the stand Monday.<\/p>\n
Cozzi went missing one morning, and, after interviewing witnesses, investigators say they narrowed in on Kosowski as a suspect. After finding blood along with other evidence in his home and cars, they were finally able to bring in Kosowski \u2014 but not before they say he tried to destroy evidence while handcuffed.<\/p>\n
“And after he hears that the body warrant is in process, en route, one by one, he starts to meticulously suck on each of his fingers. He\u2019s using his tongue and getting up underneath it, slurping. He\u2019s using his teeth almost as a nail file, trying to destroy any trace of evidence that might bring him back to Stephen Cozzi.”<\/p>\n
Kosowski declined to make an opening statement to refute any of the claims from prosecutors, but he will be able to defend himself once the prosecution rests.<\/p>\n
The prosecution says it intends to rest its case by next Tuesday. Then it will be Kosowski\u2019s turn to put on his defense. On Monday, he didn\u2019t cross examine anyone, but he can still recall witnesses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 A Bay area doctor accused of murdering the attorney on a civil case he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":400354,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[4997,2967,265,115,139,596,277,4368,202,204,203,199,201,200,135,835],"class_list":["post-400353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-app-crime","tag-app-public-safety","tag-crime","tag-news","tag-orlando","tag-pinellas-county","tag-public-safety","tag-saundra-weathers","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-tampa","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400353","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=400353"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400353\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/400354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=400353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=400353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=400353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}