Clad in an orange jail jumpsuit, Dr. Tomasz Kosowski, 47, is representing himself in court as he faces a first-degree murder charge with the possibility of the death penalty. He\u2019s waived his right to a jury \u2013 the judge presiding over the Pinellas County trial is set to decide the doctor\u2019s fate.<\/p>\n
Kosowski was arrested in March 2023 in connection with the disappearance of attorney Steven Cozzi<\/a>. He has remained in jail and insists he is innocent.<\/p>\n The two men met through a legal dispute.<\/p>\n Tomasz Kosowski was accused of killing Steven Cozzi. (Pinellas County Sheriffs Office)<\/p>\n FLORIDA PLASTIC SURGEON MAY HAVE MURDERED MISSING LAWYER IN LAW FIRM BATHROOM: POLICE<\/a><\/p>\n Cozzi had worked on a civil lawsuit beginning in 2019 involving money allegedly owed to Kosowski for work he\u2019d done tied to personal injury cases. Cozzi helped represent the corporate clients Kosowski was suing.<\/p>\n During years of litigation, Kosowski developed a hostile attitude toward Cozzi, according to court records. He blamed Cozzi for his problems in the case and demanded that the attorney be removed as defense counsel, records show.<\/p>\n “He made a bunch of completely unwarranted, inappropriate accusations about Steve throughout the litigation,” said Jake Pillsbury, an attorney who worked with Cozzi on the case.<\/p>\n Cozzi had told others that, during a deposition, Kosowski approached him in a restroom and “called him a scumbag” and “that he [Kosowski] was going to win,” Pillsbury said in court.<\/p>\n Those close to Cozzi began to worry about his safety.<\/p>\n Cozzi\u2019s husband, Michael Montgomery, had suggested arranging for “some kind of on-site security,” if Cozzi had to meet with Kosowski again.<\/p>\n Blood-spattered discovery<\/p>\n On March 21, 2023, Cozzi and Kosowski both were scheduled to attend a teleconference hearing at 10 a.m.<\/p>\n Before that, it was a normal Tuesday morning, Montgomery said. Cozzi brought him his morning coffee and they had a short conversation before he left for work. That was the last time he\u2019d see him.<\/p>\n About 10 minutes before the meeting, Cozzi left his phone, keys, wallet, and other items on his desk and went to the office restroom.<\/p>\n He never showed up for the scheduled teleconference.<\/p>\n NEW CALIFORNIA LAW EXPANDS DNA TOOLS FOR MISSING PERSONS INVESTIGATIONS<\/a><\/p>\n Later, Cozzi\u2019s boss entered the restroom and found spattered blood, court records show.<\/p>\n Security footage from the day Cozzi disappeared shows a subject arriving in a silver Toyota Tundra around 8:30 a.m. The prosecution alleges it was Kosowski.<\/p>\n A man wearing dark gloves entered the building where Cozzi worked carrying a box “large enough to conceal a human body,” according to investigators.<\/p>\n Steven Cozzi vanished in Florida. Tomasz Kosowski was charged with his murder. (Largos Police Department)<\/p>\n At 10:22 a.m., the same man exited the building pulling a wagon covered with a reddish orange blanket.<\/p>\n The man could be seen struggling with the weight of the cart while pulling it to the truck, records show.<\/p>\n SIGN UP TO GET THE LATEST TRUE CRIME NEWS<\/a><\/p>\n That day, the Tundra was driven to Kosowski\u2019s home in Tarpon Springs, Florida, videos pieced together from multiple surveillance cameras showed, according to court records.<\/p>\n On the way, the truck passed a Flock camera that captured an image of “a red bag or blanket in a cart that appeared to contain what resembles a human body located in the bed of the truck,” according to arrest records.<\/p>\n Two days later, investigators arrived at Kosowski\u2019s home with a search warrant and found the Tundra in the garage with blood in the truck bed, on the driver\u2019s side headrest, on the driver\u2019s side floorboard and on the garage floor.<\/p>\n Cozzi\u2019s DNA was found in the Tundra and Kosowski\u2019s garage floor, court records show.<\/p>\n SEND US A TIP<\/a><\/p>\n In the search of Kosowski\u2019s vehicles, investigators found a ballistic vest with a “substantial amount” of blood on it. They also found one iPhone and a “burner phone”\u2013\u2013the term for an inexpensive, prepaid device meant to be discarded.<\/p>\n Law enforcement officials also found a vest meant to be worn by a medical first responder, sheriff’s office patches, a foldable bike, a gas can, $282,000 in cash, two passports and black, industrial-sized garbage bags.<\/p>\n Investigators also found a black duffel that the prosecution has called “a murder bag.” Inside, there were lighters, a Taser, scissors, brass knuckles, a crowbar, ski masks and a Guy Fawkes mask.<\/p>\n LISTEN TO THE NEW ‘CRIME & JUSTICE WITH DONNA ROTUNNO’ PODCAST<\/a><\/p>\n The bag also contained a syringe, a needle and a vial of succinylcholine, a paralytic drug. It was labeled in a way that connected it to Kosowski\u2019s plastic-surgery office in Miami.<\/p>\n Surprising maneuvers caught on video<\/p>\n After Kosowski was arrested, police informed him they\u2019d be searching his body to collect possible DNA and fingernail clippings, and would be taking photographs of him, the prosecution said.<\/p>\n After that, camera footage from inside the patrol car shows Kosowski struggling to bring his hands from behind his back, underneath his feet and up to his face.<\/p>\n He then began to “meticulously suck on each of his fingers,” a member of the prosecution team told the judge.<\/p>\n GET BREAKING NEWS BY EMAIL<\/a><\/p>\n “He’s using his tongue and getting up underneath it and slurping. He’s using his teeth almost as a nail file, trying to destroy any trace of evidence that might bring him back to Steven Cozzi.”<\/p>\n The prosecution argues that Kosowski began planning the killing long before he allegedly murdered Cozzi.<\/p>\n Authorities say Steven Cozzi was killed at this law office in Florida. (Google Maps)<\/p>\n More than a month before the attorney\u2019s disappearance, Kosowski allegedly visited Cozzi\u2019s home without his knowledge and photographed a car in the carport, according to the prosecution team.<\/p>\n Kosowski also visited Blanchard Law Firm where Cozzi worked. He drove around the building and took photos multiple times before Cozzi\u2019s disappearance, the prosecution has alleged.<\/p>\n FOLLOW THE FOX TRUE CRIME TEAM ON X<\/a><\/p>\n In early March 2023, Kosowski began searching Cozzi and Montgomery online, seeking information about their wedding and records about previous and current addresses, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n An employee of the building that housed the Blanchard Law Firm told investigators that a week before Cozzi\u2019s disappearance, she found a man in a mask hiding in the office utility closet.<\/p>\n Suspicious, she asked him why he was there, court records show. He told her it was because of a power outage and walked away.<\/p>\n She watched him leave in a grey Toyota Tundra, investigators said.<\/p>\n Fingerprints matching Kosowski\u2019s were later found in that closet.<\/p>\n Investigators never found Cozzi\u2019s body.<\/p>\n Searching for Cozzi<\/p>\n On the day Cozzi disappeared, Kosowski\u2019s cellphone was allegedly tracked traveling toward his second home in Miami. He pulled off on a dirt road in South Florida near the Everglades where there\u2019s a dumpster, court records show.<\/p>\n Records of his cellphone\u2019s location show he returned to the dumpster two days later, the prosecution alleges. The team argues that Kosowski returned to the garbage collection container to see if it had been emptied.<\/p>\n Law enforcement later investigated the dumpster and a K-9 trained in human detection alerted on it, indicating the presence of human remains. But a body was not found.<\/p>\n Investigators tracked down the garbage truck driver who collected that dumpster on his route. He remembers that day.<\/p>\n “It was a smell that he had never experienced,” a member of the prosecution team told the court.<\/p>\n “He described that smell as vile. He had to crush the trash back in his garbage truck so many times, because the stench was so overwhelming\u2013\u2013and this is someone who is a garbage truck driver.”<\/p>\n The day he drove that load, the garbage truck driver stopped at a store to buy air freshener because he “could not stand the scent that was in his nose while he was driving around,” the prosecution said.<\/p>\n That smell was “Steven’s body decaying in the Florida heat for two days.”<\/p>\n Video captured by a camera mounted on the garbage truck captured the load from the dumpster tumbling into the truck. That footage shows “a lot of black industrial-sized garbage bags, similar to the ones that Dr. Kozowski had in the trunk of his car,” a prosecution team member told the judge.<\/p>\n Video shown in court shows bags falling into the truck that are “consistent with a human body,” the prosecution team said.<\/p>\n Law enforcement officers visited the landfill where the garbage truck dumped that load, but it was more than a week after it was deposited.<\/p>\n By that time, more than 6,000 tons of compacted garbage had been piled atop the load.<\/p>\n GOT A TIP?<\/a><\/p>\n Still, in an attempt to recover the body of Cozzi, they sifted through the landfill for days, officers testified in court.<\/p>\n “His hearse was a dump truck, and his burial site\u2026 is at the Collier County Landfill,” a prosecutor told the court.<\/p>\n The prosecution team has called dozens of witnesses to testify before Judge Joseph Bulone.<\/p>\n In July 2025, a written plea of not guilty was submitted by an attorney representing Kosowski at the time. In that plea, he requested a trial by jury.<\/p>\n More than a year later, on Aug. 31, Kosowski told the court he\u2019d changed his mind and wanted a judge to decide his fate.<\/p>\n His trial<\/a>began on Sept. 14.<\/p>\n![\"Tomasz](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/tomasz-kosowski.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Steven](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/steven-cozzi.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Blanchard](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/blanchard-law-office.jpg\")
<\/p>\n