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Dr. Tomasz Kosowski, a former Miami plastic surgeon, was convicted of first-degree murder.<\/p>\n
CBS News Miami<\/p>\n
A former Miami plastic surgeon was found guilty on Wednesday of murdering a lawyer involved in a bitter lawsuit that the surgeon filed against his former employer.<\/p>\n
Dr. Tomasz Kosowski, 47, was convicted of the first-degree murder of 41-year-old Steven Cozzi, an attorney who vanished from his Pinellas County law office on March 21, 2023. Cozzi\u2019s body has never been found.<\/p>\n
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Steve Cozzi, a Tampa-area lawyer Miami-Dade Police Department <\/p>\n
Kosowski elected to represent himself and waived his right to a jury trial, opting to have a judge determine his guilt or innocence. Kosowski is facing the death penalty.<\/p>\n
During the trial, prosecutors said Kosowski was obsessed with Cozzi \u2014 and his fixation drove him to plot the slaying. Cozzi and Kosowski crossed paths in 2019, when the surgeon sued the Tampa Bay-area plastic-surgery center where he once worked. Cozzi represented the center.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis man methodically and systematically planned out … this murder for months in advance,\u201d prosecutors said in closing arguments. \u201c… The trail led [police] to his house.\u201d<\/p>\n
The day of Cozzi\u2019s disappearance, police got a call that Cozzi had left his office but left behind his wallet, keys and cellphone. His car was still parked at the office\u2019s lot, and no one saw him leave.<\/p>\n
\u201cDuring the investigation, there was a strong chemical odor in the men\u2019s bathroom of the office and small drops of blood,\u201d police said. \u201cA subsequent forensics investigation revealed a significant amount of blood in the same bathroom.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kosowski, prosecutors theorized, killed Cozzi with succinylcholine, a fast-acting drug that paralyzes muscles, and threw his body in a Collier County dumpster during a drive to Miami. Kosowski had access to the medication through his employment as a plastic surgeon.<\/p>\n
READ MORE: He was a Miami cosmetic surgeon. Now, he\u2019s accused of murdering a missing lawyer<\/a><\/p>\n Shortly after Cozzi vanished, Kosowski fell onto police\u2019s radar due to a suspicious person and car spotted at the law office. After hitting his home with a search warrant, police arrested Kosowski. The Miami-Dade and Collier County sheriff\u2019s offices assisted Largo Police with the murder investigation.<\/p>\n During the trial in the Tampa area, prosecutors pointed out that Kosowski repeatedly researched Cozzi and, days before the murder, looked up succinylcholine and its effect on the human body. When police searched the surgeon\u2019s truck, they found a \u201cmurder kit\u201d with vials of the drug, syringes, duct tape and a crowbar, among other items.<\/p>\n Life or death?<\/p>\n In court, Cozzi\u2019s husband, Michael Montgomery, detailed how meeting Cozzi in 2018 changed his life \u2014 and how losing him has pained him since his disappearance. Cozzi\u2019s parents also delivered victim-impact statements as the judge began to weigh whether Kosowski should be condemned to Florida\u2019s Death Row or spend the rest of his life in prison.<\/p>\n \u201cAs painful as those daily reminders are, the most unbearable part is that we were never able to bring Steven home,\u201d Montgomery said in between sniffles. \u201cI cannot describe the horrors this has brought me, and all of Steven\u2019s loved ones.\u201d<\/p>\n After the judge found Kosowski guilty, the surgeon said he did not intend on presenting evidence to spare himself from the death penalty. He also said he didn\u2019t want an attorney to represent him during those proceedings either.<\/p>\n The judge found that Cozzi\u2019s murder was cold, calculated and premeditated and committed for financial gain, which makes Kosowski eligible for the death penalty. The judge said he could not find that the slaying was heinous, atrocious or cruel because it\u2019s unclear exactly how the surgeon killed Cozzi.<\/p>\n A lawyer was appointed \u2014 not to represent Kosowski \u2014 but to provide the judge with evidence of mitigating circumstances, such as details of a defendant\u2019s background and life history that can reduce the severity of the punishment. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that judges must consider such evidence before issuing a death sentence.<\/p>\n The judge will determine Kosowski\u2019s sentence following a hearing on Oct. 8.<\/p>\n This story was originally published September 23, 2026 at 7:10 PM.<\/p>\n
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