A Florida judge has found former plastic surgeon Tomasz Kosowski guilty of first-degree murder over the disappearance and presumed killing of Largo lawyer Steven Cozzi in 2023.
Judge Joseph Bulone delivered the verdict in Clearwater on Wednesday, 23 September, after a bench trial lasting just over a week. Kosowski had waived his right to a jury and represented himself in court.
Cozzi disappeared from the Blanchard Law office in Largo on 21 March 2023. His phone, keys and wallet were left behind while he was working on a civil case involving people Kosowski had sued over an online review and a medical billing dispute.
Tomasz Kosowski murder trial
Prosecutors presented evidence from 56 witnesses before resting their case on Tuesday. They argued that Cozzi was attacked in a bathroom at the law firm before his body was removed in a heavy wagon.
Security footage showed a person wheeling the wagon from the office to a Toyota Tundra. Investigators later traced the vehicle to Kosowski’s home in Tarpon Springs.
Blood attributed to Cozzi was found in the bathroom, inside the truck and on the garage floor at Kosowski’s property. Detectives also found blood in the car he was driving when he was arrested, along with $280,000 in cash, brass knuckles, a paralysing agent and a ballistic vest bearing Cozzi’s blood.
The case was built without the discovery of Cozzi’s remains. Investigators said mobile phone records placed Kosowski near a dumpster off the Tamiami Trail, which was emptied and taken to a Collier County landfill two days after the disappearance. A three-day search produced no body.
Kosowski’s phone was also recorded near the law office around the time Cozzi vanished. Prosecutors said the evidence showed a planned killing, while Kosowski used his cross-examination to challenge investigators’ account of how the wagon could have been moved.
The two men had been involved in a bitter civil dispute before Cozzi disappeared. Witnesses told the court that, during a deposition in January 2023, Kosowski confronted the lawyer in a bathroom, called him a “scumbag” and said he would ultimately prevail.
A week before the disappearance, employees at a neighbouring business reported finding Kosowski hiding in an electrical cupboard. Officers later recovered a torch lighter and a box containing a wagon similar to the one seen in the surveillance footage.
After the prosecution case ended, Kosowski asked for a judgment of acquittal. Judge Bulone rejected the motion, after which Kosowski declined to call witnesses or give evidence himself.
Kosowski will now face sentencing before Judge Bulone. Prosecutors have filed notice that they intend to seek the death penalty.
