CLEARWATER, Fla. - After a little more than a week of testimony, Judge Joseph Bulone has found Tomasz Kosowski guilty of killing Largo attorney Steven Cozzi in 2023.
Tomasz Kosowski murder trial
What we know:
Former plastic surgeon Tomasz Kosowski waived his right to a jury trial and represented himself against first-degree murder charges in the death of Largo attorney Steven Cozzi.
Cozzi disappeared from the Blanchard Law office on March 21, 2023, leaving his phone, keys and wallet at his desk during a civil lawsuit where he represented defendants sued by Kosowski over a bad online review and medical billing dispute.
Missing attorney search
What we don't know:
Investigators have not recovered the body of Steven Cozzi. Cell phone records showed Kosowski's phone pinged near a dumpster off the Tamiami Trail, which was hauled to a Collier County landfill on March 23, 2023, but a three-day search of the site yielded no results.
Civil case background
The backstory:
Tensions between Kosowski and Cozzi escalated months before the disappearance during a contentious civil lawsuit stemming from a medical billing dispute. During a January 2023 deposition at the law office, witnesses said Kosowski confronted Cozzi in the bathroom, called him a scumbag and said he would win in the end.
A week before Cozzi vanished, employees at a neighboring business found Kosowski hiding in an electrical closet at the complex. Officers responded after employees discovered a torch lighter and a box containing a wagon identical to the one seen on surveillance video the day Cozzi disappeared.
Surveillance video showed someone wheeling a heavy wagon out of the law firm to a Toyota Tundra truck, which was later tracked to Kosowski's Tarpon Springs home. Detectives found Cozzi's blood in the law firm's bathroom, inside the truck, on Kosowski's garage floor and inside the car Kosowski drove when officers arrested him with $280,000 in cash, brass knuckles, a paralyzing agent and a ballistic vest stained with Cozzi's blood.
Tomasz Kosowski verdict
What's next:
Kosowski faces sentencing by Judge Joseph Bulone. Kosowski declined to present witnesses or testify on his own behalf after the judge denied his motion for a judgment of acquittal. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.
The Source: The information in this story was gathered from testimony presented during the bench trial before Judge Joseph Bulone, as well as evidence presented by prosecutors and law enforcement officers investigating the case.