Tomasz Roman Kosowski is an Ivy League-educated doctor with advanced degrees in business and the sciences and a career as a plastic surgeon.
He’s also a criminal defendant, accused of murdering a lawyer who’d faced him in a contentious lawsuit. He’s accused of killing Steven Cozzi in the men’s room of a Clearwater law office, then toting his body to his truck and disposing of it in a remote dumpster.
The doctor’s case, if not his life, is a study in contradictions. Highly intelligent and once regarded as a pioneer in his field, Kosowski, 47, shunned assistance from lawyers as state prosecutors aim to send him to death row.
In court, Kosowski asserted he doesn’t have a death wish, yet he told a judge he wants nothing presented that might weigh against capital punishment. He wants the judge, not a jury, to decide if he’s guilty and whether he should die.
As his trial starts Monday morning, much of what is already widely known about Kosowski’s alleged crimes will likely be rehashed in detail.
More obscure will be the story of the man himself — and how a once-promising physician became suspected of a sinister murder plot.
He went from humble beginnings to the Ivy League
Kosowski’s backstory is the stuff of American lore. He was born in Poland, and his parents brought him to the U.S. in the early 1980s to escape Cold War-era oppression in their native country. They settled near Kansas City, Kansas.
In 1986, the Kosowskis were the focus of a lengthy feature published in the Kansas City Times. “The New Neighbors” was a three-page spread that chronicled the immigrant family’s assimilation to their new home.
The story featured several photos of young “Tommy Kosowski.” A portrait showed him standing with his parents, clutching a miniature American flag. Other images depicted the bright-eyed boy blowing soap bubbles, playing with other children and sitting beside a nun at All Saints Catholic School.
He spoke no English when his family arrived and was confused by American customs, the newspaper reported. He didn’t know what to do when his classmates rose to say the Pledge of Allegiance. He communicated with other children through hand signals.
The boy learned quickly. By middle school, he was a regular name on the honor roll.
He continued to excel academically in high school when his family relocated to Albuquerque, New Mexico. At the University of New Mexico, he earned a degree in music with a focus on classical guitar. In his senior year, he performed a recital alongside Joe Williams, a fellow guitar student.
Williams, reached by the Tampa Bay Times by phone in 2024, said he didn’t know Kosowski well. But more than 20 years later, he remembered a kid with a “giant smile” who enjoyed “nerding out about the guitar.”
Kosowski left New Mexico with double bachelor’s degrees in music and biochemistry and a master’s in molecular biology. He earned a scholarship to Dartmouth College’s Geisel School of Medicine.
In 2007, Kosowski, clad in a suit and tie, stood alongside five other medical scholars on the lawn in front of Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business for the cover of an alumni book. He earned an MBA there along with his medical degree. He completed plastic surgery fellowships in New York, Atlanta and at the Miami Breast Center before stints at clinics in South Florida and Orlando.
None of his fellow medical students, all of whom are now doctors, responded to calls for comment for this story. Nor did any of his early medical colleagues.
In 2016, Kosowski joined the Laufer Institute of Plastic Surgery in Dunedin.
A news release touting the hire described Kosowski as an expert in facelifts and a “pioneer in the use of native fat for breast and buttock enhancement.”
He was, the release stated, “a man who understands the art and science of the human body and how to redefine beauty for each and every patient.”
A medical practice, a heated lawsuit and a murder
As his career blossomed, Kosowski advertised his work on his personal Instagram page. It evoked a startling juxtaposition — portraits and videos of the doctor and glowing patient reviews appeared beside images of people having fat sucked from their bodies and skin pulled away from their flesh. Some pictures are so graphic, the social media platform blurs them out.
In 2018, Kosowski bought a 6,600-square-foot home on a quiet, narrow street just south of Fred Howard Park in Tarpon Springs. The house had a pool and a dock that stretched into the Gulf of Mexico. The purchase price was close to $1 million, records show. Kosowski lived there alone with his dachshunds, Rigby and Gibson.
A year later, he filed a lawsuit against Laufer and some of its employees.
The case was rooted in complicated claims of medical billing errors for surgeries Kosowski performed. The complaint referenced an earlier lawsuit in which a patient alleged the doctor botched her breast surgery. That case was eventually dismissed, according to the complaint. But the resulting negative online reviews, the doctor said, had harmed his professional reputation.
Attorneys filed the case for Kosowski, but the doctor ended up litigating it himself.
Steven Cozzi represented one of the defendants. Beloved by those who knew him, he was described as “sweet,” quiet and caring. He never had problems getting along with others.
Cozzi, 41, worked for Blanchard Law, a small firm specializing in business litigation, bankruptcies and contract disputes. He worked out of a small office park on Belcher Road in Largo.
He and other attorneys who’d dealt with Kosowski felt the doctor’s claims were baseless. They complained in court that papers he filed made no sense and flouted rules.
Kosowski accused Cozzi of forging documents, arguing over dates that appeared on patient invoices. He tried to get a judge to throw Cozzi off the case.
Reports of Kosowski’s antics began to worry those closest to Cozzi. At home, he’d told his partner about Kosowski’s behavior, referring to him as the “crazy doctor.” His partner encouraged him to carry pepper spray and to hire security for the next time they met.
Jacob Pillsbury, another attorney, represented one of the defendants. In pretrial testimony in the murder case, he described a January 2023 deposition in which tensions reached a fever pitch.
Kosowski wanted to question Tricia Mason, a Laufer employee. The testimony happened at Cozzi’s law office.
When the doctor came in, his demeanor was friendly, Pillsbury later testified. Kosowski asked the witness about her family. Then, when the deposition started, his tone became aggressive, Pillsbury said.
His inquiries were “confusing” and “a mess,” the lawyer said. Over Pillsbury’s frequent objections, Kosowski relentlessly questioned Mason on subjects about which she knew little.
“I mean, he spent three hours beating up this lady who had very little information to give him,” Pillsbury said. “And re-asking the same questions he asked of every witness. And asking the same questions over and over and over.”
During a break, Cozzi went to the men’s room. Kosowski followed.
The doctor confronted the attorney. He called him a “scumbag,” according to court testimony. He said something to the effect of “I’m going to win,” or “I’m going to take you down.”
Cozzi showed up for work the morning of March 21, 2023. He had a telephonic court hearing scheduled with a judge in Kosowski’s lawsuit at 10:30 a.m. that day.
Kosowski called in. Cozzi did not.
Minutes earlier, surveillance video showed a Toyota Tundra pulling into the parking lot outside the Blanchard law office. Kosowski had bought the truck the previous December for $26,000 in cash. He had never registered it, according to court records. It bore an expired New Jersey license plate registered to a car whose owner was dead.
A person was seen in the video dragging a cart into the building. The same figure later emerged, towing a large object draped in a blanket, back to the truck.
Investigators later assembled a digital evidence trail that placed Kosowski’s phone at the law office at the time Cozzi disappeared. The lawyer’s DNA was found in the back of his truck.
Detectives traced Kosowski’s phone signal south to Miami. Along the way, the signal registered near the intersection of U.S. 41 and Loop Road east of Naples.
Dogs trained to detect the smell of human remains alerted to a dumpster at that stop. A garbage truck had emptied the dumpster days earlier. The driver remembered a “vile” smell, court records state.
Cozzi’s body was never found.
Kosowski has maintained his innocence. Since his arrest, he’s been confined to the Pinellas County Jail, where he’s had a few periodic visitors, records show. His mother is among the most frequent. She did not return a phone call seeking comment for this story. Jail records show he attends Catholic religious services.
The doctor has cycled through several criminal defense attorneys, all leaving the case amid unspecified conflicts.
Last month, he told Judge Joseph Bulone he wanted to represent himself at trial. He said he believed it was in his best interest. When Bulone asked why, Kosowski smirked.
“I really have to answer that?” he said.
“I guess not,” the judge replied.
Times staff writer Alexa Coultoff contributed to this report.
