Once an Ivy League-educated plastic surgeon, Tomasz Kosowski spent Monday clad in orange jail clothes, sitting alone at a wooden table in a Pinellas courtroom as prosecutors argued that he murdered a Largo lawyer in 2023.
This isn’t the first time Kosowski, 47, has represented himself in court. He decided to become his own counsel three years into a medical billing lawsuit he filed against his former employer in 2019. Steven Cozzi represented most of the defendants.
On Monday, witnesses detailed the growing aggression Kosowski harbored toward Cozzi as the lawsuit dragged on.
In March 2023, the lawyer disappeared from his office and was never heard from again.
His keys, phone and wallet were left on his desk. His laptop was open to an unfinished email. His boss found blood in the bathroom and bleach stains on the wall.
A combination of surveillance footage, license plate snapshots, phone records and equipment found in his car led to Kosowski’s arrest.
It took more than two years for Kosowski to get to trial because several private attorneys and assistant public defenders withdrew from his case, citing conflicts of interest that were not disclosed. Two lawyers were appointed last July and represented Kosowski until he asked to dismiss them in August.
At his last hearing before the trial, Kosowski asked to waive a jury. The case will be decided solely by Pinellas Judge Joseph Bulone, who listened intently to testimony on opening day.
If Bulone finds Kosowski guilty as charged, he will also decide whether to sentence him to death or life in prison.
Cozzi ‘was everybody’s friend,’ loved ones said
Most of the witnesses who took the stand Monday were close with Cozzi. Moments of humor came naturally when they shared memories of him.
Michael Montgomery, Cozzi’s husband, said they were “pretty close to inseparable” after they met in 2018. They married two years later.
He smiled when recalling how his husband would force them to watch “Grey’s Anatomy” together and brought him coffee in bed every morning.
He knew Cozzi was having trouble with Kosowski. In January 2023, Cozzi texted him from work and wrote that “the f—ing doctor called him a scumbag” in the bathroom during a break in a deposition, Montgomery said.
Montgomery said he gave him a pepper spray keychain to carry. On the last morning he saw his husband, Cozzi brought him coffee and gave him a kiss like he always did. He left chicken breast in the sink to defrost for dinner.
He was wearing jeans and a red cardigan, which Assistant State Attorney Alexandra Spadaro showed in a clip from the home’s surveillance video. A photo of Cozzi walking into the Blanchard Law firm is the last image anyone has of him.
A few hours later, Montgomery said, the law office’s legal assistant texted him and asked whether he took Cozzi out to lunch.
“It seemed really odd to me,” Montgomery said. “He also brought his lunch, so it didn’t make any sense.”
He put their two puppies in their crate and ran out the door.
When he went into his husband’s office, Montgomery said, it “looked like he had just stepped away.”
Spadaro projected pictures of Cozzi’s desk with his phone, car keys and wallet laid out. She also showed a photo of his car in the parking lot.
Jake Pillsbury, an attorney who represented the one defendant Cozzi didn’t, said he admired the lawyer’s easygoing demeanor.
He testified that Kosowski made “completely unwarranted, inappropriate” claims about Cozzi and asked for him to be removed from the case. He said Kosowski “was always the aggressor” during hearings.
Cozzi also texted Pillsbury about Kosowski calling him a “scum bag.”
When Cozzi didn’t call into a hearing in the lawsuit on March 21, 2023, Pillsbury texted him to tell him what he missed.
He sent him another text at 9:57 p.m., expressing concern after hearing the news of his disappearance.
“I knew he was gone, and I was very worried about him at that point,” Pillsbury said. “I never got another text from him.”
Jake Blanchard hired Cozzi in 2017 after meeting him at a networking event. He quickly became his mentee and best friend, he said on the stand.
As Blanchard spoke of Cozzi’s character, he took off his glasses to wipe away tears.
“He was everybody’s friend,” he said. “He would tell people he was an introvert, but once he started talking, you could tell he did drama in high school.”
When he peeked into Cozzi’s office to say good morning on the day of his disappearance, Cozzi was getting ready for the hearing in Kosowski’s case, which was scheduled for 10:30, Blanchard said.
The next time Blanchard stopped by, shortly after 10 a.m., Cozzi wasn’t in his office, he said. He texted him and didn’t hear back.
“I was worried and sick to my stomach,” he said.
He went into the bathroom and saw blood on the door. He smelled bleach or some kind of chemical and called 911, he said.
Prosecutors played the audio of the emergency call. As they listened, Cozzi’s family in the gallery put their heads in their laps. Blanchard began to cry.
“He got up to go to the bathroom and he’s gone and I can’t find him,” Blanchard told the operator. “There’s like blood in the bathroom but I can’t find him. We don’t know what happened to him.”
Prosecutors also projected photos of the law firm’s bathroom. There were blue bleach spots on the wall of the restroom stall, which Blanchard said were not there before. Blood streaks were on the base of the toilet.
Rebecca Leigh Watters, a paralegal at Blanchard Law, said the day Cozzi went missing, the two had plans to go to Wendy’s after the hearing.
Every morning, Watters said, she would come into work and head to Cozzi’s office, where he would pet her corgi, Molly, and talk about the day ahead.
When Molly began stirring around her office and whining shortly after 10 a.m., Watters said, “something felt off.”
That’s when she and Blanchard went to look for Cozzi and found blood in the bathroom.
All four of the witnesses said Kosowski was the only suspect who came to mind. They described Cozzi as someone who didn’t have problems with anyone.
When Kosowski was arrested five days later, police found a bloodied ballistic vest, duct tape, a paralyzing agent, syringes with sedatives, brass knuckles, a Taser and nearly $300,000 in cash in his car, court records state. Cozzi’s DNA was also found in the trunk.
On Monday afternoon, prosecutors called a few workers from other offices in the building who shared their own memories of the strong smell of chemicals and the panic of a lawyer asking where Cozzi was.
Kosowski sat quietly at the defense desk the entire day, occasionally running his thumb along his chin or bearing a slightly amused expression. He declined to cross-examine any of the witnesses.
Prosecutors plan to present digital and forensic evidence in the coming days. The trial is expected to conclude next week.
