Pinellas Judge Finds Former Plastic Surgeon Guilty of Murdering Largo Attorney Steven Cozzi

A Pinellas County judge has found former plastic surgeon Tomasz Kosowski guilty of first degree murder in the 2023 death of Largo attorney Steven Cozzi, closing a trial that was unusual in nearly every procedural respect. Judge Joseph Bulone returned the verdict Wednesday after roughly a week of testimony and about 15 minutes of deliberation.

Kosowski represented himself throughout the proceeding, waiving his right to counsel, his right to a jury trial, and his right to a jury for the penalty phase. Self representation in a capital case is rare, and waiving a jury in a death penalty case is rarer still.

Cozzi's body has never been found. Prosecutors built the case over six days of testimony from dozens of witnesses, presenting evidence they argued established a premeditated killing carried out at the attorney's Largo office.

A hearing is scheduled for October 8, at which final arguments on sentencing are expected. Kosowski faces either life in prison without the possibility of parole or a death sentence, with the judge rather than a jury making that determination given the waivers.

The case prosecutors presented

According to prosecutors, the killing grew out of Kosowski's frustration with civil litigation in which Cozzi represented a medical clinic that Kosowski was suing. The state argued the motive was revenge arising from that dispute.

The evidence presented over six days included testimony that prosecutors used to reconstruct the events at the Largo law office, and the state's case was described in court coverage as detailing a violent attack.

Prosecuting a homicide without a body requires establishing death and criminal agency through circumstantial evidence. Courts have long permitted such prosecutions, and Florida has seen several, but they demand a more comprehensive evidentiary presentation than cases where remains are recovered.

The defense was conducted by Kosowski himself. A defendant who represents himself in a capital trial faces the practical difficulty of cross examining witnesses, making evidentiary objections and preserving issues for appeal without legal training.

The decision to self represent

The Sixth Amendment right to represent oneself was established by the Supreme Court in Faretta v. California in 1975. A trial court must conduct a colloquy confirming that the defendant understands the risks and is making a knowing and voluntary choice.

Courts generally appoint standby counsel in serious cases, an attorney available to assist if the defendant requests help or if the court needs to reinstate representation. Whether and how standby counsel was used here would appear in the trial record.

Legal observers have consistently found that self represented defendants fare worse than those with counsel, particularly in complex cases. The disadvantage is structural rather than a matter of intelligence, since trial practice is a specialized skill.

Waiving a jury adds another layer. A bench trial removes the possibility of a single juror holding out, which in a capital case is the mechanism that most often produces a life sentence rather than death under Florida's current law.

Florida's death penalty framework

Florida changed its capital sentencing law in 2023, reducing the jury vote required to recommend a death sentence from unanimous to eight of 12. That change made Florida's threshold among the lowest in the country.

When a defendant waives a jury for the penalty phase, the judge determines whether aggravating circumstances outweigh mitigating circumstances. The statute enumerates aggravating factors, and the defense may present mitigation of any kind.

The October 8 hearing is where that weighing occurs. Both sides will present argument, and mitigation evidence, if any is offered, would typically address background, mental health and circumstances the defense argues warrant a life sentence.

Any death sentence in Florida receives automatic review by the Florida Supreme Court. That review examines both the conviction and the proportionality of the sentence, and it is mandatory rather than dependent on the defendant filing an appeal.

The underlying dispute

The relationship between the two men originated in civil litigation. Kosowski was suing a medical clinic, and Cozzi was the attorney representing that clinic, placing them on opposite sides of a dispute over professional and financial matters.

Civil litigation between professionals rarely escalates to violence, and the prosecution's theory required establishing that this dispute had become a sustained personal grievance rather than an ordinary legal disagreement.

Cozzi practiced in Largo, a Pinellas County city between Clearwater and St. Petersburg. His disappearance in 2023 prompted an extensive investigation, and the absence of remains has remained a defining feature of the case.

For the Pinellas legal community, the case carried an additional dimension. An attorney killed in connection with his representation of a client raises questions about safety in a profession where lawyers routinely deal with people in conflict.

How Florida homicide cases proceed

A first degree murder charge in Florida follows a sequence. An arrest is made on probable cause, a grand jury returns an indictment, the defendant is arraigned, pretrial motions are litigated, and the case proceeds to trial if it is not resolved by plea.

Prosecutors must file notice of intent to seek the death penalty within a statutory period after arraignment. That notice changes the case's trajectory, triggering additional procedural protections and typically extending the timeline substantially.

Cases of this complexity commonly take years from arrest to trial, and this one followed that pattern, with the 2023 death producing a 2026 verdict.

Post conviction proceedings extend further. Direct appeal is followed by state post conviction motions and potentially federal habeas review, a sequence that in capital cases routinely spans a decade or more.

What happens on October 8

The hearing is for final arguments ahead of sentencing. The state will argue for the sentence it seeks, and the defendant, representing himself, will have the opportunity to respond.

Victim impact evidence is permitted in Florida capital sentencing, allowing family members to describe the effect of the crime. That evidence is considered within the statutory framework rather than as a freestanding aggravating factor.

The judge is not required to rule at the hearing and may take the matter under advisement, issuing a written sentencing order that sets out the aggravating and mitigating circumstances found and the weight assigned to each.

Written findings matter for appeal. Florida law requires the sentencing court to articulate its reasoning in a capital case, and the sufficiency of those findings is a recurring issue on review.

Prosecuting a case without a body

Homicide prosecutions where remains are never recovered are legally permissible but evidentiarily demanding. The state must prove that the victim is dead and that the death resulted from a criminal act, both without the physical evidence a body ordinarily provides.

Prosecutors typically build such cases from circumstantial evidence: the abrupt cessation of the victim's normal activity, financial and phone records showing no further use, forensic evidence at a scene consistent with violence, and the defendant's own conduct before and after the disappearance.

Florida courts have upheld convictions in cases of this type, and appellate opinions have addressed the sufficiency of circumstantial evidence to establish the corpus delicti, the legal requirement that a crime be shown to have occurred before a defendant can be convicted of committing it.

Juries and judges weigh such cases differently in practice, and a bench trial removes the dynamic in which a single juror unwilling to convict without a body produces a hung jury. That is one of the consequences of the waiver in this case.

What the case means for Pinellas courts

The Sixth Judicial Circuit covers Pinellas and Pasco counties and handles a substantial felony docket. A capital trial consumes court resources well beyond an ordinary felony case, occupying a courtroom and a judge for weeks.

The procedural posture here reduced some of that burden. A bench trial requires no jury selection, which in a capital case can itself take weeks because prospective jurors must be questioned individually about their views on the death penalty.

The self representation added complexity in other ways. Courts managing a self represented defendant in a capital case must balance the defendant's autonomy against the need for a record that will survive appellate scrutiny.

The trial judge's handling of those issues will be examined on review. Appellate courts scrutinize waiver colloquies closely in capital cases, and the adequacy of the warnings given is among the most commonly litigated issues in such appeals.

Capital appeals in Florida

Every death sentence in Florida receives automatic review by the Florida Supreme Court, which examines the conviction and the proportionality of the sentence without requiring the defendant to initiate the appeal.

Following direct appeal, a defendant may file a motion for post conviction relief in the trial court raising claims that could not be presented on direct appeal, most commonly ineffective assistance of counsel. A defendant who represented himself faces a complicated version of that claim.

Federal habeas corpus review follows the exhaustion of state remedies, subject to the procedural limitations Congress imposed in 1996. The combined sequence routinely spans well over a decade.

A life sentence follows a different path. Direct appeal is available, and post conviction motions can be filed within statutory deadlines, but the mandatory review and the extended federal litigation that characterize capital cases do not apply.

What is next

Sentencing following the October 8 hearing is the immediate step. The outcome will be either life without parole or death, with no other option available for a first degree murder conviction in Florida.

Appeal follows in either case. A defendant who represented himself at trial commonly receives appointed counsel on appeal, and issues arising from self representation, including the adequacy of the waiver colloquy, are frequently raised.

The search for Cozzi's remains has not produced a recovery. Families in cases without remains face an indefinite absence of resolution that a verdict does not address.

For the Pinellas State Attorney's Office, the conviction closes the trial phase of a case built without a body and tried against a self represented defendant in a capital proceeding, a combination of circumstances that will make the record worth study regardless of the sentence.