FL v. Tomasz Kosowski

Tomasz Kosowski, a plastic surgeon, was tried for his life in Pinellas County, Florida, on a charge of first-degree murder in the death of attorney Steven Cozzi. On September 23, Judge Joseph Bulone found him guilty of first-degree murder as charged. The judge found two aggravating factors proven beyond a reasonable doubt, financial gain and a killing that was cold, calculated and premeditated, and found a third, that it was especially heinous, atrocious or cruel, not proven. He has not been sentenced yet. Sentencing set for November 20. The judge alone will decide between death and life without parole.

Steven Cozzi was the lawyer representing the corporate clients and medical institute Kosowski had sued for money, and Cozzi vanished in March 2023, weeks before Kosowski was set to lose that case. He has not been seen since. No body has ever been recovered, which meant the state had to prove a killing happened at all, with no crime scene and no remains, before it could prove who did it. Kosowski has been in the Pinellas County Jail since his arrest that same month.

The missing body was only part of what made this trial unlike almost any other on this channel. Kosowski fired four separate defense teams, one after another, and chose to represent himself, with two of those former attorneys staying on only as standby counsel. Then he waived his right to a jury, for both the guilt phase and the penalty phase. There was no jury box in this courtroom. Judge Joseph Bulone alone decided whether the state had proven a murder with no body, and he alone will decide whether Kosowski lives or dies.

We were never here to convict him or to acquit him. We watched whether the state could carry a burden this heavy, in front of one judge instead of twelve jurors, against a defendant with no lawyer standing between him and the death penalty. The judge found that it did. Start with the background report below, then go through the whole trial with us.