Accused Killer Kosowski Stays Unrepresented as Lawyer Seeks to Withdraw From Case

Court records indicate the latest attorney appointed to defend accused murderer Tomasz Kosowski is asking the judge to dismiss her from the case.

If the defense attorney's motion is granted, this would be the fourth legal team to drop representation for Kosowski.

The 45-year-old plastic surgeon is charged with the capital murder of Pinellas County attorney Steven Cozzi in 2023.

Kosowski was initially set to go to trial in May 2025, but faced delays due to the four attorneys on his defense team withdrawing from counsel just weeks before jury selection was scheduled to take place. The lawyers told the judge that "an ethical conflict of interest precludes them from any further representation" of Kosowski, according to their motion filed with the Pinellas County court.

Judge Joseph A. Bulone granted the motion and gave Kosowski time to find another attorney.

When Kosowski appeared in court on May 28, the judge appointed a public defender to represent him. That public defender then filed a motion to withdraw from counsel, citing "an ethical conflict...which precludes the further representation of the Defendant," court records state.

The court was informed that the public defender's office as a whole would likely not be able to take on Kosowski's case without conflict, so the judge appointed regional counsel to represent him.

On June 5, the court-appointed regional counsel filed a motion asking the judge to withdraw because the attorney had previously represented someone listed as a witness for the prosecution.

Judge Bulone granted the motion on June 10 and appointed a private attorney to represent Kosowski. This attorney was chosen from a list maintained by the Clerk of Court, containing names of private attorneys who would be willing to step in and represent defendants when no other options exist.

That attorney also filed a motion to withdraw from the case on June 16, stating their caseload is very busy through the rest of the year and that it would be in the "best interest" of Kosowski that he be appointed another attorney on the list that can handle such cases.

A pre-trial hearing scheduled for June 25 would likely address the most recent motion to dismiss, and the judge will have to decide whether to force the private attorney to stay on the case, appoint a different attorney to the case or force Kosowski to represent himself.

The case against Kosowski

Investigators allege that Kosowski had ongoing and increasing tensions with Pinellas County attorney Steven Cozzi, who was representing people Kosowski was suing over billing issues at a plastic surgery office.

Those tensions allegedly culminated in violence on March 31, 2023, just before the two were scheduled to attend a hearing over Zoom regarding the legal battle. Instead, Cozzi's colleague called the police that day to report blood in the office bathroom and that Cozzi's office looked like he had disappeared without a trace.

Court documents claim surveillance video shows Kosowski entering the law office that morning before Cozzi got there, and leaving hours later with a wagon that appeared to have something heavy in it covered by a tarp.

Just over an hour later, officers from the Largo Police Department arrived to find the blood in the bathroom, as well as Cozzi's computer unlocked, displaying an unfinished email and his phone on his desk, still playing music.

Prosecutors say the evidence collected in this case includes alleged Google searches about a paralytic agent, DNA matches for Cozzi's blood in Kosowski's car, and cell phone data placing Kosowski at the scene of the crime.

Detectives believe that after murdering Cozzi, Kosowski placed his body in a dumpster in the Everglades on the way to his Miami home. Cozzi's remains have never been found.

On March 25, 2023, Tarpon Springs police arrested Kosowski as he returned from Miami to his Tarpon Springs home and found multiple items, according to an affidavit, including a ballistic vest, a taser, multiple firearms, passports and a burner phone.

Remembering Steven Cozzi

Steven Cozzi had been an Associate Attorney at Blanchard Law, P.A. for roughly five years, according to his LinkedIn. He was a Stetson University College of Law graduate.

"He radiated kindness, sincerity, empathy and genuine nature, and he believed steadfastly in justice and that the law was a positive force in the world if utilized and implemented as it was originally intended," Steve Maggi, a local attorney who knew him, wrote .

On May 12, Cozzi's family and friends gathered for a Celebration of Life, honoring what would have been his 42nd birthday.