How’s this for trashy behavior?
An Ivy League-educated plastic surgeon who is repping himself as he faces the death penalty for murder stunned a courtroom when he asked the prosecutor in his case: “Can you step into the trash bag for us?”
Tomasz Kosowski, 47, is accused of executing attorney Steven Cozzi, 41, in the toilet at his law office in Clearwater, Florida, and disposing of the body in a dumpster near the Alligator Alley highway in March 2023.
He denies first-degree murder, has chosen to represent himself pro-se after several attorneys and public defenders withdrew from the case — and he has waived his right to a jury trial, opting for judge Joseph Bulone to decide his fate instead.
In one of many bizarre exchanges at the Pinellas County Justice Center on Wednesday, Kosowski objected when Assistant State Attorney Nathan Vonderheide asked a forensic analyst about trash bags that were found in his vehicle.
“Before we move on, you mentioned something about capacity. How tall are you, Mr. Vonderheide?” Kosowkski asked.
The visibly flustered prosecutor responded, “I don’t know what you’re suggesting,” before judge Bulone asked Kosowski, “Do you have a legal issue you’d like to bring up?”
“Well, I mean, capacity,” the defendant replied. “They’re obviously hinting that you could probably hide a body in there, right? So, I mean, can you step into the trash bag for us?”
Judge Bulone denied the request and Kosowski did not cross-examine the witness when it was his turn to do so –– only beginning to ask his first questions Thursday after dozens of prosecution witnesses had already taken the stand.
The body of Cozzi –– who had represented defendants in a medical billing lawsuit Kosowski filed against his former employer –– has never been found despite several major searches.
The attorney seemingly vanished into thin air, leaving behind his phone, keys, and car at his office.
Prosecutors claim that Polish-born Kosowski, who graduated from Dartmouth Medical School, methodically planned his killing due to resentment over the litigation and carried it out on the morning of March 21, 2023.
Video surveillance footage shows someone walking into the Blanchard law office where Cozzi worked carrying a large box shortly after 8:30 a.m., according to the prosecution.
At around 10:22 a.m., the video shows someone who prosecutors say appears to be Kosowski wheeling a heavy wagon out of the building and struggling to pull it onto a gray Toyota Tundra truck.
Investigators found Cozzi’s blood on the men’s bathroom floor of the law office, and also on paper towels and in the drain.
A mix of Kosowski’s DNA and Cozzi’s blood was also allegedly found on the outside of the bathroom door.
The pair were due to take part in a phone-in court hearing at 10:30 a.m. that morning and Kosowski called in but Cozzi did not.
When he was arrested four days later on March 25, 2023, prosecutors claim he had a “murder bag” in his car containing a Guy Fawkes mask, ski masks, a Taser, brass knuckles, scissors, a crowbar, a syringe and a vial of the paralyzing medication succinylcholine.
Video of his arrest played in his trial Tuesday showed Kosowski sucking on his fingers while handcuffed in the back of a police vehicle after an officer had told him that a warrant would be produced to allow for him to be swabbed for DNA.
Kosowski “immediately started meticulously kind of scraping his fingernails on his teeth to clean them and to suck on his fingers and cuticles before the body warrant is able to be served,” Largo Police Department detective Jerry Hunt told the court.
The trial is expected to last until early next week.
