Did plastic surgeon murder lawyer in a petty dispute?

Ana Garcia (0:00)

A word of warning. This podcast explores graphic and disturbing stories and includes some strong language. It therefore may not be suitable for our young listeners or other folks who may find it disturbing. Hello and welcome to True Crime News, The Podcast, covering high profile and under the radar cases from across the country every week. I'm your host, Ana Garcia. Our case this week, how do you get justice in a murder case when the accused, a former plastic surgeon, makes a mockery of the trial by not just representing himself, but giggling when he sees surveillance video of himself.

The surgeon who is now on trial is accused of killing an attorney who was opposing counsel in a civil dispute. The last time the attorney was seen alive, he was going into the men's room of his law office. Police say they found his blood, but they have never found his body.

We are recording this on Friday, September 18th of 2026 Our guest today is Dr. Nicky Ali Jackson, a professor of criminal justice at Purdue University Northwest. She also runs an amazing program there for the great work of exonerating people who have been wrongly accused. And she's a true crime commentator and a dear friend of the show. Nicky, welcome back. How are you?

Dr. Nicky Ali Jackson (1:18)

Good. How are you, Ana? It's great to see you again.

Ana Garcia (1:20)

Good to see you. Always good to see you.

Well, I mean, when you want to talk about Nutty, this guy is Nutty. He's created a circus in the courtroom. And it angers me because at the end of the day, we have a man who's been murdered and a life has been taken. And all the attention is on this lunatic. And, you know, once again, he gets all the attention, all the resources and how in the world are we going to arrive at and on top of it, this is a case in which the death penalty will be considered. And he's representing himself.

Dr. Nicky Ali Jackson (2:00)

Yeah, it's pretty peculiar.

He has a constitutional right to do so. But yeah, it's pretty bizarre. This entire case is bizarre.

Ana Garcia (2:11)

Very bizarre, very bizarre. So this case is out of Largo in Pinellas County, Florida, where a former plastic surgeon is acting as his own attorney in a death penalty trial. He is accused of killing an attorney who was working opposite him in a civil lawsuit. Now, this happened in 2023 is when the murder took place, and the attorney's body has never been found. The victim in this case is 41-year-old attorney, Steven Cozzi, last seen going into the men's room of his law building, a one-story building, you know, the kind of building you see all the time in Florida, not one of those high-rise attorney buildings. The accused here is 47-year-old Tomasz Kosowski. He is a former plastic surgeon who is potentially facing the death penalty here. Now, he had three different attorneys, sets of attorneys, either they quit or he fired them, and now he has decided to represent himself. And he has chosen a bench trial instead of a jury trial, which means one judge will decide everything in this case. Now up until day four of the trial, he was not even cross-examining any of the witnesses put forth by the prosecution. All of a sudden yesterday, he woke up and he decided to cross-examine a DNA expert and a digital forensic expert from the FBI.

You know, all I do is sit there and watch the deputy assigned to him who sits behind him.

That man's face says it all. Yeah. Right?

Dr. Nicky Ali Jackson (3:58)

He's doing his job. I mean, I actually was watching him like, wow, he's really doing his job and he's trying to be fair. And remember, you know, this is an ongoing trial and people have that presumption of, you know, not being guilty until the verdict has been read. And I think that deputy is doing what he's supposed to be doing. But yeah, I can't even imagine being that deputy sitting behind him.

Ana Garcia (4:25)

Oh, I know. The things that must be going through his head. And yes, absolutely. You are presumed innocent. And of course, we've never found the body of the attorney. And so yesterday, when Tomasz was questioning the two experts, he kept saying, but what happened to Steven? You know, basically saying, you don't know. Nobody knows where Steven is.

Look, I don't think he's doing himself any favors here.

And we don't even think that he's presenting a defense because the previous attorneys who had represented him, they have expressed to news reporters that he didn't want him, that Tomasz didn't want to mount a defense. I don't know what that means. What that just means what? You put your case on and hopefully the judge will decide there's not enough evidence here.