A former plastic surgeon who represented himself in a capital murder trial was found guilty of first-degree murder Wednesday — and the swiftness of the verdict shows exactly what happens when the accused faces the full weight of the state without competent counsel.
Tomasz Kosowski, 47, was convicted of murdering lawyer Steven Cozzi, who vanished from his law firm's bathroom on March 21, 2023, and has never been found. Kosowski waived his right to both a jury and an attorney, leaving Pinellas County Judge Joseph Bulone as the sole fact-finder. After closing arguments, Bulone took a 15-minute break and returned with a guilty verdict.
Kosowski is no street-corner indigent — he holds advanced degrees, including a medical degree from Dartmouth, and had represented himself before in civil litigation. But expertise in medicine isn't expertise in criminal defense, and a system that lets a man stake his life on his own legal skills is the same system that assigns overworked public defenders to defendants who can't afford any lawyer at all.
Prosecutors built their case over six days, presenting surveillance video, DNA evidence, and testimony about Kosowski's fixation with Cozzi. KABC-TV reported prosecutors described Kosowski as having a "malicious and personal obsession" with the lawyer, who was representing defendants Kosowski had sued in a billing dispute. Cozzi disappeared after leaving an email draft open and music playing from his phone — he never came back to his desk.
Kosowski presented no defense. In a 20-minute closing argument, he argued the state hadn't proved first-degree murder, pointing to the absence of a body or death certificate and mocking the prosecution's theory as physically impossible.
"Now, I committed this murder in a common area, in the bathroom, in the middle of a busy office complex," Kosowski said, speaking in the first person. "No one heard a thing. No one saw anything, despite there being people literally 10 to 20 feet within that bathroom."
He called the state's disposal theory superhuman and illogical. The judge was unmoved.
Robin Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, told CNN that self-representation in capital cases is "very rare and never advisable." "Most examples of pro se representation in capital cases have ended with convictions and death sentences," Maher said.
Kosowski also waived his right to counsel and a jury for the penalty phase, which began Wednesday afternoon. He faces life without parole or death. The state is seeking execution.
Kosowski had the education and resources to hire counsel. He chose not to. But for every defendant who makes that choice, there are thousands who have no choice at all — warehoused in a public defender system so underfunded that "counsel" often means a stranger reading your file five minutes before arraignment. The Constitution promises the right to counsel. Whether it promises counsel that can actually fight is another question entirely.
