A fact-focused timeline of the civil dispute, the March 21, 2023 disappearance, the investigation, and the pretrial record through the eve of the September 2026 trial.

The Case, Without the Spectacle

On the morning of March 21, 2023, attorney Steven Cozzi arrived at the Largo office where he worked, sat down at his desk, and began an ordinary workday. Shortly before 10:00 a.m., he walked toward the men’s restroom. He never returned. His keys, wallet, phone, laptop, and tablet remained at his desk. His vehicle was still outside. A work file was open, and an email appeared unfinished.

What followed became one of the Tampa Bay area’s most closely watched criminal cases: a prosecution without a recovered body, built on surveillance video, blood and DNA evidence, digital-location data, evidence recovered from two vehicles and a home, and the history of a bitter civil lawsuit. The accused, plastic surgeon Tomasz Roman Kosowski, has pleaded not guilty. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

The case is extraordinary, but it should not be reduced to its strangest courtroom moments. At its center is Cozzi, a 41-year-old lawyer whose family, husband, friends, and colleagues have waited more than three years for answers. Those who knew him described him as brilliant, kind, funny, and deeply committed to helping people. His husband, Michael Montgomery, said Cozzi ‘genuinely loved the law’ and ‘loved fighting for the little guy.’

Who Were Steven Cozzi and Tomasz Kosowski?

Steven Cozzi was an attorney at Blanchard Law in Largo. He represented parties defending a civil action brought by Kosowski against Kosowski’s former employer and others associated with the Laufer Institute of Plastic Surgery. The legal work placed Cozzi across the table from Kosowski, but it was still exactly that: legal work performed on behalf of clients.

Kosowski was a plastic surgeon who had left the Laufer Institute in 2018. In 2019, he filed a civil lawsuit alleging that billing failures and related conduct had cost him money and harmed his professional reputation. Kosowski represented himself in that litigation for at least part of the case. Prosecutors now contend that the dispute supplied a motive for premeditated murder. That is the State’s theory, not a fact that has yet been established by a verdict.

The Civil Case and the Alleged Escalation

Court filings describe what the State characterizes as an increasingly hostile relationship. Prosecutors point to the following events as evidence of motive and planning:

• December 26, 2022: According to a detective’s affidavit, Kosowski bought a gray Toyota Tundra for $26,000 in cash and did not register it in his name.
• December 28, 2022: Kosowski filed a motion in the civil case seeking, among other things, to remove Cozzi from the matter.
• January 17, 2023: He filed another motion seeking sanctions and Cozzi’s disqualification, according to the affidavit.
• January 26, 2023: According to the detective’s affidavit, Kosowski confronted Cozzi during a deposition at Blanchard Law in the same restroom later identified as the alleged crime scene, called him a ‘scumbag,’ and said he would ‘win in the end.’
• February and early March 2023: Prosecutors say Kosowski photographed or recorded locations connected to Cozzi, including the law-office parking area, and searched for personal information about him.
• March 14, 2023: An employee at another business in the building reported finding a masked man hiding in a dark electrical closet. The man left in what appeared to be a Toyota Tundra with a yellow plate. A box containing a blue collapsible wagon remained in the closet.
• March 17, 2023: Investigators say Kosowski’s phone connected to the Wi-Fi at Blanchard Law.

Investigators also reported purchases of collapsible carts, duct tape, a license-plate flipper, and a knife that was not recovered. Standing alone, a purchase may be innocent. The prosecution asks the court to consider these purchases together with the visits, searches, vehicle evidence, and events of March 21.

March 21, 2023: The Critical Morning

The most important sequence in the case is measured in minutes. The times below come primarily from the detective’s affidavit and the surveillance evidence summarized in court filings.

Time	Reported event
About 7:51 a.m.	A neighbor’s camera allegedly recorded the gray Toyota Tundra leaving the area of Kosowski’s Tarpon Springs residence.
8:32 a.m.	A gray Toyota Tundra entered the parking lot at 1501 South Belcher Road in Largo.
8:34 a.m.	A man wearing gloves and carrying a large box entered the building.
8:37 a.m.	Cozzi entered the building and began his workday.
About 9:50 a.m.	Cozzi left his desk and walked toward the men’s restroom. He was not seen returning.
10:22 a.m.	Surveillance video showed a masked man leaving the building while pulling a heavily loaded wagon covered by a red or orange material.
10:30 a.m.	A telephonic hearing in the underlying civil case was scheduled. The State says Kosowski joined the hearing while his phone remained connected to a tower near the law office. Cozzi did not join.
11:05-11:16 a.m.	The man repositioned the wagon, changed shirts, returned briefly toward the building, and then drove away in the Tundra.
11:24 a.m.	A transit-bus camera captured the Tundra traveling north with a large red or orange bag or container visible in its bed.
About 11:46 a.m.	Largo police were dispatched for a welfare check after Cozzi’s absence and blood in the restroom were reported.
About 11:58 a.m.	A neighborhood camera allegedly showed the Tundra returning toward Kosowski’s home, with the covered wagon still visible.
Late afternoon	A red Toyota Corolla associated with Kosowski left the area. Investigators later developed a theory that evidence was transferred from the Tundra to the Corolla.
About 9:36 p.m.	A license-plate reader captured the Corolla near Tamiami Trail in Ochopee, in the vicinity of a dumpster that later became central to the search for Cozzi.

What Investigators Reported Finding

The restroom

The men’s restroom smelled strongly of cleaning products, according to the affidavit. Investigators reported visible blood and evidence that blood had been smeared or wiped. The affidavit describes blood on the floor, door, toilet, walls, drain, stall surfaces, and paper towels. It further reports that DNA testing linked multiple samples to Cozzi and that a mixture containing DNA associated with both Cozzi and Kosowski was found on the exterior bathroom door.

The Tundra and the Tarpon Springs home

Police executed a search warrant at Kosowski’s Tarpon Springs residence on March 23, 2023. The Tundra was in the garage. Investigators reported apparent blood in the truck bed and reactions consistent with blood on the garage floor. The affidavit says DNA testing connected Cozzi to samples taken from the Tundra and garage.

The Corolla and Kosowski’s arrest

On March 25, officers stopped Kosowski in his red Toyota Corolla. Police later searched the car. The detective’s affidavit describes more than $280,000 in cash, passports, masks, a stun gun, brass knuckles, duct tape, a crowbar, knives or cutting tools, law-enforcement patches, ballistic vests, syringes, and succinylcholine, a paralytic drug. Later prosecution filings characterized a collection of items as a ‘murder kit.’ That phrase is advocacy by the State, not an evidentiary finding by itself.

The affidavit further reports that one ballistic vest bore Cozzi’s blood and that DNA associated with Cozzi was found in the vehicles and garage. Investigators photographed cuts on Kosowski’s hands and bruising on parts of his body after he was detained. Kosowski’s explanation for, and legal challenges to, the evidence remained matters for the adversarial process.

The Search for Cozzi

Cozzi’s body has never been recovered. Cell-site evidence led investigators to a dumpster near U.S. 41 and Loop Road in the Ochopee area. According to the detective’s affidavit, a human-remains detection dog alerted at the dumpster, and video from a garbage truck appeared to show a long object wrapped in black trash bags falling into the truck. The material collected from that dumpster had already been compacted and transported to a Collier County landfill.

Law-enforcement teams searched the landfill for three days. The affidavit describes the practical difficulty of locating anything after multiple stages of collection, compaction, dumping, and movement. They did not recover Cozzi’s remains.

The absence of a body does not automatically prevent a murder prosecution. It does, however, make proof of death, criminal agency, identity, and premeditation especially dependent on the combined force of circumstantial, forensic, video, and digital evidence. The State must still prove every element beyond a reasonable doubt; the defense does not have to prove an alternative explanation.

From Arrest to the Eve of Trial: 2023-2026

• March 25, 2023: Kosowski was arrested and charged with first-degree murder. He was held without bond.
• April 27, 2023: A Pinellas County grand jury indicted him on one count of first-degree murder. The State filed notice that it intended to seek the death penalty.
• 2023-2026: The parties litigated extensive discovery and pretrial issues, including challenges involving search warrants, the indictment, forensic evidence, and the anticipated penalty phase. One defense filing stated that counsel had taken approximately 80 State-witness depositions by September 2024.
• 2026: After multiple changes in counsel, Kosowski elected to represent himself. The court appointed standby counsel. He also waived a jury, setting the case for a bench trial before Circuit Judge Joseph A. Bulone.
• September 14, 2026: Trial was scheduled to begin in Pinellas County. This article’s factual cutoff is the day before trial.

Self-representation does not lower the State’s burden or eliminate the defendant’s constitutional protections. A court must permit a competent defendant to make a knowing and voluntary choice to proceed without counsel, even when the decision appears unwise. Standby counsel may assist within the limits established by the court, but the self-represented defendant controls the defense.

A Lawyer Doing His Job

The legal profession is adversarial by design. Lawyers take positions, challenge claims, seek sanctions, defend clients, and sometimes become the visible face of a dispute they did not create. That role can attract anger, but representation is not personal combat. No lawyer should face violence for appearing in a case, conducting a deposition, or advocating for a client.

For lawyers following this case, the lesson is not to turn every difficult litigant into a presumed threat. It is to take escalation seriously: document threatening or fixated behavior; communicate concerns within the firm; preserve messages and surveillance; revisit building access and isolated spaces; coordinate with court security or law enforcement when facts warrant it; and avoid leaving one person to manage a known risk alone. Those steps cannot guarantee safety, but they create options before a tense situation becomes an emergency.

Most importantly, Steven Cozzi should be remembered as more than the name attached to a disturbing prosecution. He was a husband, son, friend, colleague, and lawyer whose loved ones describe a life of humor, intelligence, generosity, and service. The criminal case will decide whether the State has met its burden against Kosowski. It cannot restore what Cozzi’s family lost.

Where the Case Stood Before Trial

As of September 13, 2026, Kosowski remained charged with first-degree murder, had pleaded not guilty, and was being held without bond. The State continued to seek the death penalty. Trial was scheduled to begin the following day before Judge Bulone after Kosowski waived a jury and elected to represent himself with standby counsel available.

No court had found Kosowski guilty. The indictment was an accusation, and the State still bore the burden of proving every element beyond a reasonable doubt. This article intentionally ends before opening statements or the presentation of evidence. Brijbag Law can publish a separate trial summary after a verdict or sooner if a major development materially changes the case.

 

Sources and Further Reading

• Pinellas County court filing: Detective Colin Bolton’s affidavit in support of the Arthur hearing (July 7, 2023)
• Pinellas County court filing: State’s motion for jury view (August 31, 2026)
• FOX 13: Family and friends honor Steven Cozzi (March 30, 2023)

Legal disclaimer

This article is for general informational and educational purposes only. It is based on publicly available court filings and news reports current through the stated publication cutoff. It is not legal advice, does not create an attorney-client relationship, and should not be read as a prediction of the outcome. All defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.