Florida
Doctor charged with murder in lawyer disappearance
A Tampa-area plastic surgeon has been charged with murder, accused of killing a lawyer missing since last week from a firm that represents former co-workers the doctor has been suing in a business dispute.
Largo police arrested Dr. Tomasz Kosowski on a first-degree murder charge on Saturday in the disappearance of Steven Cozzi, who was last seen Tuesday at Blanchard Law, the firm where he worked.
Police said Sunday that while Cozzi’s body has not been found, they have evidence that he was killed by Kosowski.
They said Cozzi’s wallet, phone and keys were found in the law office along with a significant amount of blood in the bathroom. They say a suspicious person and car were seen at the office, leading them to Kosowski. A search of the doctor’s Tarpon Springs home found evidence that led to his arrest, police said. They did not elaborate.
Kosowski, 44, who goes by “Dr. K,” was being held without bail on Sunday at the Pinellas County Jail. Court and jail records do not indicate if he has hired an attorney.
Blanchard Law has been representing Kosowski’s former employer and co-workers in a lawsuit he filed against them four years ago and is ongoing. Jake Blanchard, the firm’s principal partner, did not immediately respond Sunday to an email and phone message seeking comment.
In the lawsuit, Kosowski said he began working for Laufer Institute of Plastic Surgery in 2016, mostly doing breast reconstruction surgery. He said the woman Laufer Institute assigned to do his insurance billing didn’t file claims and lied to his patients, costing him tens of thousands of dollars and resulting in negative reviews of him to be posted online.
“Dr. K’s promising young career has essentially been obliterated” by the woman’s actions, Kosowski lawsuit says. “Through no fault of his own, his career was put directly in jeopardy and his reputation has been deeply tarnished.”
He left Laufer Institute in 2018 and had set up his own practice. Laufer Institute did not immediately return a call seeking comment Sunday.
Tennessee
Prosecutors seeking death penalty in Memphis shootings
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Prosecutors said Monday that they will pursue the death penalty if a Tennessee man is convicted of first-degree murder in a daylong shooting rampage in Memphis that left three people dead and three others wounded.
The announcement by Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy came during a press conference in the case of Ezekiel Kelly, who has been charged in a series of shootings last year that led to a citywide shelter-in-place order and a frantic manhunt.
Kelly, 20, was charged with murder in the deaths of Dewayne Tunstall, Richard Clark and Allison Parker. He has pleaded not guilty.
At least three witnesses saw Kelly shoot Tunstall during a gathering at a Memphis home at about 1 a.m. on Sept. 7, according to a police affidavit. Clark and Parker were shot later that day, as Kelly was driving around Memphis, livestreaming some of his activities, authorities said.
Police said three other people were wounded in the shootings. An indictment also charges Kelly with attempted first-degree murder and more than 20 other alleged offenses, including reckless endangerment with a deadly weapon, commission of an act of terrorism, theft of property and evading arrest.
Kelly’s lawyer did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
Kelly carjacked at least two vehicles and he was arrested after crashing a stolen car while fleeing police, authorities said.
The shootings led to the shutdown of Memphis’ public bus system, the lockdown of two college campuses and the cessation of a minor-league baseball game.
Relatives have told The Associated Press that Parker was a mother of three who worked as a medical assistant at a clinic in nearby West Memphis, Arkansas.
Clark worked as a campus safety officer at Christian Brothers University after retiring from a career as a corrections officer.
California
Jailbreak mastermind sentenced for daring escape
SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — A man serving a life sentence for kidnapping and mutilating a marijuana dispensary owner was given an additional sentence Friday for masterminding a daring, elaborate escape from a Southern California jail.
Hossein Nayeri, 44, was sentenced to the maximum of two years and eight months in state prison for the Jan. 22, 2016, escape from the Orange County Men’s Central Jail in Santa Ana and for stealing a van while on the run.
Nayeri and two other men used smuggled tools to cut through the half-inch bars on a metal grate in their maximum-security dorm cell, then climbed through plumbing shafts within the walls to reach the roof, where they rappelled down five stories using a rope made of bed linens, according to authorities and a cellphone video shot by Nayeri.
The men then kidnapped a 72-year-old unlicensed tax driver at gunpoint and forced him to drive them away at gunpoint, prosecutors said.
Over five days, the man drove the fugitives around as they fled, stopping at various motels as they took his car and a stolen van hundreds of miles north to San Jose, prosecutors said.
One escapee, Bac Tien Duong, later feared that the driver would be killed and fled with him back to Southern California, authorities said.
Nayeri and Jonathan Tieu were arrested the next day in San Francisco after a man recognized them from media reports, prosecutors said.
The taxi driver testified at Nayeri’s trial and credited Duong with saving his life. Nayeri was convicted last week of the jailbreak and stealing the van but acquitted of kidnapping, a charge that carried a potential life sentence.
Duong was convicted of escape and kidnapping in 2021 and sentenced to 20 years in prison. Tieu is awaiting trial for the escape, prosecutors said.
At the time of his jailbreak, Nayeri was awaiting trial on charges that he and two friends kidnapped, tortured and mutilated a marijuana dispensary owner in 2012. The owner and a woman acquaintance were kidnapped from a Newport Beach home because the robbers falsely believed he had buried $1 million in the Mojave Desert, prosecutors said.
He was beaten with rubber piping, shocked with a Taser, burned with a blowtorch and finally his penis was cut off before the robbers fled, prosecutors said. The money was never found.
Nayeri fled to Iran. But he was later caught in the Czech Republic and extradited. In 2020, he was given two life sentences without the possibility of parole for kidnapping and a consecutive seven-year term for torture.
Nayeri’s co-defendants also were convicted.
Wisconsin
Woman accused of homicide, dismemberment ruled fit for trial
GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) — A woman accused of killing and dismembering a man in Wisconsin is competent to stand trial, a court ruled Friday.
Judge Thomas Walsh issued the ruling and set a July 21 start date for Taylor Schabusiness’ trial in Brown County Circuit Court, WLUK-TV reported.
Schabusiness, 25, is charged with first-degree intentional homicide, mutilating a corpse and third-degree sexual assault in the killing of Shad Thyrion, 25, in February 2022.
Authorities say she strangled Thyrion at a home in Green Bay, sexually abused him and dismembered his body, leaving parts of him throughout the house and in a vehicle.
Schabusiness has pleaded not guilty and not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect. She is being held on a $2 million cash bond.
A competency report commissioned by prosecutors that was completed last fall deemed Schabusiness fit for trial.
In February, she attacked her attorney during a hearing moments after Walsh agreed to her lawyer’s request for an additional two weeks for a defense expert to review her competency.
A deputy wrestled Schabusiness to the floor of the courtroom, which was then cleared before the hearing resumed.
New York
Jonathan Majors arrested on assault charge
NEW YORK (AP) — The actor Jonathan Majors was arrested Saturday in New York on charges of strangulation, assault and harassment, authorities said. On Sunday, an attorney for Majors said there’s evidence that he is “entirely innocent.”
New York City police said that Majors, star of the recently released “Creed III” and “Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania,” was involved in a domestic dispute with a 30-year-old woman. Police responded around 11 a.m. Saturday to a 911 call inside an apartment in the Manhattan neighborhood of Chelsea.
“The victim informed police she was assaulted,” a spokesperson for the NYPD said in a statement. “Officers placed the 33-year-old male into custody without incident. The victim sustained minor injuries to her head and neck and was removed to an area hospital in stable condition.”
A representative for Majors denied any wrongdoing by the actor.
“He has done nothing wrong,” the representative said in an email to the AP on Saturday. “We look forward to clearing his name and clearing this up.”
On Sunday, an attorney for Majors, Priya Chaudhry, came out more forcefully, saying Majors “is provably the victim of an altercation with a woman he knows” and blamed the incident on the woman having “an emotional crisis.”
Chaudhry said there was evidence clearing Majors, including “video footage from the vehicle where this episode took place, witness testimony from the driver and others who both saw and heard the episode, and most importantly, two written statements from the woman recanting these allegations.”
An email seeking additional comment from the NYPD based on Chaudhry’s assertions was not immediately returned Sunday.
Majors was arraigned Sunday on a complaint involving misdemeanor charges for assault and aggravated harassment, the Manhattan district attorney’s office said. A judge ordered Majors released on his own recognizance on Saturday night with a limited order of protection. He was scheduled to appear in court on May 8.
In the meantime, the U.S. Army suspended its TV ad campaign featuring Majors that was intended to target younger audiences. The Army Enterprise Marketing Office said in a statement Sunday that the U.S. Army is “deeply concerned by the allegations surrounding his arrest.”
“While Mr. Majors is innocent until proven guilty, prudence dictates that we pull our ads until the investigation into these allegations is complete,” the office said in a statement.
Majors is one of the fastest rising stars in Hollywood. After breaking through in 2019’s “The Last Black Man in San Francisco,” Majors has starred in “Da 5 Bloods,” “The Harder They Fall” and last year’s “Devotion.” He also stars in the recent Sundance Film Festival entry “Magazine Dreams,” which Searchlight Pictures is to release in December.
