Man who won $10M lottery prize sentenced to life in prison for murder
BOLIVIA, N.C. - A North Carolina man who won a $10 million lottery prize in 2017 has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in the 2020 fatal shooting of his girlfriend.
The News & Observer reports that Michael Todd Hill, 54, of Leland, was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced Friday in the killing of 23-year-old Keonna Graham of Navassa. Graham was reported missing on July 20, 2020. She was later found dead in a hotel with a gunshot wound to the back of the head.
In a news release from the 15th Prosecutorial District of North Carolina, prosecutors said surveillance footage from the hotel showed Hill was the only person in the room with Graham. They said Hill later confessed to shooting Graham after she had been texting with other men while at the hotel.
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A manager at the hotel said Hill checked into the room alone. A housekeeper later found Graham's body.
Three years before the murder, Hill won $10 million from a scratch-off ticket. After winning the prize, he then gave $2,000 to the cashier who sold him the ticket, according to WECT.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.