Man Who Won $10 Million Lottery Prize Sentenced To Life In Prison For Fatal Shooting

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.

Hill won $10 million from a scratch-off ticket in August 2017, local news outlets reported.

At that time, CBS affiliate WECT described Hill as a nuclear power plant worker and said he intended to use his lump-sum winnings of over $4,159,000, after taxes, to pay off bills and help his wife's business.