A North Carolina man who won a $10 million lottery prize in 2017 was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole on Friday, according to The News and Observer.
The outlet reported that Michael Hill was convicted of first-degree murder for the 2020 shooting death of Keonna Graham.
The 15th Prosecutorial District of North Carolina said that Graham was found dead in a hotel room with a “gunshot wound to the back of the head” after she was reported missing in June 2020, according to The News and Observer.
Graham, 23 years old at the time of her death, was reportedly in a relationship with the then 52-year-old Hill for over a year, according to The News and Observer.
Hill was arrested in July 2020 and the 15th Prosecutorial District of North Carolina said he later “confessed to shooting Graham after she had been texting other men,” according to The News and Observer.
Hill previously described losing his breath when he won the $10 million dollar Ultimate Millions prize on his second lottery attempt, according to the North Carolina Education Lottery.
Michael Todd Hill was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced Friday in the killing of 23-year-old Keonna Graham of Navassa. Hill won a $10M lottery prize in 2017. https://t.co/yzWBnpDaVN
— ABC11 EyewitnessNews (@ABC11_WTVD) May 31, 2022
The News and Observer reported that Hill lived in Brunswick and was an employee at a nuclear power plant at the time of his 2017 win. (RELATED: Man With Winning Lottery Ticket Worth $45,000 In His Wallet Turns Up Dead On Beach)
Hill will serve an additional “22-36 months in Prison for Possession of Firearm by Felon to run concurrent with his life sentence,” officials said, according to the outlet.
A Canadian man won the lottery twice between October 2020 and September 2021 and a California woman claimed she lost a $26 million lottery ticket in the laundry in May of 2021.
