A Man Won $10M In The Lottery & Now He's Going To Jail For First Degree Murder

The lottery money won't get him out of jail.

Michael Todd Hill winning the lottery. Right: Hill's mugshot.

Michael Todd Hill winning the lottery. Right: Hill's mugshot.

NC Education Lottery | YouTube, Shallotte Police Department
Global Staff Writer

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Winning the lottery might seem like the answer to many of life's problems, but a 2017 lotto winner will now spend the rest of his life behind bars for a crime committed after he hit the jackpot.

North Carolina resident Michael Todd Hill won $10 million in the North Carolina Education Lottery back in August of 2017, but his life has taken a turn since.

Hill, 54, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole this week, after his girlfriend was fatally shot in 2020.

Hill was recently convicted of first-degree murder in the death of his 23-year-old girlfriend Keonna Graham, who went missing on July 20, 2020, reported the News Observer.

According to the 15th Prosecutorial District of North Carolina, she was eventually found dead with a "gunshot wound to the back of the head" at SureStay Hotel in Shallotte.

The two had dated for over a year before her murder.

A news release by the prosecutors confirmed that "surveillance footage from the hotel showed Hill as the only individual in the hotel room with Graham."

"Hill was later arrested by law enforcement in Southport, North Carolina and confessed to shooting Graham after she had been texting other men while at the hotel."

The jury found him guilty of first-degree murder on May 27. He also pleaded guilty to a firearm charge.

A YouTube video posted by the North Carolina Education Lottery channel shows Hill holding his $10 million check with his then-partner in 2017.

He was a nuclear plant worker at the time he won the lottery.

The woman recording the video asked him to recall his reaction when he won the lottery, to which Hill responded all he thought was "thank you, God."

"It's a new day for us," said Hill in the video.

He added in the video that he planned to pay off some bills and invest in his then-wife's business.

  • Sameen Chaudhry (she/her) was a Toronto-based Staff Writer for Narcity's Global Desk. She has a Bachelor of Arts and Science from the University of Toronto, where she majored in political science and philosophy. Before joining Narcity, she wrote for 6ixBuzzTV, covering topics like Toronto's music scene, local real estate stories, and breaking news.

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