Man who won $10 million lottery prize gets life sentence in woman’s NC shooting death

A North Carolina man who scored a $10 million lottery prize is now convicted of first-degree homicide.

In August 2017, Michael Hill stated he purchased a non-winning ticket earlier than deciding to strive his luck on one other scratch-off recreation. When he checked the brand new ticket, he found his “life altering” jackpot win.

“I noticed the one after which the zero and it nonetheless didn’t hit me,” he instructed the N.C. Schooling Lottery on the time. “However then I noticed the ‘M’. My coronary heart dropped right down to my toes and I misplaced my breath.”

Years after the large win, Hill has been sentenced to jail in a lady’s taking pictures dying. Prosecutors in a Might 27 information launch didn’t checklist lawyer info for him.

The girl — 23-year-old Keonna Graham — was reported lacking on July 20, 2020. Later, she was discovered useless with a “gunshot wound to the again of the top,” in response to the fifteenth Prosecutorial District of North Carolina.

The girl reportedly had been in a relationship with Hill for greater than a 12 months earlier than her physique was found on the SureStay Resort in Shallotte, roughly 40 miles southwest of Wilmington.

“Surveillance footage from the lodge confirmed Hill as the one particular person within the lodge room with Graham,” prosecutors wrote of their information launch. “Hill was later arrested by regulation enforcement in Southport, North Carolina and confessed to taking pictures Graham after she had been texting different males whereas on the lodge.”

Hill labored at a nuclear plant and lived in Brunswick County on the time of his lottery win. He was 52 years outdated when he was arrested and charged with homicide in July 2020, McClatchy Information reported.

Then on Might 27, a jury discovered Hill responsible of first-degree homicide. He was ordered to serve “life in jail with out the opportunity of parole and 22-36 months in jail for Possession of Firearm by Felon to run concurrent along with his life sentence,” officers stated.

“The District Legal professional’s Workplace wish to thank our native regulation enforcement companies for his or her collaborative efforts within the investigation of Graham’s dying,” Assistant District Legal professional Shirley Smircic stated within the prosecutors’ information launch. “The arduous work of those officers ensured a simply outcome on this case.”