A man who won $10million on a scratch-off lottery ticket in 2017 was sentenced to life in prison for the fatal shooting of his girlfriend.
Michael Hill, 54, was sentenced Friday to life without the possibility of parole in the murder of Keonna Graham, his girlfriend of over a year, back in 2020.
Hill confessed to the murder, telling police he shot 24-year-old Graham in the back of the head while she slept after he found out she was texting other men.
Graham suffered a single gunshot wound to the back of the head. She was found by a maid inside a hotel room at the SureStay in Shallotte, North Carolina in July of 2020.
Surveillance footage showed that Hill was the only person in the hotel room at the time of Graham’s murder, according to a news release from the 15th Prosecutorial District of North Carolina.
He was arrested by police the following day and admitted to the crime, telling authorities he and Graham had been in a relationship for 18 months when he discovered she was talking to other men while they were together.
A jury deliberated for just an hour on Friday before finding Hill guilty of her murder. He was also sentenced to up to 36 months for possession of a firearm by a felon.
Hill first made headlines in 2017 when he won $10million of a scratch-off lottery ticket, according to .
He told local media at the time that he first had purchased a losing ticket before trying his luck on a second scratch-off game. When he checked his ticket he discovered his ‘life changing’ win.
‘I saw the one and then the zero and it still didn’t hit me,’ he told the NC Education Lottery at the time. ‘But then I saw the “M”. My heart dropped down to my toes and I lost my breath.’
Hill worked at a nuclear plant at the time of his lottery win. He was arrested for Graham’s murder in July 2020, when he was 52.
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