A North Carolina man who won $10 million on a scratch-off ticket in 2017 was sentenced on Friday to life in prison for fatally shooting his girlfriend years later.
In July 2020, Michael Todd Hill, 54, killed Keonna Graham, 23, at the SureStay Hotel in Shallotte. Graham was reported missing before she was found deceased in the hotel room with a gunshot wound to the back of her head.
WCNC reported that Graham was lying in the hotel room bed when Hill shot her. Surveillance footage showed Hill being the only person with Graham in the hotel room at the time of the murder.
Hill and Graham had been in a relationship for more than a year. Hill eventually confessed to killing Graham because she was texting other men while in the hotel room.
Reports indicated that Hill was working for a power plant when he won the lottery.
A jury convicted Hill of first-degree murder and possession of a firearm by a felon. The gun possession sentence will run concurrently with the life sentence for Graham’s first-degree murder. Hill is not eligible for parole.
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[Featured image: Michael Hill/North Carolina Lottery; Keonna Graham/WWAY video screengrab]
