Michael Todd Hill was found guilty of first-degree murder in the fatal shooting of his girlfriend, 23-year-old Keonna Graham, who police said he admitted to killing after she had allegedly texted other men.
A North Carolina man who struck it big when he won $10 million playing the lottery in 2017 has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in the 2020 murder of his girlfriend, officials said.
Michael Todd Hill, 54, was found guilty of first-degree murder in the fatal shooting of his girlfriend, 23-year-old Keonna Graham, who was reported missing on July 20, 2020, the News & Observer reported. She was later found dead in a hotel with a gunshot wound to the back of her head, authorities said.
Surveillance footage from the hotel showed Hill was the only person in the room with Graham, who Hill later confessed to shooting after he claimed she had allegedly texted other men, the 15th Prosecutorial District of North Carolina said in a news release obtained by CBS News.
Graham was found by maid staff lying on her stomach on the left side of a bed inside a room at the SureStay Hotel in Shallotte, WECT-TV reported in 2020. An investigative report from the autopsy obtained by the news station said she was sleeping prior to the fatal shooting.
Hill was taken into custody the day after Graham’s body was discovered.
On Friday, he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole and 22 to 36 months in prison for possession of firearm by felon to run concurrent with his life sentence, the News & Observer reported.
In August 2017, Hill won $10 million on a scratch-off lottery ticket. Hill elected to take a lump-sum of his winnings, which amounted to $4,159,101 after taxes. Hill was working at a nuclear power plant when he won the lottery, WECT-TV reported at the time.
