A LOTTERY winner flipped his life upside down following his $10million win, but his life changed in a way he did not see coming.
Michael Todd Hill from North Carolina won the jackpot from a scratch card in 2017.
Just five years later, he was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
In 2022, Hill, 54, was convicted by a jury of first-degree murder in the fatal shooting of his girlfriend Keonna Graham, 23, in 2020.
Hill was also sentenced to an additional 22-36 months in prison for possession of a firearm, which will run concurrently with his life sentence.
Graham's mother reported her missing in July 2020.
She was found dead with a bullet wound to the back of the head in a SureStay Hotel by Best Western in the town of Shallotte, near the South Carolina border.
According to prosecutors, surveillance footage from the hotel showed that Hill was the only person in the room with Graham.
She had checked into the room on her own, and housekeeping found her body the following morning.
Hill confessed to shooting her while she slept because she was messaging other men.
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The pair had been together for approximately a year and a half before Graham's murder, and the autopsy noted that they had domestic struggles before.
Hill was arrested and charged with murder in July 2020.
In a statement sent to Oxygen, District Attorney John David made a warning about lottery winners and their behavior.
He said: "Michael Hill joins a long list of former lottery winners whose life veered towards a dark place after he won big.
“One of the common threads among many lottery winners is that they know how to spend money, but not earn it.
"After the windfall runs out the people who the winner attracted with a lavish lifestyle begin to drift away.
"In its place, we see envy, jealousy, and resentment. This can lead to desperate behavior, including murder.”
Hill worked at a nuclear plant before his big "life-changing" win.
He first bought a non-winning Extreme Millions scratch-off ticket and then purchased an Ultimate Millions ticket.
Hill and his wife immediately left the gas station to go to the lottery headquarters to claim the money.
At the time he told the North Carolina Education Lottery: "I saw the one and then the zero and it still didn't hit me.
"But then I saw the 'M' – My heart dropped down to my toes and I lost my breath."
He chose to receive an up-front lump sum which meant that after taxes, Hill got over $4million.
The winner claimed in court that he could not afford an attorney.
Hill reportedly gave the store clerk who sold him the winning ticket $2,000 and used the money to pay off bills and invest in his wife's business.
Family friend Tiffany Wilson spoke to WECT to pay tribute to Graham saying: "She was very loved and she's very beautiful."
Wilson added: "I think it's horrible. I mean, he just won the lottery. I hear he just got married and you go and kill a young girl?
"I don't understand. All that money and you are seducing a young girl…I don't know what the situation is but you had no business being in a hotel with her."
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