$10 million lottery winner sentenced to life in prison for murder

SOUTHPORT, N.C. (WECT/Gray News) - A North Carolina man who won $10 million after purchasing a scratch-off ticket in 2017 was convicted of first-degree murder.

WECT reports Michael Hill, 54, was taken into custody in November 2020 after investigators said he shot Keonna Graham in the back of the head while she was lying in a hotel room bed in Shallotte.

Graham was reported missing by her mother, and her body was found after investigators reviewed surveillance footage from the hotel that showed Hill was the only individual in the room with her.

Detectives said Hill confessed to murdering Graham after they found texts from other men while they were staying at the hotel. Hill said he and Graham were in a romantic relationship for a year and a half after he won his lottery ticket.

After the jury deliberated for an hour, Hill was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the murder charge and a concurrent 22 to 36 months for possession of a firearm by a felon.

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