Home Scandal and Gossip $10M North Carolina 2017 lottery winner charged w/ murder

$10M North Carolina 2017 lottery winner charged w/ murder

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2017 North Carolina $10m lottery winner charged w/ murder
Pictured, Michael Todd Hill, Leland, North Carolina former 2017 $10 million lottery winner.
2017 North Carolina $10m lottery winner charged w/ murder
Pictured, Michael Todd Hill, Leland, North Carolina former 2017 $10 million lottery winner.

Michael Todd Hill, Leland, North Carolina man, former 2017 $10 million lottery winner charged with the murder of Keonna Graham. Man now claims despite $4m lump sum payout he is now broke.

Define good fortune? Good luck? A reversal of fortune? Taking unnecessary risks?

A North Carolina man who won a $10 million lottery in 2017 has been charged with murder in the death of a woman who was found lifeless in a hotel room.

Michael Todd Hill, 52, of Leland, Brunswick County, was arrested Tuesday after the body of 23-year-old Keonna Graham was discovered in a room at the Sure Stay Hotel around 11:30 a.m. Monday.

Hill, who won his fortune from an Ultimate Millions scratch-off lottery ticket in August 2017, checked into the hotel alone on Sunday, according to WECT. No one on staff saw Graham during his stay, he said.

A housekeeper discovered her body Monday when she went to clean the room after Hill’s scheduled checkout. Of note, blood was found the room.

Michael Todd Hill
Pictured, Michael Todd Hill Leland, NC man, former $10m lottery winner. Police bookings via Shallotte Police Department.

‘He just won the lottery. I heard he just got married and you go and kill a young girl? 

Graham worked as a correctional officer at a prison in Burgaw, North Carolina, and previously worked with mentally disabled people in a local rehabilitation center. She was remembered by a relative as a generous and adventurous woman who enjoyed hiking and riding bicycles.

‘I think it’s horrible,’ said the victim’s cousin, Tiffany Wilson. ‘I mean, he just won the lottery. I heard he just got married and you go and kill a young girl? A beautiful girl? I don’t understand.’

‘We are hurting. We are in pain,’ the cousin reiterated. ‘Our family is devastated.’

The manner and cause of death was not immediately made public pending further investigations.

Former nuclear power plant worker

Hill a then nuclear power plant worker, bought the ticket at the Maco Depot gas station on Maco Road, WECT reports. Employees at the outlet said he stopped in often and seemed perfectly pleasant. After hitting it big with the lottery prize, he returned to the store to give the woman who sold him the winning ticket $2,000.

Of note, Hill now claims despite $4m lump sum payout in 2017 following his then lottery win, to being now broke and unable to meet the costs of providing for his own lawyer.  The man has now received a court appointed attorney for his defense, which taxpayers will foot the bill for. 

Following an initial court appearance, the former multi-millionaire has been ordered to be held without bond at a Brunswick County jail

The Brunswick County Sheriff’s Office and the State Bureau of Investigation assisted in the investigation.

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