Ex-boyfriend charged with killing $5M lottery winner

By JEFFRY SCOTT
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 05/07/08

The world, or at least a small corner of it, was hers a year ago. Doris Murray, mother of four, had won $5 million in the Georgia Lottery on her 41st birthday.

She posed for a photograph with big ceremonial check at the Amba Food Store in East Dublin, where she had bought her winning lottery ticket. And, according to a press release from the Georgia Lottery Corp., she declared "This is the best birthday ever."

On Monday, Murray was found dead in the same modest block home she had lived in on Barnes Road in the south-central Georgia town since before she hit the jackpot. On Tuesday, police charged her ex-boyfriend, Derrick Lorenzo Stanley, 51, with her murder.

"To be honest with you, we still don't know what happened, because he hasn't given us a statement yet," Sgt. Stan Wright, an investigator with the Laurens County Sheriff's Office, said Wednesday.

A witness said he saw Stanley arguing in the front yard with Murray early Monday afternoon. Somebody called the sheriff. When deputies arrived a few minutes later, Stanley was gone. Murray was found dead inside her home, stabbed multiple times.

Investigators spotted Stanley driving later Monday afternoon and tried to pull him over. The man allegedly sped off. The police gave chase, and he crashed. The suspect remained in an undisclosed hospital Wednesday, Wright said, "but his injuries are not life threatening."

Investigators said Murray never flaunted her new riches. "As far as I know, she didn't even have a new car," Wright said.

The woman didn't take the $5 million in a lump sum. Instead, she opted to collect about $172,000, after taxes, every year for 20 years. Murray told lottery officials she planned to use the money to start a trust fund for her grandchildren, according to a Lottery news release issued at the time of her winning.

Lottery spokeswoman Tandi Reddick said Wednesday that the money will continued to be paid to whoever is in Murray's will. Murray's family could not be reached for comment.

Wright said he believed the argument between Murray and Stanley may have been about a break-up.

"Her family said they had been boyfriend and girlfriend for some time," he said. "Then she told him she wanted to break it off and she wanted to be friends and that was it. From what they told me, he didn't want to accept that."

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Florida lottery winner dies penniless

Jackson County Floridan
By Elaine Silvestrini, Media General News Service
Published: April 24, 2008

TAMPA - Former lottery multimillionaire Alex Toth, who was broke and facing tax fraud charges, has died at the age of 60. Toth was scheduled to go on trial in June, accused of filing fake tax returns with his wife, Rhoda, who has pleaded guilty and is awaiting sentencing.

By the time the couple were charged in 2006, authorities said they appeared to have no assets. The $13 million Florida Lotto money won 18 years ago was long gone, and the Hudson couple were living in squalid conditions, their only electricity coming through an extension cord rigged to their car engine.

The Toths said they lost the money through gambling, gifts and living the high life. The money created rifts in their family, leading to a lawsuit between Rhoda Toth and her son in 1996. Toth’s attorney, Bjorn Brunvand, said his client died in early April. Pasco County Health Department spokeswoman Deanna Krautner confirmed Alex Joseph Toth died April 5. The cause of death was not released.

Brunvand said the trial would have been “interesting,” and that he planned to blame Rhoda Toth, who Brunvand said manipulated her husband into signing paperwork.

“I don’t think Alex Toth, during the time period in question, was capable of knowingly and willingly participating in the scheme,” Brunvand said. “Whatever his wife would tell him to do, he would do.”

According to Rhoda Toth’s plea agreement filed in federal court, the Toths won the lottery to be paid out over 20 years. When the payments were being made, their taxes were withheld. In 1999, they sold the annuity to Singer Asset and Finance for two lump sums, $1.59 million to Alex Toth and $1.49 million to Rhoda Toth. That year, they filed tax returns reporting their income as if they had received the same annuity payment they had received before. They failed to report the lump sum payments from selling the annuity, the plea agreement states. In subsequent years, the agreement states, the Toths falsely reported gambling losses to offset the payments they were no longer receiving.

In total, the agreement states, Rhoda Toth owes the government $1.1 million and her husband owed $1.4 million.

Brunvand said the Toths split up last year when Alex Toth went to a federal medical facility to be treated for mental problems that rendered him incompetent to stand trial.

Although Rhoda Toth accompanied her husband to court for a hearing in August about his competency, when he returned from treatment that restored his competence, Rhoda Toth had “moved on to someone else,” Brunvand said.

Last year, Brunvand filed with the court a letter from physician Gary Levine, who said Alex Toth had been involved in “multiple motor vehicle accidents,” the most recent one on June 4. Toth had “chronic pain syndrome,” the physician wrote, as well as Type II diabetes; a poorly controlled, penicillin-resistant staph infection; and a history of severe esophagitis, gastritis and degenerative joint and disc disease.

“He also has chronic anxiety and panic attacks,” Levine wrote, and was taking multiple medications.

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Alleged lottery cheat wins big bucks ... A G-Tech Rep ...

KHOU
By Lee McGuire / 11 News
Thursday, March 20, 2008

HOUSTON -- They say you have to play to win. But police say one man won quite a bit without playing at all. Raymond Hinojosa was an employee of G-Tech, the private company that manages the Texas Lottery. According to cops, Hinojosa went to a Cigs for Less store in Pasadena, saying he was there to take their $30 Lucky Millions scratch-off tickets to another retailer, since they weren't selling well at that particular store.

Except, police say, that wasn’t entirely the truth.

A grand jury found evidence that Hinojosa kept the tickets himself, scratching them off one by one until he had won more than $10,000.

“I think that incident had a big effect on how we ceased that program,” Bobby Heath of the Texas Lottery said.

The policy has since been changed – G-Tech employees are no longer allowed to move scratch-off tickets from one store to another. As it turns out, that type of transfer used to happen so often, it had a name: “Trunk Stock.”

But could other employees of G-Tech have committed the same crime Hinojosa is accused of? The lottery is looking into it.

“We are doing some internal work regarding the initial investigation, just internally, just to look at some tickets and how widespread and things like that,” Heath said.

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Single-Vehicle Crash Kills $9 Million Winner
Posted 2008-05-07
By Pete DeLea

HARRISONBURG - A man who died in a single-vehicle crash Sunday on Va. 259 won a $9 million lottery jackpot in 2001.

Dana C. Martz, 56, of Singers Glen, hit all five numbers in the Big Game, a multistate lottery game with a 1 in 76 million chance of winning it big. The game is now called Mega Millions.

Martz purchased the winning ticket at the 7-Eleven in Broadway. After winning the July 2, 2001, lottery, Martz opted for the annual payoff of $346,000 for 26 years, said John Hagerty, spokesman for the Virginia Lottery. He said his last payment was scheduled for August 2026.

Hagerty said the remaining payments would go to the beneficiary listed with the gaming organization.

Martz's sister, reached at her Lacey Spring home, said the family didn't want to comment.

The Wreck

Martz died early Sunday morning in the single-vehicle crash on Va. 259, in Rockingham County, according to the Virginia State Police.

Martz was driving alone in his Chevy truck when the wreck occurred at about 12:45 a.m., just west of Va. 921, between Fulks Run and Bergton.

Police said Martz apparently lost control of his vehicle and swerved right before over-correcting to the left. The truck went off the left side of the road and struck a tree.

Martz was ejected from the truck and was pronounced dead at the scene by rescue personnel.

The truck caught fire shortly after the crash and was fully involved when firefighters arrived at the crash site, rescue workers say.

Police said before the fatal crash Martz sideswiped a tractor-trailer and continued on for about a mile. The truck had minor damage and no report was filed, police said.

1st Sgt. Bryan Hutcheson said police are investigating whether alcohol was a factor in the wreck. He said they are awaiting blood tests from the medical examiner.

Lottery winner gives up fight to keep house
May 1 2008

SKINT Lottery winner John McGuinness has given up the fight to save his £400,000 house.

The former hospital porter and his family have moved out of the property at Canderside Toll, over the last few days.

Mr McGuinness and his wife Sandra are now living in a £320,000 property in Milton Street, Carluke.

It’s believed that the house has been bought by a company.

Mr McGuinness, who was declared bankrupt in January, said: “This is a fresh start for me and my family.

“We are looking upon the move as a turning point, a time when things will start to get better for us.

“We have had our problems in the past but Sandra and I are delighted to start again in our new home.”

Mr and Mrs McGuinness, who have four children, are living in a house that is several years old with four bedrooms, two public rooms, and three bathrooms.

In January, as rumours concerning the dire state of his finances circulated, Mr McGuinness described as “mince” reports that he was about to lose his house.

However, it later emerged that both he and his wife were locked in a legal battle with the Royal Bank of Scotland to retain the converted schoolhouse.

The bank were granted a repossession order in December.

Mr McGuinness subsequently made abortive attempts to halt the action.

However, moves to delay the proceedings, lodged at Hamilton Sheriff Court by Sandra McGuinness, were agreed by Sheriff Joyce Powrie in March.

When the case was called again yesterday in front of Sheriff Shiona Waldron, solicitors for the Royal Bank of Scotland and Sandra McGuinness both agreed to dismiss the case.

During the earlier court proceedings, lawyers for Mrs McGuinness said the couple had applied for a council house.

How they came to move into a private house apparently bought by a company remains unclear.

Mr McGuinness won a £10million Lottery jackpot 12 years ago, but a series of unwise investments has left him broke and owing £2m.

A decision to invest in Livingston FC cost him millions after the club went into administration owing £7m.

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$13 Million Florida Lottery Winner Dies Broke
April 25, 2008

Kris Alingod - AHN News Writer

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - A former lottery winner who was facing tax fraud charges died broke early this month, reports said on Thursday.

Alex Toth, who won a $13 million jackpot nearly two decades ago, died early this month, his attorney Bjorn Brunvand is quoted in a report by the Suncoast News. He was scheduled to stand trial in June for filing fake tax forms together with his wife, Rhoda.

Toth and his wife were charged with tax fraud in 2006. His wife has entered a plea agreement with prosecutors, according to the Palm Beach Post.