From big wins to the big house: Lottery winners who served time

When we're facing money troubles, we like to imagine how a sudden lottery win could solve all of our problems. Unfortunately, for some players, winning big is precisely where their troubles begin.

Becoming an overnight millionaire can be overwhelming, and not everyone knows how to deal with the newfound pressure of managing a massive fortune. Some people turn to drink and drugs, and not even millions of dollars can protect them from their own poor life choices.

These are true stories of lottery winners who spent time in prison.

Power criminal

After taking home a lottery jackpot, most people celebrate with a big steak dinner, a luxury family vacation, or by paying off all their debts.

Powerball winner James Farthing celebrated his $167 million jackpot win with a quick trip to jail. Covered in tattoos and a massive grin, Farthing made a big impression at his first press conference, announcing him as the winner alongside his wife and girlfriend.

Shortly after collecting his check, the Kentucky resident decided to party at the Tradewinds Hotel, a luxurious, oceanfront resort in St. Petersburg, Florida, where he quickly ran into trouble. While drinking in the hotel bar, he punched another guest, and when the sheriff's deputies arrived to break up the fight, he fought them too and tried to run away before deputies tased and arrested him.

Farthing's problems didn't end with a fracas in Florida. Because he was on parole in Kentucky for a prior crime, he needed permission from his parole officer to leave the state, which he didn't receive.

As it turns out, spending time behind bars is nothing new for Farthing.

He was fifty years old at the time of his win, and he's spent thirty of those years incarcerated. That means he's spent the majority of his adult life in prison. He's racked up a dozen convictions across Kentucky, including theft, domestic violence, bribing a public official, and selling drugs to an undercover police officer.

Even being locked up wasn't enough to stop this one-man crime wave. While serving time on a separate offense, he convinced his own mother to smuggle in marijuana. He was caught and sentenced to an additional ten years in prison.

The hard-luck case committed so many violations while in prison that he couldn't even secure parole and had to serve out his entire sentence.

While Farthing is clearly good at committing crimes, he's definitely not good at getting away with them. Farthing told reporters:

I've caused a lot of stress on her [my mom], you know, I've made some bad decisions in life, and you know, God's been good because I've kept my faith and done right, and something's happened good for me.

Hopefully, Farthing's good fortune will give him the incentive he needs to stay out of prison, but if he does get in trouble again, at least he'll have plenty of bail money.

Paper or handcuffs?

The average wedding in America costs over $30,000, and that doesn't even count the price of a honeymoon. That's why grocery store workers Joan Lechleitner and her fiancé Kerry Titus were thrilled when they purchased a Cash 5 ticket worth $1 million from the Pennsylvania Lottery.

Unfortunately, these lovebirds will spend the majority of that money on legal fees instead of flower arrangements.

Before they were lottery winners, Titus and Lechleitner were criminals. The pair engaged in a long-running embezzlement scam at the Agway grocery store in Cressona, PA, where they both worked. From 2011 until 2016, the pair would ring up fake returns and pocket the money themselves.

Police allege that in the five years they ran the scheme, they stole over $175,000 from the small store.

Titus and Lechleitner used some of the stolen money to purchase lottery tickets, and the pair hit it big on September 11, 2015, when their Cash 5 ticket hit the jackpot. They had to share the prize with three other winners and took home $261,904.50 before taxes.

However, their good times came to a screeching halt when Ronald Yordy, the store's owner, suspected his employees were stealing from him and installed hidden cameras above the cash registers.

Yordy discovered that Titus, Lechleitner, and two other employees had taken money from him. He then turned his evidence over to the police, and all four were arrested and charged with theft and embezzlement.

After collecting the cash from their big win, the pair bought a silver 2015 Chevy Silverado and told reporters they planned to enjoy a honeymoon in Mexico and build a backyard pool. Now that they're facing several felony charges for theft, it's likely that most of that money will go towards legal fees and restitution.

The Lotto Lag

Lee Ryan may be one of Britain's most famous lottery winners, for all the wrong reasons. While most of the subjects of this article went to prison after winning the lottery, Ryan managed to win the lottery while serving time in jail.

The small-time criminal was busted for handling stolen merchandise and had nine months left on his sentence when he learned that he had won a £6.5 million jackpot from the UK National Lottery.

He couldn't enjoy his jackpot while serving time, but once he finally made it out of prison, Ryan wasted no time burning through his fortune. He began by filling his garage with luxury cars, purchasing a Bentley, a Ferrari, a Porsche, and a BMW, and assigning each one a custom license plate that read LEE 1, LEE 2, LEE 3, and LEE 4, respectively.

Next, he purchased a £ million home, complete with a swimming pool, tennis court, sauna, and jacuzzi. Finally, he added a plane, a Jet Ranger helicopter, and two Ducati superbikes to his fleet.

In addition to his luxury purchases, Ryan loved to party and blew what was left of his fortune on drugs and bottle service in London's poshest nightclubs, earning himself the nickname “The Lotto Lag”.

To the surprise of no one, Ryan ran out of money relatively quickly and lost the home, the cars, the helicopter, and the planes. He went from a young playboy to divorced, broke, and homeless in just a few short years.

Today, he is back on his feet and makes a living as a house painter. He told reporters that while the money was gone, he considers himself a spiritual billionaire. He also says he still plays the lottery, and if he wins again, he'll use the money to help the homeless. He expressed:

If I had my time again, I'd open a hotel for the homeless. Then you feel you've done something worthwhile.

Winning hurts

Willie Hurts thought his life was finally on the upswing after he won $3.1 million playing the Michigan Super Lotto in 1989. He selected the installment payout option and was set up to receive annual payments of $156,000 for the next twenty years.

Hurts was a family man, and initially, he planned to use the money to help support his wife and three children. Sadly, however, he quickly fell deep into the grips of a crack cocaine addiction. Within a year of winning, Hurts divorced his wife, left his family, and spent all of his money on drug binges.

He took up with a woman named Wendy Kimmey, and the duo would drink and smoke crack together throughout the night. In 1991, the pair took a room at the Bukewood Inn and continued to party in a wild, drug-fueled binge.

However, Hurts became enraged when they ran out of cocaine, and he blamed Kimmey for taking more than her fair share. The two fought, and in a drug-induced haze, Hurts shot Kimmey in the head and killed her.

Hurts turned himself in to the police and admitted that he shot Kimmey, but claimed he had no memory of shooting Kimmey. He was arraigned, charged with her murder, and locked up in the county prison.

Going under down under

An Aussie living in New Zealand hit it big before it all went bad.

Joshua Winslet never had it easy growing up. He was born with Duane syndrome and Goldenhar syndrome, which caused physical deformities and led to severe bullying at school as a child.

In 2017, Winslet was 22 years old and living paycheck to paycheck while working as a plumber on the island of South Wales.

With less than $20 left in his bank account, he made a desperate move and bought a lottery ticket. Like a miracle from a movie, he won the jackpot and collected a $22 million prize. At first, Winslet did the right thing. He put the money in a trust and purchased investment properties in Australia and New Zealand.

He also bought a home for himself in the coastal city of Adelaide. However, shortly after winning, Winslet's life headed south. He partied hard with a new group of friends and went on week-long drug binges.

The police raided his home and discovered ecstasy, cocaine, and an unlicensed handgun. Photos from the raid show the once luxurious home converted into a filthy party pad, with drug paraphernalia and trash piled high in every room.

When his case came to trial, Winslet pleaded not guilty, and a judge sentenced him to almost four years in prison, but suspended his jail time and placed him on a two-year good behavior bond.

Sadly, his brush with the law wasn't enough to keep Winslet on a good path, and he was found dead in his home as a result of complications from his drug use, just three years after collecting his fortune.

One of Winslet's friends told reporters that they knew he was headed on a bad path after his win:

It was such a shock and absolutely devastating, but sadly, a lot of us were so worried this is what it was coming to.