Jury decides Seminole County $1M lottery winner must give $291,000 to ex-boyfriend

SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. — A Seminole County jury reached a verdict Thursday in a he said, she said fight over a $1 million lottery jackpot.

After three hours of deliberations, the jury agreed a woman who won a $1 million jackpot must pay $291,000 to her ex-boyfriend.

A jury found there was a verbal contract between the couple.

Throughout the week, defendant Lynn Poirier, 62, testified that she won the millionaire raffle jackpot and collected the winnings in 2007, after she purchased the ticket at a Sunoco gas station.

The day she bought the ticket, she came across Howard Browning, who she said arrived at the gas station separately and also purchased a ticket.

Browning’s attorney, Sean Sheppard, said Poirier lied about what happened that night.

Sheppard said Browning paid for the $20 ticket after the couple went out to dinner, and that the two made a verbal agreement that as long as they were together, they would split the winnings.

Poirier testified the two hadn’t been together since 2003.

Cox Media Group