Mega Millions Winner Is Ex-Con Made Good, Claims $265M Prize As Friday Sees New Jackpot Winner


Six weeks after one Mega Millions player in Illinois won a $265 million jackpot, the nationwide lottery game has seen another nine-figure prizewinner, as one lucky Mega Millions player in rural upstate New York hit all six numbers Friday, beating the 259 million-to-one odds and winning a jackpot valued at $127 million.

To see if you are that person, or if you won any of the $4,213,907 in non-jackpot prize cash awarded in the February 27 Mega Millions drawing, the winning numbers are listed below.

On January 16, one winner in the Chicago suburb of Glendale hit a jackpot worth $265 million.

That winner waited until February 24 to claim his cash. Jesus Davila, Jr., a 70-year-old retired driver who also happens to be an ex-convict, claimed the cash.

Davila served 12 years on a drug distribution conviction, starting in 1994. But according to his family’s spokesperson, he has lived a law-abiding life ever since.

“It was a long time ago. He paid his debt to society,” Robert Kolt said. “He’s a good person and anyone can win the lottery.”

While Davila, a native of Puerto Rico who relocated to the Chicago area with his family before he reached the age of 10, may have already turned his life around, he never has to worry about money again after picking up his ceremonial check on Tuesday.

“I’m a regular Joe and I played and I won it,” said Davila, who found out about his good fortune while watching the Mega Millions drawing on TV. “My son said, ‘You have every number here, dad’ and then we started shouting, ‘We’re millionaires, we’re millionaires!'”

Indeed they are. Davila elected to take the Mega Millions jackpot as a one-time payment, meaning that he collected $178,091,398 before taxes.

After federal and state tax withholding, Davila will receive a single deposit to his bank account of $126,890,121.

Davila will soon be joined by this week’s winner in the 2015 Mega Millions multi-millionaire’s club. The single winning ticket Friday was sold at South Fallsburg Food Mart, in the tiny hamlet of South Fallsburg, New York, whose population of just under 3,000 resides about a two-hour drive north of New York City, in Sullivan County.

The Mega Millions lottery is off to a fast start in 2015, with two nine-figure jackpots won in the first two months of the year.

Here are Friday’s winning numbers:

7495360 64 Mega Ball 4

On Tuesday, Mega Millions starts a new run, with the game’s minimum jackpot of $15 million at stake.

[Image: CBS Chicago Screen Grab]

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