The person at the center of a nearly $13 million Arizona lottery mystery is no longer just John or Jane Doe.
A new complaint filed in Maricopa County Superior Court identifies the customer as Soonchun Kim and says she was a customer at the Scottsdale Circle K where a winning Arizona Lottery ticket was printed, left behind and later bought by the store manager.
The court fight now appears to involve three people tied to the same winning ticket: Kim, whose lottery numbers were numbers she previously had played; Marline Ybarra, the clerk who handled the transaction; and Robert Gawlitza, the store manager who bought the leftover tickets the next morning.
The court fight over ownership of a $12.8 million Arizona lottery tickets now appears to involve three people.
Circle K is asking a judge to decide who, if anyone, owns the ticket and who has the right to claim the $12.8 million prize.
According to the amended complaint, Kim went to the Circle K at Bell Road and 56th Street on Nov. 24, 2025, and checked previously purchased lottery tickets. Ybarra then replayed Kim’s lottery numbers for that night’s drawing of The Pick.
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The complaint says Ybarra generated $85 in tickets. Kim paid for and received $60 worth. The leftover tickets were not sold to another customer.
The amended complaint adds a new detail that some of those extra tickets fell behind the printer. Ybarra later found them and placed them beside the register, according to the filing.
That night, the Arizona Lottery drew the winning numbers: 3, 13, 14, 15, 19 and 26.
2 Circle K employees claim ownership of $12.8M lottery ticket
The next morning, Gawlitza arrived for work as the store manager.
According to the amended complaint, he learned a winning ticket was generated at the store, found the unsold tickets and confirmed that Line H on one of them matched all six winning numbers.
He clocked out, took off his Circle K uniform and had another employee ring up the leftover tickets for $10, according to the complaint.
Gawlitza signed the back of the ticket.
The amended complaint says Ybarra also signed the back of the ticket and now claims an ownership interest in it.
The complaint also now says Gawlitza claims an ownership interest.
The new complaint does not specifically say if Kim is claiming ownership, but the judge in the case required her being found and served before making a decision in the case.
She did not respond to requests for comment.
The company presented the ticket to Arizona Lottery officials on May 14, according to the amended complaint. Lottery officials confirmed the ticket was authentic, but claim validation remains on hold while the case plays out.
The court has also suspended the 180-day deadline to claim the prize until the judge decides the parties’ rights and obligations.
The legal ask has not changed much from the first complaint. Circle K still wants a declaration on whether the ticket was validly sold, who owns it, who can claim the prize proceeds and whether Circle K avoids liability by following the court’s ruling.
The Arizona Republic reached out to all parties for comment. None responded.
