Vanessa Bryant, the wife of late NBA star Kobe Bryant, was awarded $16 million by a jury on Wednesday over photos of the helicopter crash that killed her husband and her daughter. The decision was made unanimously by the nine jurors.

The lawsuit was launched citing the “emotional distress” caused by deputies and firefighters sharing photos of the bodies of the NBA star and his daughter taken at the site of the 2020 helicopter crash that killed them.

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Vanessa Bryant, 40, waited for roughly five hours before learning the verdict on Wednesday. News agency Associated Press reported that she was seen crying in the courtroom as the verdict was read out.

Vanessa Bryant tearfully testified during the 11-day trial that news of the photos compounded her still-raw grief a month after losing her husband and daughter, and that she still has panic attacks at the thought that they might still be out there.

“I live in fear every day of being on social media and these popping up,” she testified. “I live in fear of my daughters being on social media and these popping up”, Vanessa Bryant added.

The 11-day trial saw arguments from both sides. Vanessa Bryant’s attorney Luis Li tagged the shared photos as “visual gossip”, which were shared out of gruesome curiosity. The opposing attorney argued that the photos were a necessary tool for assessing the situation and had an investigative value.

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Kobe Bryant, the former Lakers star, five-time NBA champion and member of the Basketball Hall of Fame, was traveling with Gianna and seven others to a youth basketball game when the helicopter they were aboard crashed into hills in Calabasas west of Los Angeles on January 26, 2020.

The jury returned its verdict on Kobe Bryant Day, which is celebrated on August 24 because it uses both of his jersey numbers — 8 and 24 — and is the day after his birthday. Tuesday would have been Kobe’s 44th birthday.