The Los Angeles Superior Court panel deliberated for about two days before finding in favor of the singer whose real name is Sylvester Stewart and against ex-manager Gerald Goldstein, lawyer Glenn Stone and Goldstein- affiliated entertainment company Even St. Productions Ltd.

“They just wanted to punch this poor guy in the face,” Nicholas Hornberger, one of Stone’s attorneys, said after the verdict.

Hornberger said the jury would have been justified in awarding even more money.

He said the case illustrated how many artists in the music business, as well as the film industry, are victimized by the people who they trust to look after their interests.

The jury assessed $2.5 million in damages against Even St. Productions, $2.45 million against Goldstein and $50,000 against attorney Glenn Stone.

The former frontman for the band Sly and the Family Stone, testified he filed his lawsuit in January 2010 to get what he believed was owed to him. “I couldn’t get any money,” the 71-year-old Stone said.