Bear in mind that these are compensatory damages. There will be another verdict to establish punitive damages.
To support an award of punitive damages, you must find that [defendant]acted with ill-will or with a wrongful intent to injure [plaintiff]. The mere act of (making) (publishing) the defamatory statement is not sufficient to justify an award of punitive damages. The evidence must establish ill feeling, personal hostility or spite, or an actual desire to hurt [plaintiff] without belief or without any reasonable grounds to believe in the truth of the defamatory statement.
This will be a heavy lift.