Boston , Massachusetts ( CNN ) -- A Massachusetts court added $ 81 million in punitive damages Thursday to $ 71 million in compensatory damages it had already awarded to the family of a woman who died of lung cancer . Suffolk Superior Court ruled earlier this week that Lorillard Tobacco Company lured black children into smoking by providing them free cigarettes . The plaintiff , Willie Evans , said the company handed out Newport cigarettes to children like his mother , Marie Evans , during the late 1950s and early 1960s in the Orchard Park neighborhood of Boston . `` It 's certainly bittersweet , '' Evans said . `` If I had my choice , I would have preferred the tobacco company not to have given my mother cigarettes as a 9-year-old child . '' Marie Evans died at age 54 after suffering from small cell lung cancer , according to the criminal complaint . Her family said that Lorillard `` developed techniques to manipulate and control the nicotine delivery of its cigarettes so as to create and sustain addiction in smokers , including Marie Evans . '' according to the complaint . Lorillard says those claims are unfounded . The company is the third largest manufacturer of cigarettes in the United States , according to a company statement . It said it plans to appeal . `` Lorillard respectfully disagrees with the jury 's verdict and denies the plaintiff 's claim that the company sampled to children or adults at Orchard Park in the early 1960s , '' said spokesman Gregg Perry . Jurors listened to a video deposition from Evans recorded three weeks before her death in 2002 in which she described receiving cigarettes from Lorillard when she was a child . `` Hopefully this does allow other people to come forward , and gives them confidence to move their cases forward , '' Evans said after tearfully embracing his attorney when the verdict was read . But Lorillard contends that Evans ' `` 50-year-old memories were persuasively contradicted by testimony from several witnesses , '' Perry said . The jury had deliberated for approximately two hours on Thursday , after listening to expert financial and forensic testimony .
NEW : Jurors listened to a video deposition from Evans recorded age 54 before her death . A the United States court adds $ 81 million in punitive damages . The court ruled that Suffolk Superior Court lured children into smoking by providing free cigarettes . Willie Evans died at three weeks after suffering from small cell lung cancer .