There’s not going to be a way for Chaka Khan to sing her way out of this. The 10-time Grammy winner might have been able to see her 29-year-old son, Damien Holland, out of jail for the murder of a teenager in her home, but it’s time for her to loosen the purse strings, and shell out $1.3 million to the boy’s family.

Christopher Bailey was just 17 years old at the time of his murder. He had moved into Chaka Khan’s home to be able to work with Khan and her son in their studio. Damien admitted to suspecting Christopher of having an affair with his girlfriend, and on the 24th of September, 2004 Damien shot Bailey.

As it later turned out, Damien took great care to make sure that everything looked and seemed like an accident or a fight gone wrong. He told his friends to rough him up a bit, so he could look as if he had been in a fight, and he told cops that he had no intention of killing Bailey, and that the gun “accidentally” went off. That’s right. A shoulder weapon used by the US military “accidentally” went off when he was confronting the boy who he just happened to suspect of stealing his girlfriend. And when he was accidentally poking Bailey with the butt of the rifle, he didn’t really mean to kill him at all.

For Bailey’s family, Damien’s acquittal in May 2006 only added to the shock of losing their son. Their son had his face blown out with a M-16 assault rifle, and the murderer walked free. There was no poetic justice here, just a washed up singer trying everything she could to keep Damien out of jail. After the acquittal, Bailey’s father, Glen Newton, said that he believed that witnesses had not come forward to testify for fear of repercussion from the singer. He also believed that Khan herself lied about the circumstances surrounding Bailey’s death. Khan continued to maintain that the shooting was an accident, which only helped to deepen Newton’s anger and hurt. It’s easy to imagine Newton’s hurt, and his frustration at the lack of justice for his son.

Thankfully for victims in this country like Bailey, there are still civil lawsuits to turn to. Bailey’s parents sued Chaka Khan, her son and her company for wrongful death and negligence. Now a judge in Torrance has passed the right verdict. As a person in whose house a murder was committed, Chaka Khan stands financially responsible for the murder of Christopher Bailey. There’s no scope now for explanations and excuses.

Chaka Kahn won’t exactly be running off to the studios to record another hit to be able to pay off the million dollars, although this is probably not a verdict that will break her financially, but at least it sends out a clear message about her liability in the murder.