The state’s highest court said Douglas County prosecutors were caught “off guard” in their handling of the case against a man who fired into a crowd of bargoers on Massachusetts Street.

But the Kansas Supreme Court on Friday dismissed an appeal filed last year by then-Dist. Atty. Christine Kenney in the case of downtown shooter Jason A. Tremble.

Tremble, 23, was convicted of aggravated battery in the October 2003 shooting outside It’s Brothers Bar & Grill, 1105 Mass.

Kenney’s office had argued Judge Paula Martin wrongly forbade prosecutors from filing more severe charges against Tremble when he entered a surprise guilty plea moments before his preliminary hearing.

Because of a quirk in state sentencing guidelines, Tremble received a 40-month prison sentence despite his lengthy criminal history. Had he been convicted of the more severe charges prosecutors wanted to file, he would have faced about 10 years in prison.

The Supreme Court said Friday that when Tremble entered his surprise plea, prosecutors could have dismissed the case and refiled it.

They didn’t.

“The state, by its own admission, came to the scheduled preliminary hearing lacking information on the severity of the injuries of the 11 victims,” the court said. “It intended to glean this information from the preliminary hearing testimony of the victims and then decide if the severity of any of the aggravated batteries should be amended upward. … (The) defendant’s waiver of a preliminary hearing caught the state off guard and it was unable to take any decisive action.”

Last year federal prosecutors agreed to file charges against Tremble after hearing from police and prosecutors who said his sentence wasn’t enough.

6News video: Sentence stands for downtown shooter (04-22-05)

He was indicted in federal court for illegally possessing a firearm and faces up to 10 years in prison. Charges are pending.