Topeka ? A state appeals court overturned a lengthy prison sentence Thursday given to a Kansas man for tumbling a 3-year-old boy in a hot clothes dryer and burning him.

A three-judge Court of Appeals panel said key testimony against Aron Pritchard, of Hutchinson, shouldn’t have been allowed by a district court judge. Prosecutors didn’t give Pritchard proper notice that the testimony was coming, which prevented him from mounting a defense, the appeals panel said.

The testimony was from a doctor whose statements led jurors to conclude Pritchard had acted with excessive brutality. District Judge Richard Rome then imposed the maximum sentence possible: more than 10 years in prison.

The appeals panel ordered a new sentencing hearing for Pritchard, though it conceded that the result c