WILMINGTON, NC (StarNews) — A Wilmington man convicted 27 years ago as a teenager in the killing of a pet store owner is asking that his conviction be overturned after a state’s witness recanted his testimony that he was the killer.

Johnny Small was 16 years old on April 7, 1989, when a New Hanover County jury found him guilty in the brutal execution-style slaying of Pamela Dreher, 32. He was sentenced to life in prison.

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Dreher’s body was found on the evening of July 13, 1988, face down inside her Wrightsville Avenue pet store, Tropical Paradise. She died from a single gunshot wound to the head. The autopsy determined the barrel of the small-caliber handgun was pressed against her at the time of the killing. Missing from the store was $173 cash from the register, but Dreher’s purse and jewelry were left behind. She’d just opened the shop three months earlier.

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