Man charged with Lexington stabbing was previously convicted of killing cop
A man convicted of killing a Lexington police officer in a hit-and-run more than a decade ago is back in jail after police say he recently stabbed someone and robbed a gas station.
Glenn Doneghy, 49, was arrested Tuesday and charged with stabbing a man during an argument around 11 p.m. March 29 near a gas station in the 700 block of North Broadway in North Lexington.
The man told police Doneghy had followed him from the gas station into a nearby alley near West Seventh Street. The man asked Doneghy why he was following him, police said, and as he tried to walk away, Doneghy pulled out a knife and stabbed him twice in the back.
The man was taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Four days later, police say, Doneghy returned to the gas station around 8:15 a.m. and was caught shoplifting. The store manager confronted Doneghy about the theft, and Doneghy threatened to “shoot this place up,” police say.
Employees told police Doneghy was a “habitual” shoplifter from the gas station, and surveillance footage showed he had stolen from the store on the day of the stabbing, too.
Doneghy was charged Tuesday with first-degree assault and second-degree robbery.
Doneghy’s arrest comes after he was convicted in 2011 of killing Lexington police officer Bryan Durman, 27, in a hit-and-run. Durman was responding to a noise complaint April 29, 2010, when Doneghy hit him with a car and fled the scene.
Durman was a two-year veteran of the Lexington Police Department and, at the time of his death, the first Lexington police officer killed in the line of duty in 25 years.
Doneghy was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 20 years in prison. At the time, a judge ruled that he could not give Doneghy a longer sentence.
In May 2019, Doneghy was released after serving less than half of his sentence. He earned credits toward early release while in prison, and then he was released an additional six months early under mandatory re-entry supervision, a much-maligned program in Kentucky that allows some offenders to be released a few months early, on certain conditions.
The program garnered national attention in October 2025, when a man named Ronald Exantus was released from prison less than 10 years after stabbing and killing a 6-year-old boy in Woodford County. Exantus was found not guilty of a murder charge by reason of insanity, but he was convicted of injuring the boy’s sister and father, as well as several other charges.
Kentucky’s mandatory reentry supervision program advanced Exantus’ release date by only six months — other programs, such as good behavior in prison, constituted the bulk of time shaved off his sentence — but Kentucky lawmakers still passed a bill this legislative session tightening who is eligible for the program. The bill was signed into law by Gov. Andy Beshear on April 2.
After Durman’s death, lawmakers passed a law named for him that requires anyone convicted of second-degree manslaughter of a police officer or firefighter to serve 85% of their sentence.
Durman’s widow, Brandy Durman, told TV station WKYT on Tuesday that he Doneghy is “careless with life.”
“It was heartbreaking that my husband Bryan, who chose to give everything to the city of Lexington that his life was only worth nine years to the justice system,” she said.
Court records indicate Doneghy was not charged with any crimes in Kentucky between his 2019 release and last month’s stabbing.
Doneghy is being held at the Fayette County Detention Center. His first court appearance is scheduled for Wednesday.
This story was originally published April 8, 2026 at 11:57 AM.
