An inmate charged in a March 2025 fatal jail beating at the Halifax County Detention Center has been transferred to Wake County for safekeeping, according to court documents.
District Court Judge W. Rob Lewis II signed the order on June 29, moving Robert Earl Smith Jr. to the new location.
Smith is charged in the fatal beating of Arnette Richardson, a 66-year-old inmate at the Halifax County Detention Center. Richardson died from complications of multiple blunt force injuries, according to an autopsy report from the North Carolina Office of the Chief Medical Examiner…