SCOTTSDALE — A 45-year-old California man has been sentenced to natural life in prison for his role in the 2022 killing of Ilya “Mike the Barber” Shimonov in Old Town Scottsdale, the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office announced Monday, Oct. 26.
A jury found Robert Celifie guilty on Aug. 25 of conspiracy, premeditated first-degree murder and first-degree burglary. “This defendant may not have been the one who pulled the trigger, but through his actions he condemned this victim to death just the same,” County Attorney Rachel Mitchell said, KTAR News reported.
Shimonov cut hair in a retrofitted school bus that served as his mobile shop. He had just finished with a customer on Jan. 3, 2022, when he was shot nine times inside it while it was parked outside an Old Town hotel.
Investigators followed Shimonov’s missing phone from the scene to Las Vegas and used surveillance video and a license plate reader to link a white Mercedes registered to Celifie. Celifie had an alibi for the time of the killing and said he had rented the car to Chaze Cable. Prosecutors said Signal messages between the two men discussed the bus and the need to take Shimonov’s phones, and the murder weapon was found at the Nevada home of Celifie’s girlfriend. Cable was convicted in 2025 and also sentenced to natural life.
Prosecutor Richard Dusterhoff said Scottsdale detectives worked in five states and executed 48 search warrants. Shimonov’s mother, Bella, thanked everyone who helped bring those responsible to justice.
Sources: KTAR News. Thee Arizona Times uses AI-assisted reporting reviewed against the sources listed.
Photo: Dru Bloomfield / CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
