Left inset: Ilya Shimonov (Maricopa County Attorney’s Office). Right inset: Robert Celifie (Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office). Background: The bus that Ilya Shimonov, aka “Mike the Barber,” was working out of when Robert Celifie planned his murder (Instagram).
A 45-year-old man in Arizona has been sentenced to life in prison for orchestrating the execution-style killing of a “mobile barber” moments after the victim finished a haircut, according to prosecutors.
Robert Celifie, of California, carried out the murder-for-hire plot on Ilya Shimonov, aka “Mike the Barber,” in January 2022 after Shimonov, 32, finished a “haircut appointment” in the parking lot of a Scottsdale hotel.
The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office announced Monday that Celifie had been sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of conspiracy, first-degree murder and first-degree burglary in August. Another jury found Celifie’s co-conspirator, Chaze Cable, guilty of the same offenses in 2025, and he received a life sentence as well.
“Shimonov operated a mobile barber from a converted school bus,” the attorney’s office said Monday. “On the evening of January 3, 2022, Mr. Shimonov had just completed a haircut appointment in the parking lot of a Scottsdale hotel when he was shot multiple times. He died from those injuries.”
Investigators “quickly realized” that Shimonov’s phone had been stolen and tracked it from the crime scene to Las Vegas and then Los Angeles. Cable traveled to Scottsdale in Celifie’s car and used a gun belonging to Celifie to kill Shimonov, according to prosecutors.
“Further investigation showed that, in addition to the car and gun, Celifie provided Cable with money, pictures of Mr. Shimonov, the time and place of the murder, instructions to take a phone, and directions for after the murder,” the attorney’s office said.
“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,” said Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell in a statement. “Thanks to the work of Scottsdale Police Department, and prosecutor Richard Dusterhoft, this violent individual will spend the rest of his life in prison.”
Shimonov’s mother told reporters at a press conference with the attorney’s office on Monday that having a “barber bus on wheels” was a “dream” of his, according to AZ Family.
“And he made it happen,” she said.
Police believe Celifie orchestrated Shimonov’s killing to get his cellphone, though they have not said why Celifie and Cable wanted it.
Prosecutors say Shimonov did not know Celifie or Cable, but he and Celifie knew some of the same people, local NBC affiliate KPNX reports.
“He said where you want it done at, and Mr. Celifie responded with the address of the hotel in Old Town Scottsdale,” recounted Richard Dusterhoft, Maricopa County deputy attorney, at Monday’s press conference. “And then Mr. Celifie, he said that you can just go grab the iPhone and do your thing after he done with that cut, after the cut was the appointment at the hotel. Mr. Celifie said, meet at the Orleans Hotel. That was the first stop that Mr. Shimonov’s phone made after leaving Scottsdale.”
