A 32-year-old mobile barber was shot dead in his converted school bus right after finishing a haircut so two men could steal his iPhone

A California man has been sentenced to natural life in prison for orchestrating the 2022 killing of Ilya Shimonov, a 32-year-old mobile barber known as “Mike the Barber.” The barber was shot just after finishing a haircut appointment in a Scottsdale hotel parking lot. Robert Celifie, 45, was convicted in August of conspiracy, first-degree murder and first-degree burglary.

The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office announced the sentence this week, according to Law&Crime. Shimonov ran his business out of a converted school bus, and his mother told reporters at a press conference that having a barbershop on wheels was a “dream” of his. She added that “he made it happen.”

Prosecutors say Celifie did not pull the trigger. However, they say that another man, Chaze Cable, traveled to Scottsdale in Celifie’s car and used Celifie’s gun to kill the mobile barber. Cable was convicted of the same offenses by a separate jury in 2025, and he also received a natural life sentence for his role in the murder.

Prosecutors say the barber’s killer was told to take his phone

Investigators quickly realized that Shimonov’s phone had been stolen, and they tracked it from the crime scene to Las Vegas and then Los Angeles. Detectives learned the phone was traveling in a car that belonged to Celifie. According to prosecutors, Celifie supplied Cable with money, photos of Shimonov, the time and place of the killing, instructions to take the phone and directions for what to do afterward.

Police believe the murder for hire plot was carried out to get Shimonov’s cellphone. However, authorities have not said why the two men wanted it. Prosecutors say Shimonov did not know either Celifie or Cable, though the barber and Celifie knew some of the same people, which investigators have not explained further.

At the press conference, Maricopa County Deputy Attorney Richard Dusterhoft described messages in which Cable asked where the job should happen and Celifie replied with the address of the hotel in Old Town Scottsdale. Dusterhoft said Celifie told Cable he could take the iPhone after the haircut, then meet at the Orleans Hotel, which he said was the phone’s first stop after leaving Scottsdale.

The county attorney’s office said the case involved 48 search warrants across five states, surveillance video from dozens of locations and terabytes of data. Scottsdale police were assisted by agencies including the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, the Los Angeles Police Department and the Texas Department of Public Safety, along with police in Henderson, Nevada, and Texarkana, Arkansas, as the trail stretched well beyond Arizona.

“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,” Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell said in a statement. Celifie’s case centered on his role as the planner rather than the gunman, much like the allegations against a Florida man accused of hiring a hitman to kill his neighbor after a drone feud.

Scottsdale Police Chief Joe LeDuc credited his detectives and partner agencies for the multistate investigation, as the case stretched on for nearly five years. He said he hopes the outcome brings “some measure of justice and peace” to Shimonov’s family, whose mother spoke about her son’s dream at the press conference.

With both men now serving natural life, the question of why they wanted the barber’s phone may stay unanswered unless investigators release more details about a motive.