Two men have now been sentenced to life in prison for the January 2022 killing of Ilya Shimonov, a Scottsdale, Arizona, mobile barber known to customers as "Mike the Barber." Police say the shooting was a planned hit, and that the target was his cellphone.
Chaze Cable was convicted in 2025 of premeditated first-degree murder, conspiracy and burglary. Robert Celifie was found guilty of the same charges in August 2026. Both received life sentences, Fox 10 Phoenix reported on October 26, when Signal messages between the two were read aloud at a press conference.
The shooting
Shimonov was shot nine times outside a Scottsdale hotel at about 8 p.m. on January 3, 2022. He ran his business from a bus, and three witnesses photographed a man waiting at the bus doors shortly before the gunshots, according to Fox 10. The shooter fled with Shimonov's phone.
Officers found him in the north parking lot of the Hyatt Place hotel, and he died at a hospital, KTAR reported at the time. Detectives followed leads through California, Nevada, Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana, with help from six law enforcement agencies.
The messages
Police say Cable drove a Mercedes registered to Celifie to Arizona to carry out the killing. Investigators used license plate readers to trace the route from Scottsdale to Las Vegas and on to Los Angeles. Celifie was arrested in Nevada days after the shooting, and the murder weapon was found at his girlfriend's home. Cable was taken into custody in Texarkana, Arkansas, two days after Celifie.
The Signal messages recovered by police show Celifie directing Cable. In one, sent December 31, 2021, Celifie wrote, "The guy they need to pay a vist they want his phones." Cable asked where the hit should happen, and Celifie gave him the address of the bus. Celifie also told Cable to grab the phone and "do your thing after he done with that cut."
Investigators believe the phone was the target, Fox 10 reported. The motive remains unclear.
What the evidence shows, and what it does not
The newsroom's reading of the quoted messages points to a gap the convictions do not fill. Celifie's December 31 message refers to "they," meaning someone who wanted the phones and wanted Shimonov visited. Neither the trial coverage nor the police statements Fox 10 reported name that person or explain what was on the phone.
That matters legally. Arizona's conspiracy charge does not require prosecutors to identify every member of the agreement, which is how two men can be convicted of a plot whose organizer is still unnamed. Anyone else who joined the agreement would face the same exposure if identified, and homicide charges generally have no filing deadline, a point we covered in our explainer on why murder never expires.
Timeline
December 31, 2021: Celifie sends the message about "the guy they need to pay a vist," per the messages read by police.
January 3, 2022: Shimonov is shot outside the hotel.
January 12, 2022: Celifie is arrested in Nevada, according to KTAR.
January 14, 2022: Cable is arrested in Texarkana, Arkansas.
2025: Cable is convicted.
August 2026: Celifie is convicted, and both men are now serving life.
"When this horrible event happened, my world collapsed. I don't think it will ever be the same," Shimonov's mother said, Fox 10 reported.
Hired killings built around a middleman are a familiar pattern in organized crime prosecutions, as in the cases described in our piece on RICO and the mob. Jurors only have to find the charged defendants guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, as our guide to what reasonable doubt means for jurors explains. They do not have to solve the whole case. Here, the question of who wanted the phone, and why, is still open.
Two Taps News stories summarize reporting and the analysis discussed on Two Taps and Friends. They are not legal advice. Read our standards.
