The Maricopa County Attorney's Office said Robert Celifie received a natural life sentence for the murder of Ilya Shimonov.

Monday is the day the county attorney announced the sentence. Aug. 25 is the date the office gives for the jury's guilty verdicts and for the natural life term. Arizona's Family said life. The office and 12 News said natural life. Chaze Cable's natural life sentence is from a 2025 trial. It is not this sentence.

The Maricopa County Attorney's Office announced Monday, Oct. 26, 2026, the sentencing of Robert Celifie to natural life in prison for the murder of Ilya Shimonov. The release lists his date of birth as November 1980. It says that on Aug. 25 of this year a jury found him guilty of conspiracy, premeditated first-degree murder, and first-degree burglary, and that he also received a natural life sentence. The release spells the murder count "Premediated First-Degree Murder." Arizona's Family reported Monday that County Attorney Rachel Mitchell announced a life sentence, and that in August he was found guilty and also received a life sentence. 12 News reported the Monday announcement as natural life, and reported that on Aug. 25 a jury found him guilty of the same offenses and sentenced him to life. The office's word for the term is natural life. Arizona's Family did not print "natural."

The office said Shimonov, known as Mike the Barber, operated a mobile barber business from a converted school bus. It said that on the evening of Jan. 3, 2022, he had just finished a haircut in the parking lot of a Scottsdale hotel when he was shot multiple times, and that he died from those injuries. It said investigators realized his phone had been stolen, tracked that phone from the scene to Las Vegas and then to Los Angeles, and learned it was traveling in a car that belonged to Celifie of Los Angeles. It said Chaze Cable traveled to Scottsdale in Celifie's car and that Celifie's gun was used to kill Shimonov. It said that, besides the car and the gun, Celifie provided Cable with money, pictures of Shimonov, the time and place of the murder, instructions to take a phone, and directions for after the murder. Arizona's Family described that payment as Celifie paying Cable and planning the murder. The hotel is not named in the release, in Arizona's Family, or in 12 News.

The office said Cable was tried in 2025, that a jury found him guilty of the same three offenses, and that he received a natural life sentence. It said this investigation involved 48 search warrants in five states, surveillance video from dozens of locations, and terabytes of data. It said the Scottsdale Police Department was assisted by the Maricopa County Medical Examiner's Office, the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, the Arizona Department of Public Safety, Las Vegas Metro Police Department, Henderson Police Department in Nevada, the Los Angeles Police Department, the Texas Department of Public Safety, and the Texarkana Police Department in Arkansas. Arizona's Family called the Las Vegas agency the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. Mitchell 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," and thanked the Scottsdale Police Department and prosecutor Richard Dusterhoft. Scottsdale Police Chief Joe LeDuc said the outcome reflected the work of Scottsdale detectives and the partner agencies, and that "we hope this outcome brings some measure of justice and peace to the victim's family." Arizona's Family and 12 News printed Mitchell's quote. LeDuc's quote is in the county attorney's release.

The natural life term is what the office says Celifie received when the Aug. 25 jury found him guilty. Monday's announcement is the office telling the public about that sentence. It is not a new hearing, and it is not Cable's 2025 sentence. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.