Former Sen. Kyrsten Sinema’s ex-bodyguard and lover was arrested after prosecutors said he threatened to “take down” her, just a month after he was accused of wrecking her Arizona home.
Matthew Ammel, 39, was taken into custody Tuesday in a Cheesecake Factory parking lot in Phoenix after police got a tip from his GPS monitor. Officers found him near a gun store after he dropped off a knife for engraving, the New York Post reported.
Court documents alleged Ammel tried to buy a gun, threatened to kill a North Carolina judge, and threatened to “take down” the former independent senator. He already faced a felony criminal damage charge tied to roughly $200,000 in alleged destruction at Sinema’s Cave Creek property.
Maricopa County prosecutors moved fast on bond. They wanted it raised to $100,000 cash-only. A judge set it at $25,000 instead.
Maricopa County Deputy Attorney Bryn Barasha signed a court filing that left little room for doubt about the state’s concern.
“The state fears [Ammel] will escalate his retaliation if released,”
Prosecutors also claimed Ammel “contacted military friends to build him a rifle, purchased tactical gear, and discussed funeral arrangements.” Officials described the knife he dropped off as a “large, military style” blade. He said he wanted it engraved as a gift for a nephew’s Marine Corps boot camp graduation.
Ammel refused to be taken to court Thursday for arraignment. The hearing was moved to Oct. 15. He remains charged with felony criminal damage from the August incident at Sinema’s home.
On Aug. 30, Ammel allegedly tore through Sinema’s Cave Creek residence. Prosecutors say he threw 22 paintings into the swimming pool, damage estimated near $123,000 on the art alone. He allegedly shattered alcohol bottles and destroyed a mirror. Total damage climbed past $200,000.
Police arrested him Sept. 17 for the thrashing. A no-contact order came with his release terms. Two days later, authorities say, he tried to get a friend to reach Sinema anyway. Sinema reported the contact to police on Sept. 22. Maricopa County attorneys said she then refused to help prosecutors build the case.
That refusal sits uneasily next to the rest of the file. A former senator reports a violation, then steps back while the man once paid to protect her faces new threat allegations and a gun-store stop.
Ammel joined Sinema’s security team in 2022. He is an Army veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. The relationship turned personal a little more than a year after he was hired. Sinema admitted to repeated sexual encounters with him in cities across America beginning around Memorial Day 2024.
The affair became public through a lawsuit filed by Ammel’s ex-wife, Heather Ammel, under North Carolina’s “homewrecker law.” She accused Sinema of destroying a 14-year marriage. Reporting also described gifts Sinema bought Ammel and payment for psychedelic treatment, plus invitations to a wedding and a Taylor Swift concert.
Sinema, 50, left the Senate after declining to run in 2024. She had served as a Democrat before becoming an independent and was the first openly bisexual person elected to Congress. None of that résumé softens the basic sequence now in court: bodyguard, lover, accused vandal, then defendant on threat and weapons-related claims.
Ammel spoke to the Arizona Republic after the home damage case broke open. He did not deny taking out anger on the property.
“I was p, -d at the system. I took it out on her art.”
He went further on government and politicians.
“The American people have no idea how [f, ked] up our government is, and, like what our politicians spend their time doing.”
He insisted on his own character in the same breath.
“I’m not a bad guy. I’m not crazy. I’m just really smart, and I have seen behind the curtains.”
He claimed disillusionment with U.S. politics drove the damage. He said Sinema refused to post a video of wounded soldiers and would not look into a Presidential Unit Citation he wanted pushed through Pentagon connections. He admitted drinking. He allegedly threatened to destroy a piece of artwork every 10 minutes. He also claimed, without naming firms, that Sinema works for companies that benefit from “genocide in Gaza.”
Those are his explanations. Prosecutors are focused on conduct: the wrecked home, the no-contact breach, the GPS-tracked stop near a gun store, the alleged threats against a North Carolina judge and against Sinema herself, and the claims about a rifle build, tactical gear, and funeral talk.
Ammel is in an active custody dispute with his ex-wife. Court papers tied one alleged threat to a North Carolina judge connected to that fight. The same state is where Heather Ammel brought the alienation suit against Sinema. The criminal file in Arizona now sits beside that family-court mess, with a former member of Congress named throughout.
KPHO reviewed court documents that spelled out the gun attempt and the “take down” language aimed at Sinema. Arizona outlets tracked the bond fight and the Sept. 17 release conditions. The pattern across those filings is escalation claims from the state and a defendant already on a monitor when police picked him up again.
Hire in 2022. Affair public after the ex-wife’s suit. Physical relationship acknowledged from Memorial Day 2024. Alleged $200,000 home attack on Aug. 30. Arrest on Sept. 17 with a no-contact order. Reported violation days later. Sinema’s Sept. 22 call to police, and her refusal, per county attorneys, to aid the prosecution. Tuesday’s GPS-tipped arrest in Phoenix. Thursday’s refusal to appear. Arraignment reset for Oct. 15.
Each step is documented in police action, prosecutor filings, or Ammel’s own quoted statements. The damage numbers are specific. The bond request is specific. The knife description is specific. So is the claim that he shopped for a gun while still under court conditions.
Sinema’s decision not to assist prosecutors after reporting the contact does not erase the alleged threat or the prior destruction. It does leave taxpayers and the court carrying the full weight of a case that began inside her own security detail.
When a paid protector becomes the accused threat, the failure is not abstract, it is a chain of judgment calls that ended with paintings in a pool, a GPS ankle monitor, and a prosecutor warning the court about retaliation.
