Sinema's Ex-Bodyguard Arrested Again Over Knife at Phoenix Gun Shop

Matthew Ammel, the former bodyguard and ex-boyfriend of former Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, is back in a Maricopa County jail cell after detectives said he dropped off a large military-style knife at a north Phoenix gun shop to be engraved, breaking the release conditions handed down after he allegedly tore up her Cave Creek home.

Ammel, 39, was taken into custody on the night of Sept. 29. By the next afternoon, the Maricopa County Attorney's Office had filed an emergency motion asking a judge to raise his bond from $25,000 to $100,000 cash-only, pointing to court records that say the Army veteran threatened to "take down" Sinema and threatened to kill a judge in North Carolina.

An ankle monitor, a gun shop and a Cheesecake Factory parking lot

The court-ordered GPS tracker on Ammel's leg is what put investigators on him. On the afternoon of Sept. 29, the device placed him at a firearm retailer in north Phoenix. A sheriff's detective called the owner, who said Ammel had asked to have a large hunting-style knife engraved and left it behind at the shop. His pretrial release conditions barred him from having a knife at all.

Ammel did not deny having what officials called a "large, military-style knife." He said he wanted it engraved as a gift for his nephew's Marine Corps boot camp graduation, according to a legal document cited by The Arizona Republic.

Detectives with the Arizona State Gang Task Force went to get him at a hotel near 24th Street and Camelback Road. They coaxed him out of his room and asked him to walk across the street into the parking lot of a Cheesecake Factory, where he was arrested at 9:45 p.m. There was no struggle.

A phone call from a North Carolina lieutenant

Hours before the ankle monitor pinged at the gun store, Arizona pretrial officials got a warning from a sheriff's lieutenant in North Carolina. The message was that Ammel was trying to get his hands on a gun and tactical equipment, and that he had made threats toward a judge in that state.

Investigators also said Ammel broke the court's no-contact order soon after his Sept. 17 release by asking a mutual acquaintance to reach out to Sinema on his behalf. Staying away from the former senator was one of the main terms of his release.

North Carolina already had a hold on him in another way. Ammel was serving unsupervised probation there for an earlier felony case while the Arizona charge was pending.

What prosecutors told the judge

The state's filing for the higher bond is blunt about why. "The state fears defendant will escalate his retaliation if released," Deputy County Attorney Bryn Barasha wrote.

The same filing describes Ammel as a "highly trained military soldier" who "contacted military friends to build him a rifle, purchased tactical gear, and discussed funeral arrangements." Prosecutors wrote that police have serious safety concerns because of his "erratic" behavior and his "highly skilled" training, and that he made threats against the lives of sitting judges, lawyers and police personnel.

A judge set the $25,000 bond on the morning of Sept. 30 and said the old release conditions would apply again if Ammel got out. The request to push the figure to $100,000 came later that day.

He refused to come to court

Ammel was supposed to be arraigned on Oct. 1 in Maricopa County Superior Court. He refused to be transported from jail, the judge said.

The arraignment was moved to Oct. 15, and the judge ordered that Ammel be brought in by any means necessary, including force. His attorney objected. A pretrial conference in the criminal case is on the calendar for Jan. 20, 2027.

Twenty-two paintings in the pool

All of this traces back to Aug. 30 at Sinema's home in Cave Creek, north of Phoenix. She was out of town. Court records say Ammel demanded she post a video to her X account and threatened to damage a painting every 10 minutes until she did.

She refused. Investigators say Ammel then pulled 22 pieces of artwork off the walls and threw them into the backyard swimming pool. Another painting was found near the front entrance, spray-painted with black lettering. He also smashed expensive bottles of liquor and hurled at least one at a large mounted mirror, shattering it.

The damaged art alone was valued at $123,015. Total damage to the house was estimated at more than $200,000. Sinema reported the damage to police on Sept. 3 and handed over text messages, video recordings and surveillance footage that investigators say captured Ammel destroying her property.

Maricopa County Sheriff's deputies arrested him on Sept. 17 as he was discharged from a mental health facility. He had been picked up by that facility after a petition was filed seeking an involuntary psychiatric evaluation. He was charged with one count of criminal damage, a class 4 felony, then fitted with an electronic monitor and released.

Ammel's explanation involves a 2007 deployment video

Ammel has talked publicly about the night at the house. He told Arizona's Family that the clips he wanted Sinema to post came from his 2007 military deployment and appear to show him and others giving first aid to an injured service member.

What he wanted, he said, was for Sinema to use her Pentagon connections to find out why his unit never received the Presidential Unit Citation, an award for heroism. He also said the two sometimes lived together, and that she left him alone at the home during what he described as a stress-induced breakdown.

To The Arizona Republic, he put part of it on alcohol. "I was just going through it, and I don't usually drink, and I got drunk, and I destroyed some of her paintings," he said. He also told the paper that Sinema "works for some of the companies that financially benefit from the genocide in Gaza and the current war we're losing in Iran," and singled out Palantir.

The lawsuit that made the relationship public

None of this would be public if not for a lawsuit filed 2,000 miles away. Heather Ammel, Matthew's former wife, sued Sinema in North Carolina for more than $25,000 under the state's alienation of affection law, commonly called the homewrecker law. She says Sinema's affair with her husband destroyed their 14-year marriage.

North Carolina is one of a handful of states where a spouse can sue a third party for breaking up a marriage. Sinema, 50, acknowledged the romantic relationship but argued she could not be sued in North Carolina because she had no connection to the state. A judge rejected that, ruling that nine text messages she sent Ammel while he was in North Carolina gave the state jurisdiction over her, and calling it implausible that she did not know where he was when she texted him.

In a July deposition, Sinema laid out the timeline herself. She said the relationship turned sexual on May 27, 2024, during a trip to Napa, California, while Ammel was still married. She described later encounters in New York, Washington, Colorado and Arizona, and said there were none in North Carolina. She said they were intimate during a New York trip for CNN anchor Jessica Dean's wedding.

From security detail to defendant

Ammel joined Sinema's security team in 2022 after retiring from the Army, and traveled with her on domestic and international trips. The lawsuit alleges Sinema bought him gifts, paid for him to undergo psychedelic treatment, invited him as her guest to a Taylor Swift concert and took him to a wedding.

Sinema, the first openly bisexual person elected to Congress, announced in 2024 that she would not seek re-election and has largely stayed out of public view since leaving office. A construction crew was spotted outside her Cave Creek property building a wall around it.

Ammel, who has said he deals with the effects of brain injuries from his service, remains in custody. The next thing on his calendar is the Oct. 15 arraignment, the one the judge already said will happen whether he agrees to walk into the courtroom or not.