Kyrsten Sinema’s former bodyguard remains locked up after prosecutors cited texts vowing to punish her and a threat to decapitate a judge.
Matthew Ammel, an Army veteran who once guarded the former Arizona senator, appeared in an Arizona court on a charge of violating a no-contact order protecting Sinema. Prosecutors put alleged text messages at the center of the hearing and asked the court to keep him behind a much higher cash bond.
12News reporting carried in national coverage shows Ammel was already being held on $25,000 bond after his Sept. 29 arrest outside a Phoenix gun store. Prosecutors wanted that raised to $100,000 cash only, arguing ordinary release would not protect Sinema or the public.
A victims attorney speaking for Sinema told the court the former lawmaker’s fear is concrete and reasonable.
"[She] is reasonably and objectively afraid that if [Ammel] is released, that he will seriously injure either [her] or someone else in the community,"
Prosecutors framed the bond request in the same plain terms.
"A high cash-only bond is the only way to protect the victim and the community, and to ensure he complies with court orders,"
They also conceded the cash demand “seems disproportionate” to the criminal damage charge tied to alleged wreckage at Sinema’s home. The gap between that charge and the bond ask is the point: the state is treating the alleged messages and order violations as the real safety problem, not a simple property case.
Prosecutors highlighted messages they say Ammel wrote about Sinema. Among the lines presented in court coverage: “She needs to pay,” “I’m taking her down no matter what it takes,” and “she needs to be punished.”
He allegedly told a bail bondsman that Sinema should cover his bond, the same person he is accused of targeting with punishment talk after a no-contact order was already in place.
A separate Aug. 16 message, allegedly sent to military friends, went further and named a lethal plan against a person tied to his North Carolina legal fight.
"I’m going to decapitate this f, -t and kill his entire family."
Coverage ties that threat language to an unnamed North Carolina judge connected to the wider dispute around Ammel’s personal life and court battles. The judge was not named in the public account of the hearing.
In late August, Ammel allegedly tore through Sinema’s Cave Creek home and caused more than $200,000 in damage. The inventory laid out for the court was specific: 22 paintings thrown into the swimming pool, expensive liquor bottles smashed, and a mirror destroyed.
Ammel’s own explanation, as relayed in the reporting, did not claim an accident. He attributed the wreckage to being “p, -d” at the U.S. political system. He also said he trashed the house after Sinema refused to post a video of soldiers helping a wounded man in Iraq.
That sequence matters for the no-contact case. The alleged rampage at her home, the alleged punishment texts, and the Sept. 29 arrest outside a gun store form one chain of conduct prosecutors say shows he will not stay away.
Ammel joined Sinema’s security team in 2022. Coverage of the case says the two struck up a romance before her divorce was finalized. He is a former soldier who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, the same military record now sitting beside alleged threats and a criminal damage case.
His ex-wife, Heather Ammel, married to him for 14 years, filed a North Carolina lawsuit under the state’s “homewrecker” law. She accused Sinema of helping destroy the marriage through an affair that included trips around the world. The suit also alleged Sinema bought Ammel gifts and paid for psychedelic treatment. The public hearing account does not settle that civil case; it sits as background to the Arizona criminal fight.
Ammel also previously pleaded guilty to assaulting a physician at a North Carolina hospital. Prosecutors putting a high cash bond on the table are not writing on a blank page.
If Ammel posts bond under the release terms described in court coverage, he would face house arrest and an electronic monitor. Prosecutors still pressed for $100,000 cash only, calling that the only reliable way to force compliance with court orders and keep Sinema and others safe.
The criminal damage case tied to the Cave Creek destruction is set for trial on Feb. 9, 2027. Until then, the live issue is simpler and more urgent: whether a man already accused of blowing through a no-contact order, wrecking a home, and writing punishment-and-decapitation messages gets easy access back onto the street.
Sinema has not been quoted in the hearing account. Her position in court came through counsel, fear of serious injury to her or to someone else if Ammel walks out on thin conditions.
Orders to stay away only work when courts enforce them. A former guard with alleged payback texts, a trashed house, a gun-store arrest, and a prior assault plea is exactly why cash bond and strict monitoring exist.
