Former Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema’s home was damaged in a wild, art-destroying rampage late last month by a former member of her security detail and ex-lover, according to court records.
The records, first reported by AZFamily, show 39-year-old Matthew Ammel entered Sinema’s Arizona home while she was out of town and allegedly destroyed paintings, bottles of alcohol and other property, causing what investigators estimated to be more than $200,000 in damage. The paintings alone were valued at $123,015, according to the probable cause statement.
Sinema told deputies that Ammel demanded she post a video to her X account and threatened to destroy one of her paintings “every 10 minutes” until she did, according to local media reports. When she refused, investigators say, Ammel removed about 22 paintings from the walls and threw them into the home’s swimming pool. One more painting was found near the home’s entrance with spray paint on it, AZFamily reported.
Ammel was taken into custody last week and faces a Class 4 felony criminal-damage charge. He was subsequently released with an electronic monitor and is due back in court for a preliminary hearing scheduled for next month.
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Sinema provided investigators with text messages, recordings and surveillance footage, according to the court documents. Deputies said they reviewed the footage and were able to identify Ammel as the person damaging the property.
The incident is the latest development in the legal fallout surrounding Sinema’s relationship with Ammel, who was married while he was working on her security detail.
Ammel’s ex-wife, Heather Ammel, sued Sinema under North Carolina’s “homewrecker” law. The lawsuit accuses Sinema of contributing to the breakdown of the Ammels’ marriage and seeks financial damages from the former senator.
Sinema has acknowledged having a sexual relationship with Matthew Ammel. In a deposition taken in July, she said the relationship became sexual on May 27, 2024, during a trip to Napa Valley, California. She also testified that they later had sexual encounters in New York, Washington, Colorado and Arizona, but not in North Carolina.
Sinema, who left the Democratic Party in 2022 to become an independent, declined to seek reelection in 2024 and left the Senate in January 2025. She now works in the private sector.
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