'I’m not crazy': Kyrsten Sinema’s ex reveals why he trashed her house

U.S. Congresswoman Kyrsten Sinema speaking with supporters at a neighborhood canvas hosted by the Arizona Education Association at Provision Coffee Arcadia in Phoenix, Arizona. Image via Gage Skidmore.

On Wednesday, the ex-boyfriend and bodyguard of former Senator Kyrsten Sinema explained why he trashed her house during an incident in August. Matthew Ammel told the Arizona Republic that he “threw her paintings into her swimming pool in part because he felt disillusioned by her relationship with a major U.S. Artificial Intelligence software developer as the war in Gaza drags on.”

“I was pissed at the system and I took it out on her art,” Ammel said, asserting that he had a mental breakdown the night he did $200,000 worth of damage to Sinema’s home in Cave Creek, Arizona. “The American people have no idea how (expletive) up our government is and, like, what our politicians spend their time doing.” A former Green Beret, Ammel told the Republic that he struggles with brain injuries from his time in the military, and that his traumatic war experiences are still raw in his mind. According to the outlet, in addition to tossing Sinema’s high-value paintings into a swimming pool, Ammel also smashed pricey bottles of alcohol and an expensive mirror. Currently engaged in a "homewrecker" lawsuit brought against Sinema by his ex-wife, Ammel asserted that he feels the media has wrongly painted him as an adulterer and a bad person. “I'm not a bad guy,” Ammel said. “I'm not crazy. I'm just really (expletive) smart, and I've seen behind the curtains.”

According to Ammel, he’d been trying to end his relationship with Sinema and has been living and working as a cowboy at Camp San Luis Obispo, a small California National Guard base, since March. As the Republic explains, “Ammel said he also felt that Sinema, a lawyer and former social worker, had taken control of his custody dispute and made it worse. Sinema was closely involved in preparation for the hearing with his lawyer and his psychiatrist, he said. The custody hearing went poorly, Ammel said. He confronted Sinema about it when he returned to Phoenix for medical treatment.” Ammel told the Republic, "I was angry, admittedly so. When I tried to talk to her about it, she abandoned me.” Sinema left him at her house and went to stay with friends and in hotels, and he trashed her house two weeks later.

Expressing frustration with U.S. foreign policy and the military-industrial complex, Ammel told the Republic that he had previously demanded Sinema post a video of soldiers from his first deployment helping a man they had shot in Iraq. In the 7-minute video, which Ammel said was filmed in the spring of 2007, soldiers administered medical care to the bloodied man and picked him up in a helicopter. According to the Republic, “Ammel said he wanted Sinema to post the video ‘because she works for some of the companies that financially benefit from the genocide in Gaza and the current war we're losing in Iran.’” As Ammel told the Republic, "The same news channels and politicians championing war now were calling us terrorists and racists for our behavior during this time period. (None) of this makes sense. That’s what I was angry about.”

“I was trying to get her to come back home, or to do something, or to use her connections for good instead of for, to make money,” Ammel elaborated. “I was just going through it, and I don't usually drink, and I got drunk and I destroyed some of her paintings."

Sinema was elected to the Senate in 2018, running as a progressive Democrat, but raised controversy when she sided with Republicans on several consequential votes. After leaving office, she and Ammel went on to work together advocating for a number of issues, but as the war in Gaza continued and a new conflict in Iran began, Ammel said he became disillusioned with the direction Sinema’s post-government career was headed. According to the Republic, “Ammel said he accompanied Sinema to an event linked to a top leader of the AI company Palantir, a British American Tobacco Board dinner and the wedding of CNN anchor Jessica Dean to Alex Katz, a senior managing director of government affairs at Blackstone, the world's largest alternative asset management firm. Ammel described feeling disturbed by his last trip with Sinema to D.C., where they attended an event for Palantir CEO Alex Karp. Ammel said it felt to him like a ‘genocide celebration’ of the war in Gaza.” In Ammel’s words, “Kyrsten was there rubbing elbows with Trump's personal lawyer and, like, it was legitimately the most insane thing I had ever seen.”

In the wake of the house trashing incident, Ammel was charged with aggravated criminal damage, a class 4 felony in Arizona. He was released with an ankle monitor and an order to leave Sinema alone. Now, Ammel is waiting for his next court date and preparing for what he called the worst case scenario: going to jail.

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