A 27-year-old Chandler man appeared in a Maricopa County courtroom this week facing a felony count of making a terrorist threat, accused by prosecutors of plotting a mass-casualty bomb and gun attack on a Jewish or Muslim house of worship. Matthew Bjornholt’s alleged blueprint, according to prosecutors, involved firearms, explosives and an accomplice tasked with shooting survivors after the bombs went off. But the case has already run into a significant snag: a judge says the state’s early evidence relies heavily on hearsay, and federal investigators who searched Bjornholt’s home weeks before county prosecutors took over found no bomb-making materials or evidence of terrorism.
Prosecutors allege Bjornholt called “The Anarchist Cookbook” his “bible,” according to FOX 10 Phoenix, which first reported on Bjornholt’s initial appearance. The infamous manual, written in 1969 by a then-19-year-old William Powell and published in 1971, sold more than two million copies before Powell publicly disavowed it and expressed regret over its existence prior to his death in 2016, according to The Guardian. Pages from the book were found among the materials possessed by Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh during his radicalization period before he detonated a bomb that killed 168 people at the Murrah Federal Building in 1995, according to The Frontier.
A Plot Allegedly Built on Bombs, Guns and a Houseguest’s Tip
Prosecutor Stephen Garcia requested a $500,000 cash bond at Bjornholt’s initial appearance, the station’s report notes. The alleged attack plan called for bombs to be detonated before an accomplice used firearms to shoot people, prosecutors allege, and investigators seized three guns and ammunition from Bjornholt’s home. Defense attorney Chad Schell denied the allegations and said the tipster behind the case was a disgruntled former acquaintance who had briefly stayed on Bjornholt’s couch before being kicked out in late September.
The FBI executed a search warrant at Bjornholt’s home on September 29, per the same account, and Bjornholt voluntarily handed over his electronic devices and passwords. Schell said federal investigators found no evidence of terrorism or bomb-making materials and did not pursue federal charges. County authorities took over the case more than two weeks after the FBI search, according to the report.
Defense Points to Lawful Gun Ownership and a Dropped Murder Case
Schell maintained that Bjornholt possessed the three seized guns lawfully and that the ammunition found amounted to no more than standard magazine loads. The defense said Bjornholt had his civil rights restored after completing a prior sentence on a drug charge that stemmed from a closed first-degree murder case — a murder charge that was ultimately dropped for lack of evidence. That earlier case dates to May 2019, when Bjornholt was named as one of five co-defendants alongside gunman Tyshaeun Tatum in connection with a botched drug robbery and the killing of Richard Chavez in Scottsdale, according to court documents reviewed by Scribd. Tatum was sentenced in 2024 to nine and a half years in prison after pleading guilty to manslaughter in that case.
A Maricopa County judge found probable cause to move the current case forward but rejected the state’s request for a $500,000 cash bond, instead setting bond at $100,000 with mandatory electronic monitoring. The judge said the state’s preliminary evidence relied heavily on hearsay. It remains unclear which specific houses of worship were allegedly targeted, whether an accomplice actually exists, or whether investigators are seeking other suspects.
Case Unfolds Amid Heightened Security at Valley Houses of Worship
The allegations land amid a documented rise in threats against religious institutions. The Anti-Defamation League recorded 9,354 antisemitic incidents nationwide in 2024, a 5% increase from 2023 and the highest total in the 46-year history of its audit, according to the Anti-Defamation League. Locally, the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office increased security patrols around houses of worship countywide in March at the request of County Supervisor Thomas Galvin following an attack on a synagogue in Michigan, per KTAR News.
Other recent Valley cases underscore the pattern prosecutors are watching closely. In September 2025, 36-year-old Mark Martinez pleaded guilty in Maricopa County after making phone threats promising a “crusade” against worshippers at Masjid Bilal ibn Rabah in Maricopa, according to CAIR-Arizona; he was later sentenced to two years of probation. And in March, Maricopa County prosecutors indicted Michael Abel Dominguez on six felony counts of aggravated assault for firing a paintball gun and pellet gun at worshippers outside the Islamic Center of North Phoenix during Ramadan prayers, according to the International Quran News Agency.
Arizona has prosecuted terrorism-related threat cases involving religious targets before. In 2016, 18-year-old Phoenix resident Mahin Khan pleaded guilty in Maricopa County Superior Court to state terrorism charges for plotting a bomb attack against a local Jewish Community Center, according to The Times of Israel; he received a prison sentence of more than eight years. Under A.R.S. § 13-2308.02, making a terrorist threat in Arizona is a Class 3 felony carrying up to 8.75 years in prison for a first-time, non-dangerous offense, and convicted defendants are legally required to reimburse public agencies for response and investigation costs, according to the Tamou Law Group.
What Comes Next for Bjornholt
The Bjornholt case follows closely on the heels of another Valley terrorist-threat prosecution: Hoodline reported this week on a Gilbert man accused over pride parade threats, also charged under the same statute after allegedly leaving roughly 100 threatening voicemails. Bjornholt is scheduled to return to court for a status conference on October 22, with a preliminary hearing set for October 26. The article is based on Maricopa County jail booking records and statements made at Bjornholt’s initial appearance.
