CENTENNIAL, Colo. — The photos were chilling and enigmatic, just like their subject. In the pictures, taken on his ­iPhone hours before the Aurora movie theater massacre, accused gunman James Holmes mugs for the camera, sticks out his tongue, and smiles as he holds a Glock under his face and displays his arsenal arrayed on his bed.

Prosecutors who displayed the pictures at a hearing that ended Wednesday argued the photos display ‘‘identity, deliberation, and extreme indifference.’’