A$AP Rocky‘s lawyer, Joe Tacopina, is riding high after the not guilty verdict — though he did confess he was this close to a heart attack right before it was read.

Tacopina swung by “TMZ Live” Wednesday … revealing that when the judge polled the jury before reading out the verdict, his heart sank — convinced they’d lost the case. In fact, he says the moment was so intense, he swears it felt like years were shaved off his life.

Check out the clip — JT dives deeper into the nerve-wracking moment, admitting he’d never had a jury polled in any of his NYC cases … saying the tension was so thick he even asked if it was standard practice in California.

Despite the scare, it was clearly time to celebrate — as we saw with A$AP crowd-surfing into Rihanna’s arms for a victory hug.