3 p.m.Two employees of V. Sattui Winery in St. Helena, along with a third man, were taken to jail Sunday after their employer learned that they were stealing cases of wine from the company police said.

Napa County Sheriff’s Sgt. Jon Crawford said that the winery’s president saw his employee, Alejandro Guillermo Martinez, 46, of St. Helena, load a case of wine in the truck of Reynaldo Ortega-Gonzalez, 30, of St. Helena Sunday. When he confronted Martinez about the wine, Martinez told him that Gonzalez had purchased the wine and that he was loading it in the vehicle for him.

After discovering that this was not true, Crawford said, the president contacted police and sheriff’s deputies arrived on the scene.

The deputies determined that Martinez was stealing cases of wine from the company — valued at $450 a case — using the assitance of another employee, Mark Anthony Reyes, 22, of Napa. Martinez would pay Reyes $75 to mark the cases of wine with a special tape that signifies that the case is bought and paid for Crawford said.

Deputies determined that Reyes had stolen eight or more cases of wine in the past from V. Sattui and sold them for about $200 apiece Crawford said. All three men were arrested on suspicion of grand theft and conspiracy to commit a crime.